Chak de cinema!

We do not have forewarnings of what 2008 will bring. But it will, if the evidence of the last year is anything to go by, give us good Hindi cinema. The cinema theatre is the closest we Indians have to a semblance of a town hall meeting for big conversations. Traditionally, Hindi cinema has pushed these conversations along two tracks: the blockbuster that packages its storylines with the Formula, and the small-budget film that somewhat apologetically flaunts amateur edges as a badge of its resolve to stay with serious themes. This has been changing for some years now, but as 2007 closed one could see a tipping point on the horizon. Film after film, their makers are without restraint — by the viewer’s expectations or the box office’s requirements — making the films they want.

And the liberation is showing. In the eye-opening forays into a child’s mind (Taare Zamin Par). In the unabashed slickness of a thriller offered in thanksgiving to James Hadley Chase (Johny Gaddar). In investigating the psychological ambiguities of small-town politics (Manorama Six Feet Under). And in the power of sport to make us acknowledge four-square the burdens of religious identity, gender and low expectations (Chak De India). It is not as if these films studiedly avoided the song-and-dance and histrionic trappings of popular Hindi cinema. They took them when it suited their scripts.

So, here’s to 2008, when in the darkened confines of the cinema hall we hope to be drawn into quiet conversations on a whole new range of ideas and dilemmas. It’s a year, after all, when we will have already junked a choice that has hovered over generations of film-goers. Whether to watch a film for enjoyment, or for its bold take on a sensitive issue or the craft of filmmaking. The past months have accustomed us to the anticipation of both standards. But the feeling is still fresh. No wonder we have been lingering in our seats at the credits roll.