Films as an industry

(cussed, in English) will deny that the two Munnabhai films are very good indeed. The first one came out two years ago and the second two weeks ago. The script is tight, the editing excellent, the music catchy and cheerful, the dialogues hilarious, the choreography with lots of colour and movement superb, the message of Gandhian-cum-Christian love pleasing, the acting highly apposite, the technology the latest and, above all, the direction outstanding. Most importantly, all of these appeal across the Indian class system""upper, middle, lower and the sub-divisions therein because they are, at once, highly sophisticated comedies as well as crude Hindi cinema. They are full of literary and historical allusions and meaningful references. In Munnbhai II the hero, when told about the importance of October 2, asks "woh dry day walla?" How much better can you deliver an important message? Little wonder, then, that the film has coined a new word""Gandhigiri as opposed to dadagiri, which is so much more appealing than the staid Gandhivaad. The hero, who is a thug, swears to give up dadagiri in favour of Gandhigiri and the results are very favourable. All ends well and the audience goes away feeling not just happy but also a little more aware of Gandhi than when it came in.

The key question for hard-headed film financiers is whether Munnabhai will have global appeal. No one knows the answer as yet, but there is clear evidence that mainstream Hindi films have growing crossover appeal in many markets, and not just with non-resident Indians pining for a bit of the home culture. You might think that films that are quintessentially Indian, despite all their technical virtuosity, will fail to appeal to people from entirely different cultures and who do not understand Hindi. But the fact remains that films like KANK are earning millions of dollars abroad, Indian films are regularly entered now for the Oscars, Indian film stars have started making the annual pilgrimage to Cannes, and producers have even started striking deals there""as happened this year. Why, Hollywood is even beginning to adopt features of Indian films such as the 'item number', though it can be argued that Hollywood musicals always had these. India is still a considerable distance away from possessing a truly global film industry, but it seems to be on its way there.

It helps that the industry is getting better organised. Digital technology that beams films from a central point via satellite to different theatres, is beginning to offer an alternative to multiple prints and the danger of instant piracy; funny money is beginning to be replaced by corporate funding now that companies have entered the film production business (remember how novel the idea was when Amitabh Bachchan first talked about it barely a decade ago); and the avenues for getting a return on the investment in a film have multiplied, so that the risk element in film production has dropped dramatically. Even the eco-system that is essential to an activity that has so much of its work outsourced, has now grown and matured, including technologically. In other words, the country has the makings of a serious industry with potentially global appeal. All one can say is: Lage raho, Munnabhai!