So are remakes and sequels. The only thing that defines you is the “choice”. We are getting better with numbers — calculating release dates much before finishing the scripts to get the best five-day weekend, projecting box-office numbers, counting maximum possible screens, YouTube views, Facebook page likes, Twitter followers, and so on. But if courage could be counted in numbers, math is all you need to make films. And history pages would have been filled with just box-office numbers.
Numbers might not be the strength of Anand Gandhi’s debut film Ship Of Theseus, but courage is. Because it’s a daring cinematic adventure which tackles matters of body, mind and soul without being didactic.
If everything falls into place, Karan Johar will present another cinematic gem by debutant — Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (Dabba) that stars Irrfan and Nimrat Kaur. This is the new Bollywood where new voices are setting the benchmark quite high and old ones are willing to step out of their comfort zone.
Rewind back to last year. “He donates sperm”, “a pregnant female lead”, “a deaf-mute leading man”, “she wants to learn English”, “sprinter-turned-dacoit”, “about six -hour long film in two parts” — if these were part of movie loglines, those who green lit them must be either crazy or the bravest ones in town. And only because of those men we got Vicky Donor, Kahaani, Barfi!, English Vinglish, Paan Singh Tomar and Gangs Of Wasseypur I & II. The numbers and acclaim just followed courage and conviction. Not to mention the new lease of life it gave to those directors, who had tried the big budget formulas and achieved neither critical acclaim, nor box-office numbers.
2013 is yet to give us such a strong slate. But a Karan Johar making a gay love story without bothering about the murmurs about his personal life is a step forward. So is Imran Khan trying Haryanvi and having the guts to share screen space with Pankaj Kapur, or a Kai Po Che breaking the industry notion that TV stars can’t deliver hit films. And to cast Dhanush as the leading man in a Hindi film when the industry’s biggest superstar sells “fair and handsome” dreams isn’t easy either. Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely and Raj Kumar Yadav’s nuanced and terrific outing as slain lawyer Shahid Azmi in Hansal Mehta’s Shahid will take this baton forward in coming months.
It’s no wonder then that in just six years Ranbir Kapoor has left his competition far behind. When his contemporaries are still busy following the trend, why would he work in an 80-crore period project with a filmmaker who has never handled big budgets or delivered a big hit? Courage is the only answer I can think of.
The writer works with CNN IBN as Associate Editor (Films)
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