Off with those Bollywood blinkers. Take a look at the exciting new films in Tamil,Malayalam,Bengali and Marathi,and the filmmakers who are remapping Indian cinema A bunch of jobless fellows hit upon kidnapping as an easy way of making money. Till one day. A young girl about to off herself with an overdose of pills is deflected by a young guy who offers her tips on committing suicide. And then. A group of teens,desperate to know more about the birds and the bees,find the path to carnal knowledge strewn with. A young woman,brutalised by her lover,turns upon him in revenge,by toughening herself up and by How do these one-line descriptions grab you as movie ideas? Did you find yourself asking yourself,and then what happened? I did,when I heard about the growing buzz around these films. But my journey towards watching them has been long and painstaking because these are neither Bollywood nor Hollywood films which are instantly available,accessible and understandable to most of us. The fumbling kidnappers belong to the Tamil caper Soodhu Kavvum (2013),directed by Nalan Kumarasamy,which has had a successful summer run in theatres in Chennai. The young girl who wants to kill herself because she has been dumped by her boyfriend is the lead performer in the Bengali film Hemlock Society (2012),which did well in Kolkata. The curious teenagers feature in the Marathi Balak Palak (2013),which attracted audiences in Mumbai,Pune,and other Marathi-speaking areas. And the vengeful young woman who gets even with her lover was the moving force in 22 Female Kottayam (2012),which did good business in Kerala. You will have heard of these films if you live in the home states where they released. But if you,like me,manage mostly to catch the Bolly-Holly combos available in metro multiplexes,most of these films wouldnt ring a bell. So strong is the influence of filmmakers and stars who work in Mumbai that there seems to be no mind-space left for films from other parts of India from whence come,in that most patronising parlance,regional films. Bollywood is a smug sovereign state,and everything else is somewhere over the border. Take a look,do. Because in those very corners,in the last two or three years,things have been happening,and status quos are being stirred,if not shaken. Just like Bollywoods big studios and stars have had to grudgingly make space for sharper individual voices,so have the people in other film industries. There are exciting new voices in Tamil,Malayalam,Bengali,Marathi,Telugu and Punjabi cinemas,telling their stories in their own language,mining cultural and,yes,regional,specificities. They are junking established stars,creating their own routes and marching upon them with a growing confidence because they have found a pool of new best friends: a paying audience. My being able to get to these films is a story in itself,consisting of persistent calls,visits and reminders to friends and filmmakers,and discovering that I could be an accomplished beggar. It turned out to be a solid learning in how movies are made and shown in India,where language,culture,and an unwillingness to watch each other's movies are insurmountable barriers. Typically,DVDs are not out for some months after the theatrical release and even if they are out,they are available locally. It has been a labour of,as they say in the movies,love. Or pyaar,kaadhal,sneham,bhalobasha. It has taken a year-long trek to try and get a sense of what is going on in the most fertile cinemas of India. I have found a sense of exuberance despite the tough battles that the new filmmakers face in trying to groove to a different tune. And in all these industries,sharp producers are creating business models where the money that goes in comes out as more,in some instances substantially more. CV Kumar,producer of Soodhu Kavvum,is very clear about what he is doing. Before his kidnap caper set the ticket counters ringing in Chennai multiplexes,he made Pizza,a funny,dark,anti-ghost romp. Both films have made him profits,and a reputation of being that man who has cracked the tough ask of getting non-star films out,with a blast of visibility strong enough to get audiences in. It was too much stress. I nearly got killed, he says,recounting how he got into the business of making movies,how he waited for the money to come back to him. But now he is selling the rights to Bollywood for remakes,and wrapping up Pizza 2. He is clear that he will stick to his high-on-script,low-on-big-stars,small-film-big-buyer slate. One of the films that marked this new phase was Thiagarajan Kumararajas terrific noir thriller Aaranya Kaandam (2011). What we are doing is not really new. The anti-formula film keeps making a comeback, says CS Amudhan whose first film (made in 2010) was a send-up of the Tamil films he and his contemporaries grew up watching. Simply called Tamil Padam (padam is Tamil for movie),it is a riot of pot-shots which would be immediately understandable to people who grew up on those films,but I could sense,even via the lost-in-translation subtitles,that the order of spoofing was high. Amudhan is part of a brigade of young filmmakers working in Tamil cinema who have no filmi roots like Balaji Mohan who made the 2012 hit rom-com Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (How to Mess up in Love),and Balaji Tharaneetharan,who made Naduvala Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (A Few Pages Are Missing In Between,2012),a hilarious tale of a young groom with temporary amnesia. Most are short filmmakers who were first noticed on a hit TV show that showcased their films. We are breaking rules because we do not know any of the rules, says Amudhan,who comes from an advertising background. We don't expect to replace the big starrers,we are hoping for a happy coexistence, he says. The absence of baggage is a big part of being able to create a difference. To use a Harry Potterism,we are the Mudbloods in filmmaking, says Kolkata-based Srijit Mukherji,whose three Bengali films (Autograph,2010,Baishey Srabon,2011,and Hemlock Society) have proved that fun and intelligence and lightness of touch make for thorough entertainment. His work in advertising and theatre led him to the movies,and he is happier calling himself a storyteller,not a filmmaker. Autograph is a smart tribute to Satyajit Rays Nayak,Baishey Srabon is a thriller with moody cops and red herrings,and Hemlock Society is a tongue-in-cheek swipe at those people who want to cop out when they cant check in. Hes finished his fourth,featuring the famous detective Kakababu (Mishor Rohoshyo),and is hard at work on his fifth. This is the new-generation Bengali filmmaker who is conscious of his great cinematic heritage (Ray,Ghatak,Sen and so on) and affectionate journeyman of the late Rituparno Ghosh,who is respectful yet clear of where he stands,and equally aware that his audience has changed and is demanding change. Anik Dutta,who made Bhooter Bhabishyat (2012),a delightful film about ghosts in a crumbling Art Deco Kolkata mansion,laughingly describes himself an old fogey at 50,and chats with great animation about the past and the present in Bengali filmmaking,and where he finds himself in the middle of all of that. Bhooter Bhabishyat was his first feature,born out of the sense of hurt he felt at a disappearing way of life,which he calls the mezaz of old Calcutta,and a way of accessing that nostalgia. It was made on a shoestring budget but became a huge hit. It has enthused him enough to make his second,Ashchorjo Prodip,a modern-day genie story. Calls are coming from Mumbai,but at this moment,baffled by Bombay as much as Bombay is by him,Dutta is staying put in Kolkata,busy making the films that he wants to. We are fortunate that we are being able to tell our own stories, says Umesh Kulkarni,whose Vihir (2010),an exquisite coming-of-age tale is one of my all-time favourite Indian films. FTII graduate Kulkarni is a part of a bunch of gifted filmmakers Mangesh Hadawale,Satish Manwar,Sujay Dahake,Sachin Kundalkar,Ravi Jadhav,Sandesh Kulkarni,Nikhil Mahajan being the others who is making films,authentic of voice and vision,with great heart. Ravi Jadhav tells me in all seriousness that he got around to making Balak Palak keeping in mind his discomfort when his pre-teen son asked him about,ahem,sex. Just the way he had asked his own father,and how his father had been so uncomfortable. Balak Palak is set in the 1980s,because Jadhav wanted the kids to be real innocents,unsullied by technology,and they are all beautifully natural as they go about the serious business of getting older. Marathi cinemas exemplary use of children reminds one of Iranian cinema: watching the children in Dahakes Shala (School,a 2011 film set around the period of the Emergency,coming alive to physical and emotional changes),and the boys in Vihir,is pure joy. Right now,Marathi cinema,made by this close-knit group of filmmakers,is youthful and potent and pleasurable,just like its new-age counterparts in the other states. Its not like audiences are not watching the superstars (Mohanlal and Mammooty) anymore, says Sunil OG,producer of 22 Female Kottayam. But the time when they couldnt wait for their next films is over. Malayalam cinema is going through a rich phase where some of the countrys best films are being made,and that in itself is not new. But the excitement being voiced by the newer stakeholders is palpable. The newer stars are actor Prithiviraj (his latest film Mumbai Police (2013) sees him as a gay cop with some remarkably candid lovemaking action),actor Fahadh Faasil who is doing all kinds of interesting roles (his first was the dark,violent thriller featuring a lost cellphone,Chappa Kurishu),and screenwriter Anoop Menon,whose work in break-out films is pushing boundaries. Menon puts it beautifully when he says We (the young filmmakers) are outside the house,on the verandah,waiting to go in,while Mammooty and Mohanlal have already made their houses and are happily living in them. Menons ensemble Trivandrum Lodge (2012) is wonderful,with its sexually candid female leads,capturing the atmosphere of these lodges where a bunch of permanent and itinerant tenants live together. Faasil is having a great run this year,having played the vicious lover in 22 Female Kottayam,and has important roles in this years spree of hits,Annayum Rasoolum, Amen,and the quirkily-named Natholi Oru Cheriya Meenalla (Anchovy is Not a Small Fish). I realise not all my films are for everyone,so I am doing different roles. I am loving this phase, he says. Even Punjabi cinema,with its long tradition of turgid period love stories,is seeing a change. Young love stories,shot in Canada and Australia,toplining fresh faces,are finding favour amongst multiplex audiences. I have just opened a small multiplex in Banga (a small town in Punjab) and you should see the response, says producer JS Kataria. His latest production Jatt and Juliet 2 is the first sequel in Punjabi the first was Jatt and Juliet) and is breaking box-office records as we speak. Similarly,in Andhra Pradesh,which is known for its masala potboilers,SS Rajamouli (Magadheera,Eega) is making films with world-class animation and desi verve: the Asian spiderman may well be speaking in Telugu. But will there be a time soon when we can see films from everywhere in our neighbouring multiplexes? Nimisha Trivedi,assistant vice-president,film distribution and acquisition at Krian Media,and a long-time industry watcher,injects a note of caution. Not all films work everywhere,she says. In an ideal situation,a producer would budget for subtitling at the drawing board stage,and not have to do it retrospectively. But wouldnt that give films a long tail? Of course it would,but how many filmmakers are willing to take on that extra expense? My conversations with these filmmakers reveal,though,that it is not just about saving money,or about not having the DVD rights. It is also about ignorance. It is about not being aware that other parts of the country,or viewers who do not understand their language,may also be interested in their films. That there is a small but growing section of the audience who may want something radically different. Who may be ready. Subtitled (or dubbed) prints,and subtitled DVDs,are the way to give films long legs. They will travel more if they speak more. Let us cross over. Let us see.