My take on Bollywood

Watched a superb movie, Iqbal yesterday. Amazing. Good to see a Hindi movie of this caliber after a long time. Frankly speaking, I'm fed up of watching the same old "Soni kudi", "Mahi ve", "Bada-baap-bada bijiness", "karva chouth" kinda movies. I can't bear them anymore.

Iqbal starts off with a beautiful village background and the introduction of the protogonist. I'm not going to put down a set of best scenes here because each and every scene is well crafted in the movie. The story is about how a deaf and dumb person goes all out to achieve his ambitions and how people around him are supporting him in his endeavours. After watching the movie, you get this feel-good feeling and also a strong fire within you to achieve something.

Young directors with good scripts have to be motivated by experienced people in the industry and that's exactly what Subash Ghai had done. The Indian Film Industry always clings to the so-called brand names and believes firmly that only those brands can pull masses to the theatres. To prove it, find out who won most of the awards last year - Mr.Yash Chopra. No doubt he is a great stalwart and biggie in the industry. But a crap movie like Veer Zaara getting all awards is ridiculous. On top of that , people claim that this movie emphasises on Indo-Pak relations. The same old Swiss snow clad mountains, the heroine(oops, Lata Mangeshkar) singing la-la, same kind of song picturisation etc etc - What's so special in this movie to get all such awards?

I was totally disappointed that Swades didn't get the best movie or best director award. A movie, so well taken was ignored. The biggest jokes were Paheli being nominated for Oscars ahead of movies like Black and Swades and Saif Ali Khan getting the national award for Hum Tum. Needless to say, how these industry big shots influence such decisions.

People argue that we go to movies for fun. I can understand very well why movies like Murder and Kya Kool Hai Hum run into packed houses. Films provide a powerful medium not just for entertainment but also play an important role in the transformation of the society. I got positively influenced by watching Swades and Iqbal. In the same manner, people get influenced by crap, dirty movies where women are portrayed as glam dolls.

Only if directors like Ashutosh and Nagesh Kukunoor are encouraged, they would love to make such positive impact movies in the future. But the industry is not welcoming such talented people. I will not be surprised if Bunty Aur Babli wins the best movie of this year.