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This is an archive article published on June 14, 2010
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Opinion Well done folks

Two films show how we have begun to get real about politics...

Seema Chishti

June 14, 2010 11:13 PM IST First published on: Jun 14, 2010 at 11:13 PM IST

It is said that in 1977 at the time — timed to the exact hour — that Jayaprakash ‘JP’ Narayan was scheduled to hold a massive rally in Delhi after the Emergency was withdrawn and general elections called,the besieged Indira Gandhi government decided to screen Bobby on Doordarshan,the only television channel then. Given that Doordarshan in those days did to telecast much entertainment,the hope clearly was that Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor would discourage at least a few thousands from converging and bringing the house down at Ram Lila Maidan. It is unclear how much of a hit the crowd took with the scheduling,but the relationship between Indian cinema and what it says about the politics and the times we live in has long been established.

The times,politics and politicians have had their resonance in cinema ever since the sound would crackle and the black and white images would flicker all the way to “The End”. There has been much made of the freedom,the netas,the unfulfilled promise of 1947 for several Indians — films like Naya Daur and Mother India had central characters blighted by the state of affairs. These were stories of people up against a formidable wall which constituted the “system”; and then there was the “struggle” — hope and despair and stories of common people all playing out magically on the screen.

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The fundamentals kept changing. The portrayal of the zamindar and “evil moneylender” gave way to harsh portrayals of the police,gangsters and then finally the holy nexus between all,contractors,police,politicians and crooks — a case made out powerfully in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and one made out very dramatically even in Tridev.

Then there was a stage,loudly inspired by films made in South India,when Andha Kanoon (remake of a Tamil film) and Meri Awaaz Suno (based on the Kannada film Antha) were violent statements on how the system had “failed” and vigilantism was the need of the hour. The message was,one had to blow the system up to make a point,else the point would not be heard.

In this new decade,2010 is a year that has proved more exciting with at least two Hindi films that appear more nuanced,perhaps reflective of the more complex relationship with the “system” and politics that Indian have forged than simply tarring the entire “system” with a single brush.

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Raajneeti is an absorbing,clever but cynical film which in a sense marks the coming of age of the idea that politics has occupied and continues to occupy in the lives of Indians.

It does justice to its name and also marks a sense of having come full circle in popular films about politics. Its greatest success lies in having touched upon so many tantalising characters in real life but making sufficient departures to leave the audience confused,so that it also becomes a riveting guessing game.

Why Raajneeti seems to have drawn people and audiences of all ilk and held them there for the entire length of the film is also about how the 1990s and 2000s stereotype of the one-dimensional,evil and grimy politician has been replaced by a multi-faceted set of politicos,deeply ambitious of course,but portrayed in all kinds of colour and with much more texture than what we even got to see in Prakash Jha’s earlier “political” offers (Apaharan and Gangajal).

Perhaps a part of the answer lies in Jha’s closer understanding of the electoral system after his stint as a Lok Janshakti Party candidate in Bihar in 2009. The anger and the regional stereotypes that limited the imagination to the venal Uttar Pradesh-Bihar,somewhat BIMARU thug are missing from Raajneeti’s landscape. Shot in Bhopal,a mix of sets and actual backdrops,it could be any state and any city — Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore,Mantralaya in Mumbai or even Sansad Marg in Delhi.

It is interesting that a film like Raajneeti came out about the same time as Shyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba. More interesting,as Benegal,too,is a member of Parliament now,which you might argue would have afforded him,an already brilliant film maker,a closer understanding of the ‘system”. It may appear as an unlikely bracketing,but with its very nuanced and detailed location in an Andhra Pradesh village,Well Done Abba is also a realistic parable of the Indian situation and the connections between two completely apolitical lives just trying to better their lot as they run into the “system”. The system is not portrayed as just an opaque and dark wall,but with its idiosyncracies,custodians,corruption,and also little nooks and cracks,the promise of hope and new laws and how they have shown a way which could lead to results.

Oddly enough,there are again similarities in how Boman Irani,the driver in Well Done Abba,and Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in Raajneeti are all the classical innocent outsiders,who are transformed by the time their respective films end.

This year has been promising,with both films having imaginatively attempted to reflect on politics,the times and how human lives get intertwined and not necessarily in a way that is full of despair and darkness — it’s a very Indian portrayal of the mixed ideas we all have about the “system”,political ambition,why we vote as we do,why we change our minds,all the while trying to chip away to make our place in the “system” and understand it,if only to simply get by and cope. Very much like Abba in Benegal’s movie or Katrina Kaif’s character in Raajneeti.

seema.chishti@expressindia.com