Bollywood on high in 2005
Bollywood Desk

BOMBAY—As the Mumbai film industry prepares to enter the last quarter of the calendar year on a high note, it could be pardoned for regarding 2005 as one a hell of a successful phase. It probably is. Not often does Bollywood get through nine months of a year with its head well above the water.
From the standpoint of audiences, what is particularly heartening is that several of the year’s major success stories have been films that have defiantly deviated from conventional narrative constructs: Page 3, Black, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Iqbal, and, to a considerably lesser extent, Bunty Aur Babli.
None of these films presented hackneyed boy-meets-girl fables garnished with conventional Bollywood masala. But does their strong box office showing really suggest the possibility that the Indian audience’s appetite for kitsch has drastically reduced?
It doesn’t. How else can one explain the success of silly old comic capers like Kya Kool Hain Hum, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya and No Entry? It’s pretty obvious: give the average Indian filmgoer any load of rubbish by way of entertainment, and he will still vote for you with his feet.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing provided Bollywood’s trade observers learn the art of seeing the big picture. The showbiz canvas cannot be complete until the market allows the creative free thinkers the space that they require and deserve to put their alternative wares on show.
Well, that doesn’t seems to be happening quite as quickly or dramatically as one would have expected when films like Page 3 and Black stormed the box office early this year. But even as hope was receding, Nagesh Kukunoor’s sharply intelligent entertainer, Iqbal, has given the “made-for-the-multiplexes” movement another fillip.
Small films do not usually survive beyond a week. Iqbal, thanks to glowing critical notices and steady word-of-mouth publicity, is poised to enter its fourth. This has happened despite the fact that Kukunoor’s film had to contend with far bigger and less rewarding mainstream releases like No Entry and Salaam Namaste.
The feel-good drama about a deaf-mute Muslim village lad who surmounts all odds – physical, economic and social — to make it to the Indian cricket team will end up collecting several multiples of the money invested on it by producer Subhash Ghai.
Indeed, it’s now official: Iqbal is the year’s first real “big” small film. Will it remain the only one? Or is the road ahead poised to get wide enough to let in more films of the ilk of Iqbal?
The prospects look rather bright at the present moment. Subhash Ghai has already finalised plans to launch another small, content-driven film to be directed by Ashwini Chaudhary of Dhoop and Siskiyan fame.
Yash Chopra, in the midst of funding routine entertainers like Dhoom 2 and Kunal Kohli’s upcoming film, is planning an offbeat thriller, Kabul Express, to be scripted and directed by Mumbai-based documentary filmmaker Kabir Khan. The film, which will feature Naseeruddin Shah in a key on-screen role, will reportedly roll by the end of the year.
In the wake of last year’s success with My Brother Nikhil, Yashraj Films has also acquired Jahnu Barua’s Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara for distribution. Pritish Nandy Communications, currently readying itself for the release of Ek Haseena Ek Khiladi, will put its lot behind Meghna Gulzar’s second film, Honeymoon.
Small avenues have clearly opened new vistas for big banners. It’s all thanks to Iqbal. It has clicked despite the absence of saleable stars, titillating item numbers and other conventional masala ingredients.