Nitin
Kakkar’s Filmistaan could have very
well carried the Forsterian subtitle to Howard’s
End, “Only Connect”! Alluding to one of the most renowned studios in which
some of the biggest Bombay blockbusters have been shot, Kakkar literally
deploys it as a metaphor for an ‘affective’ site (read, territory) of
connection, which is invisible in the geopolitical map of two warring nations. Bombay
Cinema’s immense power to ‘connect’ people across ethno-territorial borders is
the driving force of the narrative, with film-buff Sunny Arora as protagonist.
Starting from the font of the title (that recalls Sholay) to songs, music and dialogues, Filmistaan unveils populist Bombay Cinema’s far-reaching impact on
the masses, notwithstanding their location, race, or ethnicity. And, what’s extremely
interesting is that Filmistaan very
cunningly merges two very different genres of films: the realistic framework is
often undercut by the over-the-top melodrama, Bombay Cinema is famous for. Sunny
Arora, is pathologically ‘filmy’, and even in the most anxious moments, he
breaks into songs, dialogues and mimicry of Bombay stars. The basic mantra of
Bollywood -- ‘Entertainment, entertainment and entertainment!’ (as Vidya Balan
so seductively puts it in Dirty Picture)
– is what saves Sunny from dying in the hands of his captors.
The film
refers back to several Partition narratives and cross-border terrorism stories,
in which the aam aadmi becomes the unsuspecting
victim of mindless fundamentalism. The concept that borders are but shadow lines
which many micro-histories of individuals have time and again revealed is also
the crux of this film. But, it reiterates the concept in a unique way, by
identifying Bombay Cinema as an affective medium of emotional bonding; that
nothing is really different on the both sides of the barbed wire is reinforced through
the identification that takes place in appreciating films from Bollywood. Aftab
and Sunny become mirror images of each other, and their friendship is
appropriated into Bombay Cinema’s much-celebrated trope of male-bonding: Sholay, Sangam, Namak Haram, Dostana, Saajan, so on and so forth. The ending of the film while strengthening
this bond, also recalls such blockbusters as Gadar: Ek Prem Katha that reached a resolution through a
high-strung dramatic act amid a riot of bullets. The film ends on a tragic
note, for it establishes the Hindustan-Pakistan rivalry as a continuous
phenomenon, which began with the Partition (and even before that) and has never
found a closure since then. As Aftaab and Sunny run towards the fenced borders
with bullet shots following them from behind, the end titles begin to roll,
underscoring the impossibility of a closure.
Filmistaan while celebrating stardom and
glamour, also, very ironically, shows how a good film can be made on the strength
of a good screenplay only, not on the strength of stars. None of the actors are
known faces, yet all of them perform brilliantly. Sharib Hashmi as Sunny is a
very intelligent casting; he brings to his characters the ‘feel-good’-ness of a
crazy film-buff and a simple human being, with a big heart. Inaamulhaq as Aftab
is also extremely powerful, giving Hashmi a stiff competition in several
frames. Kumud Mishra and Gopal Dutt bring to their characters the cold-blooded
ruthlessness that often makes shivers run down the spine.
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