Thoughts: On the massy Hindi film experience, big-star films and Judwaa 2

Cinema Person
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read
Judwaa 2

Nothing satisfies me more than watching a good Indian film on the big screen. Even more than walking out of a theatre having watched a brilliant English language film, I am always looking forward to the time when I see a really good or even a semi-good Hindi film. (Just Hindi mostly, because I rarely see films in other languages on the big screen) Something about a good Hindi film experience makes me feel… at home. It makes me feel, “Naaice, our people, apne log, made a great film.”

That’s why I think I loved Pink, Udta Punjab, Fan, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and the recent release Jab Harry Met Sejal as much as I did. These films are not the greatest films ever. They have flaws, rough edges, problematic politics, jagged screenplays, over-exposition, yada, yada, yada. But even a little better than a semi-decent Hindi film makes me damn excited. And I am talking mostly about mainstream films with some star wattage. If I am entering the theatre to watch Trapped or Lipstick Under My Burkha or A Death in the Gunj, I am mostly expecting a cool, composed movie with “international” finesse. Yes, Trapped is brilliant, but I always knew somewhere that it is going to be that good. But when Udta Punjab turned out to be what it was, it blew my mind! I went, fuck, our mainstream cinema is doing this! It’s a giant leap.

Similarly, Jagga Jasoos is a giant leap.

And even if I am not talking of anything groundbreaking, just the sheer joy I get from watching a good ol’ sappy movie about love, friends and family (which is not a Barjatya product) like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani or ADHM or JHMS is hard to rationalise. I really love the gigantic Hindi movie experience. I love the idea of stars, what they represent, and what they bring to the screen. I know that stars will not come out of their shells unless they are seriously threatened as Amitabh Bachchan once was circa the late ’90s. Hence, I cannot really join the new bandwagon of hating on star culture post-JHMS.

So, when I saw Sultan (I saw it in the theatre twice and I loved it) and I got a great, well-made, masala, son-of-the-soil Salman Khan movie, I was thrilled! It was a ‘Salman Khan movie’ done right. A ‘Salman Khan movie’ is like, say, a ‘John Wayne movie’ or a ‘Clint Eastwood movie’. It is a particular kind of experience, and you are either fond of that kind of a movie experience or not. So, Sultan is a well-made ‘Salman Khan movie’ i.e within the trappings necessary for a movie to be a ‘Salman Khan movie’, it had strong characters, solid emotional arcs for the protagonists and masala moments that were on point. For me, Ready or Bodyguard were bad ‘Salman Khan movies’.

I must also add that everyone has their own definition of what constitutes as a good ‘X movie’.

On that note, I have noticed that people who are not in the business of writing about films critically (on a professional level or not) tend to enjoy simplistic, mainstream fare such as these more than those who critique films. But again, I don’t want to make this a critic-vs-masses argument, and all films should be rightfully critiqued. What I am talking about is genuine engagement with Hindi mainstream cinema and enjoying it. I am talking about genuine acceptance of the ‘form’. Of the ‘tone’ in which they operate. Of the ‘pitch’ of the film. In simple terms, liking melodrama. The hyper-exaggeration of a Bhansali or a Johar film. The suspension of disbelief required for a Rohit Shetty or a Shankar film. For example, I didn’t give a fuck about the characters’ occupations or other such roti-kapda-makaan issues in ADHM. Why should I bother myself with such details? I was there to watch some good-looking people fall in love, fall out of love, and feel tormented in between. And I got a great movie!

(I think it is a matter of expectations that I am talking about here. Do I expect something from an ADHM/JHMS, something else from Trapped/Lipstick, and something else from a Hollywood film? Do I have different standards for different films? This deserves a larger post, and I will write it soon. I need to collect my thoughts about it.)

For instance, I didn’t mind the new Judwaa 2 trailer. I don’t mind the old Judwaa too. It’s a certain kind of a movie like the Housefull films. Yes, I am not going to go buy a ticket and watch the Housefull films, but when such cinema i.e star-studded slapstick comedy is done really well, it gives us something like the first Dhamaal film or the first Golmaal film. You need to be a serious grouch to not enjoy films like that. Either that or you are a post-2000s kid. I have grown up on the idiom of nonsensical cinema like Gopi Kishan and Ishq and, well, Judwaa. It’s difficult for me to not be able to engage with something like that on the spot.

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