There have been several mutations, changes and omissions in the world of cinema: they have been quite rapid and hopelessly rigid. These have been at times, guided by genuine concerns; other times an overcorrection owing to the perception of the medium in light of the internet, social media and our world as it has shaped up today.
While there are some brilliant gains in mainstream cinema, for example that of Dalit film directors from Tamil Nadu like Mari Selvaraj, Pa Ranjit delivering strong cinema for movie-goers; there has also been irreparable loss to an anxiety that has taken over all creators of films.
This anxiety is, like all real things, multipolar. There is the competition of ‘screentime’ from other mediums, the need to be politically correct combined with the need to deliver scripts and have them greenlit by OTT or theatre distributers in mere weeks which is spread all over our home pages of the services we monthly pay for. And then there is the looming threat of Artificial Intelligence which prompted huge protests from Hollywood Union workers just a few months ago.
As conservatives harp on about wokeism killing cinema, it’s actually consumerism combined with ideologies that is doing so. The general irritability and impatience of a cinema viewer today is weaponised by sub-par OTT shows and films that know very well they are banking on a credit card a tired worker of capitalism has entered the details of and forgotten about; while letting any random show play in the background as they scroll on their phones or work about how to pay rent next month.
The characters of these shows and movies churned out like bubblegum in a factory keep saying the so-called ‘correct things’ and ‘standing up for themselves’ so that when the exhausted capitalist worker does look up for their phone for a few minutes, they’re satisfied that the show or the movie aligns with their home page and the memes on it.
This is where it is not just wokeism but right wing fascist as well as religious ideologies- all of them compartmentalised into little wings of factories, churning shows and movies to appease their particular base.
But since when was relatibility a hallmark of cinema?
The meme-fication of cinema screen grabs on social media has drastically altered the way people talk about films.
Let it be noted that here I am underlining the reality of categorically ‘mainstream’ form of cinema, not the others which are going through various regrettable mutations of their own, and I shall write about them soon.
Mainstream films want to go viral in the form of memes today, a few years ago it was songs and dialogues. This change significantly affects the way producers discuss cinema and how they instruct their writers. What one needs is not a meaningful or well-written line but rather something that will catch eyeballs, it is like writing a by-line for an advertisement: it must be copy pasted all through the social media and plastered all over everyone’s phones.
I must branch out and say that this is also why our politicians seem to become more and more vile as days pass, it is all about the clicks.
So, we must stop and think what we are doing with these clicks, then.
I watched three classic films in the last two days, Parasakti (1952) starring Sivaji Ganesan written by M Karunanidhi and directed by Krishna-Panju; Awara (1951) starring Raj Kapoor & Nargis, which Raj also directed; the screenplay was written by KA Abbas; and The Holiday (2006) starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, written and directed by Nancy Meyers.
Of course a crisis pushed me into watching these- am I just an art film connoisseur? I thought to myself, but there is rarely an art film I am able to watch that is made today! Maybe there is a similar crisis with mainstream as well? And I find myself enjoying these three aforementioned films thoroughly.
Sivaji Ganesan is phenomenal in this play adaptation written by M Karunanidhi, set in the time when Burma (now Myanmar) was bombed during the war and a Tamil family is forced to return to Madras (now Chennai) which they fled due to poverty in the first place. Songs are not random at all, but a tool of storytelling! Who knew?
Every single song is a pause in the flow of screenplay, balancing quite well the feelings of Dravida patriotism, emotional and physical turmoil of each character as well as the moral issues of the fabric of society. The film boldly questions Brahminical practices for which it garnered wide criticism as well- but it stays put to its messaging. A well-made and impactful propaganda film that kindled support for the rising DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party. Needless to say I found myself watching this film after the recent stirring speech by Vijay that is being talked about all over Tamil Nadu. Here as a North Indian I don’t necessarily relate to the material manifestations and regional pride of the universal emotions of hunger and anger towards society; but I understand them and they come through to me.
Sivaji Ganesan in Parasakti 1952
Many years ago when I sat in the first screenwriting class and was myself a bonehead, I raised my arm to answer the question asked by the teacher of our class- “Why do we watch films?”
“To feel lives that aren’t ours.” I had said.
I would throw most things I have said and written during those days in the gutter without a second look but this thought has stayed with me. Cinema can only be ‘relatable’ if it is ‘subjective’ which, no matter how many people would like to hammer that thought through in numerous interviews- it is not. Cinema is art, it is cutting together of time and space in such a way that it can be called a ‘film’ which is indeed very specific, a journalistic documentary or an Instagram reel which may as well be creative in their own right, are just not that.
‘We have art in order that we may not perish from the truth.’ Said Nietzsche.
Cinema saves us from the unbearable dragging on of time and space by its very intervention through great filmmakers.
So when I watched Awara, I do not relate to the ultra rich Malabar Hill living Judge or to the poor boy who grew up in the Mumbai chawls. I watch Prithviraj Kapoor’s eye as it moves beneath the sweat of his brow, looks at the roman numbers and the baroque folds of the baby cupids sculpted as part of the elaborate British colonial wall clock.
Prithviraj Kapoor in Awara (1951)
The songs are composed carefully so as to not just reflect the character’s inner mental state but also its interaction with dream worlds and the reality of the film, the movie goes on to raise questions which are political but also specific. It is an urban film of course, unlike Parasakti which is set more in Madurai than in Madras and its subject is the entire Dravida land anyway.
Both these films are products of not just their time but also space; while north India struggled with its identity after partition and creation of Pakistan and its own nostalgic love affair with colonial hangovers addressed so brilliantly with every shot and cut of the film- Tamil Nadu had meanwhile found its identity and wanted to assert it, topple the Congress Party and rule itself. What both the regions struggled with of course, was poverty, the strong main theme of both the films.
‘The Holiday’ was not a planned watch, I just clicked on it and ended up sitting through the film, laughing at some jokes. The film sets off to take its time and grow on you, it counts on you to watch it when you are relaxed and it's the 2nd half of the year at least when you have sat down to watch it if not the end of it and the scenes are written quite well. They flow together and there is a clear way an American living in LA and an English woman from a quaint little town in Britain are characterised; how they evolve and change. The conversations are not too much or too less, they are just enough.
I really noticed the way ‘old Hollywood’ is addressed through the fictional character Arthur Abbott (played by Eli Wallach) who is one of the last remaining ‘old’ Hollywood writers, whose friends wrote Casablanca and who hesitates to agree to a program honouring him arrange by Writers Guild of America. He says very poignantly to Kate Winslet’s character Iris- “Nine movies are opening today. I remember when nine movies would open in a month. Now , a picture has to make a killing the first weekend or they’re dead. This is supposed to be conducive to great work?”
Kate Winslet in The Holiday (2006)
The capitalist production of media is factory work. The speed of production is increasing and it looks like a ceiling fan- so much to browse, absolutely nothing to watch if you are not tired or distracted enough.
The state of cinema today is a mirror of the serious condition of our ill society. Being a filmmaker is to confront the new technology, institutions, politics as well as capitalism for you must be prepared to spend money and not necessarily earn it.
To conform such a dynamic art form into something that can be ‘related’ to is a disservice to it. Every new movie and show featuring marginalised and coloured people is usually a disaster- they are all same people, confined by a nervous writer into stereotypes that will sell, be talked about and also not offend: or offend so much they go to the other side and appease people of the opposite ideology.
Such gymnastics occurring in mainstream form is greatly alienating a public that is already eroding its humanness one consumerist act at a time, and there is an urgent need to address what is missing now, for we have truly discussed what was missing back then too.
There are no moments, just monologues we can give a thumbs up and a like to.
Cinema must be freed from the shackles of relatability for social media is not a mutation of films, rather an entirely different thing altogether. One need not be represented to watch a certain film. Sure it can feel freeing for a bit but are you just a gender or a skin colour or how you view yourself? Have we reduced ourselves to such caricature compartments?
This point which is either not talked about or talked about too much without any nuances is why I picked to write about this Hollywood film after two classic Indian films. There used to be a string of holiday films from America we would look forward to, they were feel good and some were utterly problematic which 'The Holiday' refreshingly, was not. As much as we scrutinise these older movies for their problems, we must look at our world where bad VFX is rolling in the big bucks, utterly unforgettable movies are becoming blockbusters, and we seem to have become a pawn in a large marketing game where creativity has drastically reduced in scope.
The more cinema conforms and not confront or stands up for itself, the more it becomes irrelevant. Barring anomalies, more and more filmmakers are ‘falling in line’ and rarely even writing anymore. As we enter more strange, unknown and uncertain times as a species, we can but hope that the number of filmmakers that are not afraid above all to take their time, sit and think more before filling up pages to be greenlit- and really jump into the void - increases and we as viewers, in turn, learn to appreciate the effort and madness of the art form of cinema.
What is the 'image of expression' today? I ask this as I think of Nargis' body pressed on the wall, her expression sorrowful as Raj talks about their decade long separation since school.
Cameron Diaz throwing shoes at her boyfriend who cheated on her but immediately putting him out of her thoughts and going in her den to cut trailers- a job that has made her rich. Kate Winslet throwing her toxic ex boyfriend out of the house after finally building courage or as she calls it, 'gumption'. She is not very angry at the man for she knew it was she herself who was causing the problem. This film is a product of its time, unlike the ones set in the now, which are stuck in a void floating out of relevance, quite like how we have been perceiving ourselves.
The confusion of our own existence is reflected in the void left by mainstream cinema that just delivers larger than life blockbusters or badly written never ending shows at our homes. As some rooted movies from specific regions triumph, we hope to see more of what works, even if there is less of them.
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