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Relationships in crossover films
Are niche films taking an in-depth view of relationships?
The audience doesn't completely think so. Even if trendily packaged your average youth expects a dose of logic weaved with entertainment. That's why movies like Jhankar Beats click and 71/2 Phere bombs. Audience expectations have not changed because of these films. Says Mr Vivek Singhania, producer of the Hrithik Roshan starrer, Na Tum Jaano Na Hum , "Today's audience demands the same depth and same sensitivity as yesterday's audience. The reason these films click is because the season of feel-good cinema is out. Real portrayals have existed from the beginning, they are back in fashion after a hiatus of about a decade or two."
This new trend doesn't shirk from satire or spoofing anymore. Be it Mumbai Matinee , Split Wide Open or Bollywood Calling. By satiring stereotypes it is changing them. Filmmaker Amal Donwar opines, "Not that it aims at but in the process of moving away from stereotypical portrayal of relationships, these films are changing these set standards. This is what makes the audience identify with them." The hero doesn't have to be handsome anymore neither the heroine drop-dead beautiful. This extends to realistic interactions, tackling realistic problems and getting realistic answers. Character motivations are grey and impulses are not justified by a simple right or wrong.
What is more attractive is that these films deal for the first time with bold themes with a new candidness. Multiplex-going audience is the type who live on healthy doses of the runs and re-runs of Friends and Will and Grace. They are neither new to nor shy from topics such as live-in relationships, pre-marital sex or homosexuality. Sex comedies are more accepted in today's times and the fact that multiplex cinema has more than a dash of it is but a reflection of the times. Mr Donwar celebrates this liberality. He says, "It is healthy to see that these films are increasing transparency among viewers. It takes a liberal and frontal view of sex and issues related to that. India needs to come out of its closet and these films are helping it shake out of it."
There is definitely an attempt to say something new, through a different lens and to a special audience. That it is constrained by external trade factors may add or take away some of the charm of these movies but the fact remains that niche cinema in India is slowly maturing. Be it a bawdy Boom or a classy Mr and Mrs Iyer, niche / multiplex films handling subjects with a human hand is delivering. And forcing mainstream cinema to sit up and take notice. As Mr Dayma puts it succinctly, "It is too early to say what future these kind of films have. But one thing is evident. It is causing lines to blur between mainstream and niche cinema and that is a very good sign."
Fine scripts and touching dialogues may still be hard to come by but niche / multiplex films are talking about you and me and going by audience reactions, not in a very bad way.
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Fatema Kagalwala
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