Bollywood's new noir

Many of Bollywood's recent releases - and forthcoming ones - are inspired by the "noir" or "black films" genre popular in Hollywood in 1940-50. Gargi Gupta talks to some of the young directors on what is driving such cinema

Thriller" is a much-abused term in Bollywood "" a blanket genre used to describe films as varying in texture, mood and quality as Bhoot and Bhool Bhullaiya. But there's something about recent thrillers like Johnny Gaddar and Manorama Six Feet Under that's different.

Gritty, fast-paced, morally ambivalent and with strong characters rather than stars driving the plot, these aren't simply thrillers but local versions of "film noir" (literally black film), a genre of "stylish crime dramas... that emphasise moral ambiguity and sexual motivation" (Wikipedia definition) that refers to the Hollywood films of the 1940s-'50s like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

And it isn't just the critics who're making the connection; most of the directors working in this genre are very consciously placing themselves within it. Director Navdeep Singh spoke to the media about Manorama being a "homage" to noir; and depicted protagonist Satyaveer watching Polanski's classic Chinatown (incidentally, a film he was supposed to be "inspired" by). "I don't think Johnny Gaddaar can be called a pure noir film," says director Shriram Raghavan, adding, however, that, "It's a term that helps us during the shoot. 'Let's do this scene in a noir fashion...' Which means odd angles, contrast lighting, shadows, et cetera."

You can see traces of the noir tone in many recent films "" Ek Haseena Thi, Anthony Kaun Hai?, Being Cyrus, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local. In fact, Anurag Kashyap's existential drama No Smoking too has traces of noir. It's a trend that Hansal Mehta, whose Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (2000) was an early sample of the genre in Bollywood, traces back to Sudhir Mishra's 1996 film, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, and even further back to Vijay Anand.

"But if it's film noir, it does not follow the conventions developed by the Americans or the French. The femme fatale figure, found in much of film noir, is absent; rather, our

Indian films explore the morality, political, social, economic, within our society and what happens when, out of greed or lust or any other motivation, the protagonist falls foul of it. In that sense, it's a reflection of social reality rather than an aestheticised response."

There are more coming up: Strangers, directed by debutant Anand L Rai, due for release next month, has two strangers meeting on a train and deciding to kill each other's wives. Then, there's Amir by another debutant director, Raj Kumar Gupta, which is the story of a young Muslim professional who flies into Mumbai and is caught up in an inexplicable plot, with only a cell phone, through which a faceless, nameless voice gives instructions, to help him through the maze.

Woodstock Villa, Hansal Mehta's next, coming up for release early next year, is another of these neo noir films about the disappearance of a beautiful young women, the wife of a businessman, and what follows. Kashyap, who made Panch in 2003, on five angst-ridden urban youngsters who fall into crime (unreleased, since the censor made strident objections to it), says he's working on another script called Bombay Velvet on the Bombay of the 1960s and "how it turned into a metro".

Ashwini Malik, who won much acclaim with his 2002 film, Clever and Lonely, is working on Kill Chhabra, another of these dark thrillers with Onir and Sanjay Suri producing the film. And then, there's Raghavan's second in the Johnny series, of which all he'll reveal now is the title, Johny Tokyo.

This is quite inexplicable since Manorama, JG or any of the other films that came before it did not exactly set the box office on fire. Far from it. Hiren Gada of Shemaroo Films, which produced Manorama, says that the film had a short two-week run at the multiplexes but he hopes to make up for it with the television and video rights. "It's an intelligent film and it works on many levels."

Mehta has an insight: "Today, a producer doesn't really have to rely on the theatrical response to a film. He can make his money from all the other avenues for projection that new technologies are throwing up almost every day.

But the one important thing here, and this is something young filmmakers have to learn, is how to budget it right. I made Chhal (2002) on only Rs 1 crore. If you keep costs down, the producer has more of a chance to get back a part of the money, and then he will be more receptive to experimental ideas that you may have."

Clearly, it is a reasoning that has found takers with many production companies"" Spotboy, the UTV production house that concentrates on small-budget experimental films: Sanjay and Onir's Fore Front Films, White Feather Films and many others. And note how they're all putting their money on first-time directors. Clearly, it is the greenhorns today in the industry who've the right ideas.