Bollywood films are increasingly acquiring a rustic tone. But what's exciting is the fact that they’re succeeding too.
In the darkness of the auditorium we could very well have been in the village near Gorakhpur, hearing the local UP dialect all around us, seeing the local people in their trademark striped, ill-fitting pyjamas, sporting kohl-lined eyes and a decidedly unkempt look. Two hours later, walking out of a multiplex, it takes a few moments to adjust to another reality. Yes, another. Having just watched Ishqiya, debutant director Abhishek Chaubey’s raunchy, rustic tale of a small-town woman who becomes an object of fascination for two conmen and uses this position to her full advantage, it’s hard not to view it as a real experience.
Despite its convoluted dialogues and a crazy complexity about its small-town leanings, Ishqiya works well for the metro audience. This film’s heroes don’t don GAP tees, Armani jeans and Gucci shoes. Instead, Ishqiya’s heroes are local, their romance pastoral, they’re nowhere as urbane as the hero of, say, a Yash Raj film. But, suddenly, these are the heroes for whom the audience is applauding. All of a sudden, small town India is the “in thing” in Hindi films, what with mainstream filmmakers basing their stories, characters, screenplay, and even music, in the rural heartland.
“It [rural India] is the new cool,” laughs director Bhavna Talwar whose first film Dharm was set in the city of Benaras. Happi, Talwar’s second film releasing in April 2010, revolves around a man who arrives from a small town in UP to Mumbai, the city of dreams. “Through the eyes of this character who arrives from UP, I have attempted to show the innocence that somewhere Mumbai has lost,” In Talwar’s view, the true India is still in the small towns and villages of India. “As filmmakers, we can definitely find far more interesting characters there,” she continues, quickly adding, “How much of the angst of a big city can we show, after all?”
But why is such a change taking place? Veteran film director Shyam Benegal believes that a lot of it also has to do with the sensibilities of the new directors in the film industry. “Filmmakers like Vishal Bharadwaj, Abhishek Chaubey and Anurag Kashyap are very significant in our industry because they’re bringing to light those parts of India where other commercial filmmakers had not ventured earlier. They are responding to the pulse of the audiences,” Benegal explains. Interestingly, most of Benegal’s own films, such as Ankur (1973) and Manthan (1976), to name just a few, have explored the complexities of relationships in the verdant settings of Indian villages. It’s also interesting to note that films with the rural India theme are getting supported by commercial actors/producers too. Peepli Live, Anusha Rizvi’s film on farmers’ suicide, for instance, is produced by Aamir Khan.
Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), Benegal’s last film, was also set in a village called Satna in Madhya Pradesh and beautifully captured all the nuances of village life, its small mind, its large heart, its open fields, its innocence, its worldliness. “I didn’t know that a ‘real-life’ Sajjanpur, in fact, exists in Madhya Pradesh,” laughs Benegal who admits that he was pleasantly surprised at the commercial success of a humble film. Made at a budget of Rs 9.5 crore, Welcome to Sajjanpur grossed Rs 12 crore in the first week of its release in 2008. So, while people from villages rode their bicycles or walked to the nearest cinema hall to watch the film, the swish, urban set of cinegoers drove to multiplexes to enjoy the film in the metros. “The transition from an Indian village to town to city and metro is a reflection of the aspirations of the audiences and cinema lends itself to showcasing that aspiration,” explains Benegal.
Take the example of Road, Movie, for instance. The film is the story of a man who goes on a road journey to different parts of Rajasthan and Kutch, while also spreading cheer through the medium of films. “I wanted to make a movie about movies,” says Dev Benegal. The film, in fact, is an extension of Dev’s own personal journeys into some of the remote parts of India. “I remember travelling with various film units, it was a big circus getting into buses and travelling to remote parts of the country.” And it was that memory of “travelling as a teenager, getting away, breaking free and getting away from a world which was closed and limited” that prompted Dev to make Road, Movie. Actor Abhay Deol adds: “Road, Movie is about India but not about spirituality or poverty.”
Interestingly, Deol’s previous film Dev.D, directed by Anurag Kashyap, showcased the other side of Delhi. The bylanes of Paharganj and Old Delhi, for instance, and not the malls, became the core of the film. Most parts of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6, which needed to depict the numerous bylanes of Old Delhi, were shot in Sambhar, a town near Ajmer in Rajasthan. Similarly, Well Done Abba, Benegal’s forthcoming film, which releases in mid-March this year, also looks at a mohulla of Hyderabad. Abhishek Chaubey, who belongs to Faizabad, wonders why filmmakers don’t make films in rural settings. “Most of India, after all, still lives there,” he says adding that it’s rare to find characters like Babban, Krishna and Khallujan with such a world view in such a rustic setting. Interestingly, while Ishqiya looks so organic in its setting, its shooting took place near Mumbai.
“People are warming up to these stories because you can smell the soil of rural India in a multiplex,” explains Benegal. For now, its a heady fragrance.
