Ramu VS Bhansali

natasha chanda acharya

Thank you, Mike, for the "Movies" section. Here's my first Movie post. An article I had written some time back for a magazine. Two of my favourite directors: Raam Gopal Verma and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Thanks to all in advance who are even going to finish reading the LOOOOng post, let alone respond to it. I recently got inspiration to write long posts from NostalgicIndian

Byronic, this goes out for you...

natasha chanda acharya

What would you call a Jungle? A commercial film? No. An art film? No. Parallel cinema? Probably not. It is quintessentially a Ramu movie. What’s a Ramu movie? Good question.

It’s a movie, unlike any other Hindi movie, which has a single point of focus. It moves in a straight line on one single subject with no comic and very little musical interlude. The entire movie from start to finish has this single dominant focus.

Let’s look at Ramu the director in Kaun. The movie opens with the noun: a girl in a house; verb: she is scared; object: supposed maniac – guy knocking at the door; space of time: one day; subject: “kaun”- who is the maniac? There are a total of three actors in the movie. The location: a bungalow. Principle props: a dead phone, a butcher knife, a cat and an iron rod? Not one sequence in the movie deviates from this set focus. It does not even have a story line and yet you are glued, not to your seats but to the edge of your seats for two hours. Outcome: a success.
Ramu as producer. Road, same thing. Three principle characters: hero, heroine and the villain. Location: road. Principle props: a motorcycle, two jeeps, a truck and a bellybutton ring! Space of time: two days. Subject: The road and what happens to the three characters on the road. An interesting interplay of characters, all of who have subtle shades of gray, and your perception of the same, is one of the outcomes of the movie. The other outcome, of course, is a successful film. We can go on and on but it’s the same pattern that comes forth in Jungle, Daud, Satya, Mast, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chachati Hoon and the others.

So he is a brilliant moviemaker who makes brilliant one-track movies. What else? Ever wondered about his prodigies or the actors he patronizes? The first name that obviously comes to mind is Urmilla Matondkar. And admittedly she never emotes better and looks more beautiful than in Ramu movies. But who else? Surprisingly, few of the most brilliant actors in today’s industry. Manoj Vajpai – Satya, Kaun, Road. Sushant Singh – Kaun, Jungle. Antara Mali – Mast, Main Maduri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon. Vijay Razz – Jungle. Rajpal Yadav – Jungle, Road, Main Maduri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon (who is incidentally a fan of Bhansali saab in the film Road, but is disillusioned by the time Ramu finishes with him!) Okay, so what’s the point? Like his films, none of his actors are spectacular, but they are potent, nevertheless.

Whether it’s violence in Shiva, Satya or Company; or thrillers like Raat, Kaun, Jungle or Bhoot; or even fantasies like Rangeela, Mast, or Daud (I wonder who christened the characters Daya Shankar, Uma Parvati, and Chako ji? The movie wouldn’t have been the same without these names!); they all have created a genre of their own. They are trademark Ramu movies.

natasha chanda acharya

So let’s zoom out from Ramuscope to the wide angle grandeur of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas and Black. Sanjay Leela Bhansali. His movies are definitely commercial movies, are they not? Probably. They are big budget movies with big star casts and have been huge hits till now. But unlike most song and dance run of the mill Hindi movies, they speak a language of their own. A language that tells a story even when the subject is mute. There is language in his colors. There’s language in his music (that’s rare!). There’s language in his air, water, and fire. There’s language in the raise of a brow. His movies are sheer poetry. They have layers of sensibility that you could discover and enjoy at various levels of perception. They are in every aspect of film making, near perfect movies.

His choice of actors justifies the big budget movies that he takes his chances with. Manisha Koirala and Salman Kahn in Khamoshi, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Sharukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in Devdas. Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee in Black Brilliant, spectacular, larger than life. Just like his movies.

Take the first half of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Take away the dialogue and story line, boy meets girl, so and so, and you have a documentary on India in brilliant colors. The paper lamp, the games, the desert, the orange cloth they all sit around and embroider, the patang, the song Albela Sajan, the colors, the texture and the people. They all tell a story on their own. Take the first scene, the first song that introduces the central character “Nandini”. It’s a game of pitto and there’s our girl laughing and dazzling in the sun with expressions flitting across her face. The song goes, “mitti se khinchi lakiren... aag, hawa, pani ko milaya, to phir ye tasweer saji... mitti ki hai murat teri, masoomiyat fitrat teri, ye bholapan, ye sondhapan...” Few characters in few movies have been introduced better in my memory. The perfection is woven right till the last scene where Nandini wears a red sari, the black shawl drops while she runs, mangalsootra in one hand. They stand on a bridge, with water beneath them and the sky above lit up with firecrackers. As I said, his movies are lyrical.

The same in Devdas. Chandramukhi’s first song, “dhai sham rok layi... sar se mori chunari gayi sarak sarak sark... kahe ched ched mohe garba lagaye...” A raise of her eye brows, and you understand all that Chandramukhi is about without a single word spoken. Kiran Kher dancing to “kare Krishna raas Radha ke sang” creeps under your skin like no sexy item number could ever do. Paro’s feet making footprints in aalta when Devdas returns home, Devdas striking her forehead to draw blood, and in the last scene the same vermillion footprints when she runs to meet the dying Devdas; all tell a separate story even as dialogues and scenes transpire.

Black, of course, like the name and the theme of the movie, is mostly in black and white. Bold and overwhelming blacks and whites. A picture perfect world covered in pristine white snow and a man in black huddled beside a fountain. Students shrouded in black huddled together while a bunch of fair, fluttering fingers take wings. No other movie explores the third dimension the way Black does. When Rani reads the brail script, you can feel the texture of the coarse letters beneath our fingers. When sunlight streams in through the windows, you can feel it’s warmth playing on her skin.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali overwhelms you as no one else in the business does. That’s not merely commercial cinema. That’s life, cinemascope, for you.

natasha chanda acharya

No. They cannot be compared. For the simple reason that they belong to different schools of filmmaking. This was not an attempt at comparing them, but a quick take on the two genres at the two far ends of the pole to lend perspective to the variety in today’s Indian film industry spectrum. On one end, the cinemascope grandeur of commercial cinema painted to perfection by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. At the other end, the small budget, not entirely romantic, mostly cut and dry treatment advocated by Ram Gopal Verma. There is, of course, the problem of putting a name to these genres.

Their films can be used as textbooks by students of filmmaking. The critics don’t have to desperately search for imaginative expressions that will sound different from their last analysis of the last film! As for the audience, the janta, as long as they get their money’s worth in terms of entertainment, with varying degrees of perception and discussion, they can just lap it all up.

Deviating from familiar rail tracks not only brings forth the new and the fresh, it also indicates maturity and growth in the given line of work, especially so when it is creative work. So here’s to all the Priyadarshans and Deepa Mehtas of India to create more genres than we can name or count!

byronic

Thanks for the insights into two great film makers working in Indian cinema today, Ram Gopal Varva (Ramu) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB).

IMHO all people interested in Indian popular culture should be following these two film makers and at least watch Ramu's Satya, Mast, and Company, and SLB's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Black, and Devdas. I think almost all of them are on Netflix.

Most of the world just lumps all Hindi cinema into one word and idea, "Bollywood". Which would be akin to lumping all American movies into one word and idea "Hollywood".

Hindi Popular cinema is actually very diverse and has its share of very talented film makers who all have their own styles, story themes, and personal vision. Thanks for the snapshot into two world class modern pop artist working in India today.

(I'm waithing for your takes on Mani Ratnam and Sooraj Barjatya now

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banarasi_guru

I agree these two are among the better directors of current hindi movies. What I like about them is their movies are quite realistic and don't offend viewer's intelligence. I also like the movies of the guy who directed Dil Chahta hai.

crvlvr

its Farhan Akhtar From imdb.com:

Bigzero

Interesting analysis, Natasha! as Byronic said, hope you will cover some other directors as well..

Incidentally, i have watched more Ramu movies than Bhansali movies. the only bhansali movie i watched in full was Khamoshi. I watched parts of Devdas though. Ramu's school of film making has also started getting repititive - the freshness in them, treatment etc that was there a few years back seems to be missing.

Yes, i havent seen black - waiting to get hold of a DVD soon.

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Paagla Dashu

Natasha,

Lets have your takes on -

Aparna Sen (as director)
Shyam Benegal
Asutosh Gowarikar
Karan Johar
Yash Chopra

somnath

Thanks for starting such interesting thread. You are right Natasha that Banshali’s films are gorgeous, big budget, multi-star and ‘colors’ are playing a major role, which creates a different impact. I would like to mention a point on Devdas. It was a good experience - excellent set, costume, and makeup everything was just perfect but what about the lifeblood? Please do not forget it is a classic by Sharatchandra and you just can’t change the story for any reason. With all the respect and appreciation for Banshali, Just recall the conversation and the dance sequence of Paro (Ash) and Chandramukhi (madhuri) in this film. In the original novel, so far I can remember, Sharatchandra didn’t write a single line regarding face-to-face interaction between them, forget the song and dance. Yes I know we can say, dance and songs are equally important specially when it is not a documentary on Devdas. Still, to make the film a success, any effort to tamper the original classic not soothing.
Not only Banshali, if we look at Rituparna Ghose, another good director (proven in regional film) has guts to make a film on “Chokher Bali”, written by Rabindranath Tegore. It is a nice film if you don’t know exactly what was written by Tegore. The moment you know the original story you are forced to think that Rituparna should change the name of the film or he could write “ only inspired by”. Though as a film, it belongs to superior quality group. You will enjoy the photography (specially shots of Varanasi), the magic of sound effect and excellent use of background music and scripts (?). Let us leave the casting, Ash as Vinodini was the talk of the town.
“Rain coat” (Hindi) did some justice, it was mentioned that the impact / inspiration of ‘Gift of the Magi’ is there behind this film by Rituparna again (time will tell us whether Ash and Rituparna = Urmila and Ramu ??????? or….).
These films are bringing those hidden treasures of literature in to the limelight – that’s the consolation. Let us see “Parineeta”, but trust me, this time I am not going to read the novel before watching the film. It only brings the comparison in mind. But is it the destiny that we are forced to enjoy the dramatize presentation of classics without reading those?

Cheers for the next director in OT. Natasha who is the next?

- Somnath

Bigzero

Some recent films ( & directors ) that i liked...

- Mrs & Mr Iyer - Aparna Sen
- Maqbool - Vishal Bharadwaj
- Raincoat - Rituparno Ghosh
- Page 3 - Madhur Bhandarkar

well, the list gets a little bigger if you move on to regional cinema... a lot of exciting new directors and themes in Tamil films, Malayalam on the wane in general , but still some interesting stuff now and then( reached a trough after the exciting period of 80s and early 90s ),.....

Paagla Dashu

Somnath,

Movies are different from novels as the two medium are different. Satyajit Ray had written some very good articles on the subject after he wars criticised for changing the story of "Nastoneer" - when he made "Charulata" and again for taking liberties when making "Ghare Baaire".

Just consider a small example. A novel can be written in which you read about only five characters. When you make this into a film, you have to however show them living in the real world where there are many more people - people that they interact with, talk to, walk past. So, just for that one small reason, a film looks different from the imaginary fictional world of a novel.

When people read a book, they get a lot of time to read a paragraph and reflect on it to enjoy its beauty - a filmmaker gets a second to capture the essence of that paragraph and communicate it to the mind of the viewer in a manner that it leaves an impression. Dramatisation is therefore a very important tool for a filmmaker.

SHIMLA

Vishal Bharadwaj.

Bigzero, is he the same person who provided the excellent score for Gulzaar's "Maachhis" ?

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Bigzero

Yes! a good music director and quite an insightful film director too! Makdee is another film by him. Shabana Azmi played the role of a witch.

Bigzero

I agree --

someone had said "Great novels make average films, and in many cases average novels make great films".. this seems to be just a generalization, but it is true that a great novel is no guarantee for a great film.