Column

Sotto voce

Mention James Hadley Chase to a young, fresh out of college GenNext kind of person, and they will most likely give you a blank look. Some might have heard of him vaguely, others may have even combed through a book, but he is not out there among the popular authors of the day. Today, unless there is a ‘buzz’ about a film, a book or a celebrity, it doesn’t register on the radar of popular culture outlets, like chat and social networking sites or television and there is no buzz about Chase.

At one time, in the pre-historic, Jurassic era before television, mobile phones and the Internet, (that is, the 1970s) Chase was among the most popular writers of popular English fiction read by Indians. He was pure pulp of course, but a certain demographic — teens, raging hormones, middle-class, English medium school types — found him deeply engrossing, a perfect bridge between school-boy adventures (Biggles, Billy Bunter) and the higher and classier pulp of Harold Robbins.

Teenage boys, contrary to popular perception, do not only yearn for porn all the time; they also like violence and tough guys and before the metrosexual came along with his pink shirts and buffed nails, they used to go to circulating libraries (remember them?) pick up detective fiction in which the hero was a laconic or cynical hardboiled dick (or shamus or private eye) who prowled the mean streets of a big, bad city (New York, Chicago) fighting crooks.

Chase wrote about hookers, grifters, treacherous beauties and down-and-outers who had some pretty perverted habits. The central idea of his best book, No Orchids for Miss Blandish was bizarre — a gang of criminals captures a rich girl who becomes a plaything for one of them.Much later, it emerged that Chase, whose real name was Rene Brabazon Raymond and who had studied in Calcutta, had never been to America though he wrote about it.

As newer writers emerged, the world changed and the sleazy detective genre began dying out, Chase became unfashionable and disappeared from the scene. Till a few days ago. In his film Johnny Gaddar, writer-director Sriram Raghavan, has resurrected the ghost of James Hadley Chase. His film has sundry characters reading Chase’s books and quite obviously, this is Raghavan’s own tribute to the writer and, I suspect, more to a particular period, the 1970s.

The film is peppered with references to the decade, some gratuitous, others linked to the plot, but all with great respect. Johnny of the title is obviously linked to the Dev Anand film Johnny Mera Naam — the title track of the new film bears resemblance to the music of the older one. Raghavan knows his onions, and his ’70s —bringing in Parwana, an underrated film starring Amitabh Bachchan and Navin Nischol — was a cool and clever touch. Of course 1970s kitsch is easy to imitate and parody — the bellbottoms, the sideburns, the colours — but Raghavan does not ridicule, rather he doffs his hat.

The 1970s will also play an important role in Om Shanti Om, Farah Khan’s next outing in which Deepika Padukone plays a film star from that period, complete with glittering pink chiffon saris, bouffant hair (Hema Malini, anyone?) and the ubiquitous disco song.

So are the 1970s back and are they in? Well, in some respects they never went away. The rock music from that era continues to find new devotees and the Lizard King Jim Morrison has more listeners now than in his time. News of The Who or Led Zeppelin getting together excites ageing rockers and nubile nymphets alike and bellbottoms are still quite cool, or so the young GenNexters in the office tell me.

What is the secret of this persisting interest in the 1970s? After all, the generation growing up at that time were not particularly keen to pick up the culture of their parents. I don’t remember any of my friends listening to Frank Sinatra and the like; in fact we sneered at them (but then, we were rebellious then). Yet, today’s kids swear by Pink Floyd.

The 1970s of course saw some really good music and cinema and these have enduring value even today. But that still does not explain Chase showing up in Johnny Gaddar. I can think of only one explanation — the younger creative minds of today, the ones breaking all norms and forging new paths, are those who grew up (that is, came into their teens) as the 1970s were ending. They caught the tail of a great decade, before the mediocrities and excesses of the 1980s came into full bloom. This is their nostalgia, and it clicks with a slightly older viewer as much a younger one.

Not all of this nostalgia will continue forever, and other periods will take over (though thinking of future generations dancing to today’s rap makes one shudder). But there is something about the 1970s that is different — as we can see, even James Hadley Chase has made a comeback.

Email:sidharth01@dnaindia.net