Old Is Not Always Gold

Why have Hindi movies become so self-referential? In the middle of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, when Kartik Aaryan is called ‘shehzada’ by someone, he winces, asking not to be reminded of that word, a reference to his 2023 box office failure Shehzada, directed by Rohit Dhawan. In Singham Again, when Ranveer Singh’s character Simmba meets Arjun Kapoor’s Danger Lanka, he scoffs at his plans for revenge, quoting the famous dialogue from Gangs of Wasseypur: “Baap ka, dada ka, bhai ka, sabka badla lega (I will take revenge for my father, my grandfather, and my brother)”. At another point in the movie, Singh steps out of his character of Simmba and looks at his fellow actor (and wife) Deepika Padukone who is playing Lady Singham, and says dreamily that his family is expanding. It is one thing to pay homage, as Chennai Express (2013) did to the iconic train sequence in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), or as Om Shanti Om (2007) did to Madhumati (1958) and Karz (1980). It is another thing to be bereft of original ideas. And therein lies the rub. As in the West, mainstream movies have become averse to risk because of their bloated budgets, usually a result of exorbitant star costs. So the industry tends to focus on the familiar, whether it is sequels or prequels or multiverses, in which various movies collide. Stree 2 referenced Bhediya and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 recalled Bhool Bhulaiyaa 1. Few filmmakers want to take the trouble to try something original, such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail or Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies. The rewards are many but so is the risk, and not everyone has the appetite for it. But it seems even the biggest banners want to ensure their investment is safe by releasing franchise movies, whether it is Yash Raj Films’ spyverse with Tiger and Pathaan or Maddock Films’ horror franchise. The trend of re-releasing old movies falls very much into this pattern, with even big production houses like YRF and Dharma showcasing movies such as Veer-Zaara (2004) and Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) in cinema halls. And now Rakesh Roshan is re-releasing Karan Arjun (1995) in movie halls banking on interest in its leads, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. Expect many more.

Indira’s English

Disclaimer (Apple TV+) is a terrifying odyssey into the rabbit hole of perception. What do we think when we think of a young man hungry for action and attention, and a mildly flirtatious gorgeous older woman, both on a holiday by the beach? Especially when the photos are backlit and intimate. A passionate holiday romance, right? At one level, Disclaimer, directed by the great Alfonso Cuarón, is about secrets and how they can ruin lives. But at another, and on a more serious level, it is about how we think of even those closest to us. Starring Cate Blanchett, its voiceover is by British Indian actor Indira Varma. She is the second-person narrator of the series, the voice of conscience, the voice of reason, the voice of Blanchett’s innermost feelings. The half-Indian Varma trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made her debut in 1996 with Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. From her roles on the series Rome and Luther, to her portrayal of Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones on HBO to her playing the role of Lady Macbeth on stage, Varma has made her mark.

Death of a Legend

Her face is upturned against the rain, she is running ahead of Apu through the farms, she is taking her first look at the train, she is waking up Apu for school. Durga, the young girl in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955), became as iconic as the film itself. And now, the woman who played her, Uma Sen, is no more. She was pivotal to the movie. It is her death that takes the family out of the village, away from her memories, far from the sorrow. Sen didn’t act in any other film after Pather Panchali, unlike Sharmila Tagore and Jaya Bhaduri who began their careers in Apur Sansar (1959) and Mahanagar (1963), respectively. Both Tagore and Bhaduri (Bachchan) made a mark in mainstream Hindi cinema while also doing some serious work in some seminal films. For a long time, it looked like Barun Chanda, the lead of Seemabaddha (1971), one of Ray’s Calcutta trilogy, would also be a one-film actor, until he returned to acting 21 years later with Rituparno Ghosh’s debut movie Hirer Angti (1992).

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

•