By Hindustan Times
When you close up your eyes and recall to mind celluloid romance, what do you imagine? Shah Rukh serenading Kajol in Punjab’s mustard fields and Switzerland’s peaks in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge? Or Manoj Bajpai ogling Reema Sen’s cleavage as she washes clothes at a hand-pump in Gangs of Wasseypur I?
The latter may well be far far from our big-city reality, something Bollywood filmmakers have shied clear of for a very long time. Yet, because the new crop of flicks show, they’re not within the background of urban consciousness.
The aspirations and imagery of small town India are being played out on celluloid like never before. While Mumbai remains to be the filmmakers’ muse, the action has shifted to Delhi during the last few years. But now, the industry’s lens has zoomed even further inward. Shyam Benegal’s Welcome To Sajjanpur (2008) was set in a fictitious village in central India. Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur I and II is rooted in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar (2012) finds its hero in Chambal, Madhya Pradesh. Abhishek Chaubey’s Ishqiya (2010) sees much of its action in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and Habib Faisal’s Ishaqzaade (2012) gives Almor (a fictitious village in UP), its three hours of fame.
The films is also set within the hinterland, but are nothing just like the stereotypical village stories of old Bollywood – no village belles in short, ghera skirts; no tales of famine, and positively no dancing on crushed glass. This time, the locations are real, the plots believable, the main points authentic. It’s a global where the brand new idea of entertainment is Huma Qureshi telling Nawazuddin, “Permeeson to lo! Aise kaise touch karoge?” in small-town Hinglish. It’s changing the way in which the stories are being told, and bigger cities seem to be lapping it up. “We are bored with living our cinematic dreams abroad,” says author and movie critic Anupama Chopra. “Filmmakers have explored the world, set stories and characters in Ny and London and anywhere else fancy. This idea has done its time.”
Small towns, big money
So movies, with a rural semi-realistic setting, are giving the urban viewer something different. We’re finally waking as much as the truth that there are villages outside of Punjab. We're enjoying the stories although what's depicted is way far from what we've experienced in cities. And the box office proves this.
Tomar“One of the primary films we did that told the tale of the hinterland India in a near-real setting was Welcome To Sajjanpur (2008), says Rucha Pathak, senior creative director at Disney UTV Studios. “It was Shyam Benegal’s biggest grosser.” Four years later, UTV, still cautious, released only limited prints of Paan Singh Tomar. It was only after the film began to pick up through word-of-mouth, that they released more prints, making the film a runaway hit. “Authenticity does entice people,” Pathak admits, explaining how the majority of the revenue came first from big cities after which from smaller ones. “The former contributed to the success of the movie.” Pathak has an evidence: migration of individuals from little towns to the cities with whom these movies resonate.
These are individuals who reply to a distinct roughly story. “They would not, even now, understand proms and live-ins. It’s an international they don’t know and an entire lot of it, they don’t even aspire for,” says Chopra. Adding, “Now, the film industry desires to cater to everyone. Everyone desires to get into the `100-crore club. They would like to attract the individual sitting in Dhanbad in addition to Delhi. And reaching out to a much broader audience is the key.” This explains the hot acclaim for Bhojpuri cinema and why mainstream movies now happily include dialogues reminiscent of, “Tumhara pyaar, pyar; mera pyar sex,” (from Ishqiya) or risqué lyrics such as “I am a hunter, she desires to see my gun,” (from Gangs Of Wasseypur 1). And it explains why young India – even the massive city folks – is parroting them. The song Keh Ke Lunga, from Wasseypur, as an example is as well liked by radio jingles because it is with students ribbing their friends at the train.
Agents of change
KaranOne cause of this shift in sensibilities is the brand new crop of directors, producers and scriptwriters that small town India is importing to Bollywood. (See box on directors from small towns, Page 10). “Seventeen years ago, the entire directors were over 50 years old and so were the assistant directors,” explains Chopra. “Now, anyone who has an excellent idea can crack it. The brand new breed of filmmakers is telling stories the one way it knows it, changing the language of cinema.”
It’s a departure from the blockbusters that filmmakers like Aditya Chopra has been putting out since Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995). Those films told universal tales of romance and painted syrupy fantasies. “When I USED TO BE making Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), for me, the high point was having my actors wear brands like DKNY,” said Karan Johar at the NDTV show Picture This. “It was something I had aspired for while growing up and that's what reflected in my film,” added Johar.
Dhulia agrees: “The ‘Bandra boys’ show what they’ve seen. The brand new filmmakers from smaller towns express what they’ve experienced.” He adds that Bollywood, like print and television news, holds a mirror to society. “Smaller towns are making newspaper headlines. Corruption, scams, murders, political intrigue, even stories of caste and love, are emerging from smaller places. And that’s why the shift, even in movies,” he says. “So you've gotten Shanghai (2012) telling a narrative of corruption in a small town, Gangs Of Wasseypur telling considered one of revenge, Ishqiya of a lust triangle and Ishaqzaade of caste politics and love.
Devil is within the details
“You need to be real, there is not any other way,” says Dhulia, explaining the name of the game to successful small-town storytelling. So important is authenticity for these directors, that at times, they defy urban logic. “Many people have asked me that whilst everyone within the film is ageing, why doesn’t the one that sings in two voices also age?” says Kashyap in regards to the Wasseypur films. “These small town singers care about their looks. They dye their hair regularly. If you happen to look carefully below his eyes, you will see that the wrinkles.” Also, the landscapes of those films wouldn't feature a spiral staircase or a bungalow that might have cropped up within the older movies. Instead there are dilapidated houses on a hectic street – recreated from childhood memories of the small town filmmaker himself.
Of course, for each Gangs Of Wasseypur that strives to get a way of realism, there's a Bol Bachchan that recreates a picture-perfect cosmetic village which might be anywhere in India. But we can’t ignore the shift.
Locale flavour emerges
It’s no fun recreating locations in studios, points out Dhulia. For this breed of filmmakers, everything have to be as with regards to reality as possible. For Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster (2011), Dhulia could only discover a haveli he liked in Gujarat. The issue was that the tale was set in Uttar Pradesh. “I was worried in regards to the local crowd that will be within the background,” he recalls. “But because Baria was with reference to Madhya Pradesh, we found people walking around within the typical UP kurta pyjama.”
To make Paan Singh Tomar authentic as possible, the crew shot within the ravines of Chambal and filmed a couple of parts within the cantonment area of Roorkee, Uttarakhand. The shoot was tough. The crew needed to park their vanity vans two hours clear of the set, on the fringe of the ravine, and use smaller cars to travel backward and forward. There has been no power or bathrooms. “Mahie Gill would go where the opposite village women were going. It will rain at inordinate times,” recalls Pathak of UTV.
IshqiyaLike any Prakash Jha film, which was instrumental in putting Bihar on Bollywood’s map, Ishqiya was actually shot in Wai, Maharashtra. This is a small town located some 300 km from Mumbai that appears very similar to a village in north India. For Ishqiya, cheaper, safer, less complicated Wai was came about as Gorakhpur, UP. It looks more realistic than a collection and “even the villagers have an in depth resemblance to these in north India,” says Ishqia director Abhishek Chaubey.
Characters get real
For your film to be convincing as a small town tale, you can’t have a good-looking, polished, Mumbai boy dancing to songs within the background or filling up the dramatis personae. Dhulia picked actors hailing from the northern India to play Paan Singh Tomar’s gang members. “One of the opposite characters, the leader of another gang, was picked up from Chambal itself. He isn't a trained actor. In fact, he was helping us across the area and he proved brilliant within the film,” says Pathak.
Then, there are the little flourishes that urban India may not recognise, but Tier III towns and villages will find familiar in no time. Launda nach, an obscene dance that the groom and his friends perform before a wedding, is as common within the hinterland as a bachelor party can be in Delhi or Mumbai. Loudspeaker announcements a couple of wedding, an approaching enemy or something as banal as a brand new soap brand are as common as Twitter is in urban India, points out Zeishan Quadri, actor and scriptwriter for Gangs Of Wasseypur.
Costumes cut to the chase
For Vidya Balan’s character in Ishqiya, Chaubey reportedly asked his costume designer to select polyester sarees that looked pretty, yet weren't something a lady in urban India would wear. To make the ladies characters of Wasseypur look true to character, Kashyap gave Richa Chadda worn-out sweaters torn in some places, and in addition gave Huma Qureshi salwar suits that indicated she was a Madhuri Dixit fan and had emulated her fashion sense in some way most fans copy actors’ clothes in small town India.
Lingo goes cool And if the look is so painstakingly authentic, why wouldn’t the lines be too? Directors have worked hard to recreate the mispronunciations, the dialect, the colloquialisms and the quirky turns of phrase which can be dead giveaways to the towns they're set in. “Mera haath tujhe yaad kar kar ke thak gaya” Nawazuddin teases his wife within the typical Wasseypurish way. Contrast this with “You really hate me, na? And that i love that,” that Saif tells Diana Penty in Cocktail and it becomes clear just how well two opposite realities of India at the moment are unfolding at the Indian screen.
Quadri, who has written the movie together with Anurag Kashyap and two others, has imparted local flavour with dialogues like “Yeh Wasseypur hai. Yahan kabootar bhi ek pankh se udta hai, aur dusre se apna ijjat bachata hai.” He's unapologetic in regards to the profanities within the film. “Characters abuse one another all of the time, even for fun. That’s the best way friends there talk. We might not say to every other, ‘You wish to opt for coffee?”. We'd rather say ‘B###### ke, chalna hai?”.
So will this modification the best way Bollywood depicts the opposite India? Not necessarily, points out trade analyst Komal Nahta. “A Cocktail continues to be bringing in additional money. It’s a passing trend as films are about good-looking people, places and larger-than-life aspirations. There'll be exceptions. These films are only the vision of some directors.” Wonder whether the Wasseypur gang has any choice words in response?
Director Kabeer Kaushik
Directors From small towns
* Vishal Bharadwaj: The filmmaker, composer, singer was born in Bijnor, raised in Meerut.
* Anurag Kashyap: The filmmaker, born in Gorakhpur, grew up in Varanasi.
* Tigmanshu Dhulia: The writer, director, actor was pointed out in Allahabad.
* Raj Kumar Gupta: The writer, director (NOBODY Killed Jessica), comes from Hazaribagh in Bihar.
* Abhishek Chaubey: The Ishqiya director went to college in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh
* Kabeer Kaushik: Writer, director (Maximum) has grown up in Patna in addition to Delhi.
* Rajesh Mapuskar: The director of Ferrari Ki Sawaari was raised in Shrivardhan village, Maharashtra.
A slice of reality
Wasseypur* Director Anurag Kashyap made sure that a few establishing scenes of Gangs of Wasseypur I and II were shot in Wasseypur and the remainder in Benares (as regards to the true Wasseypur).
* Real incidents inspired the films’ scripts. The nature on whom Faisal Khan (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is based, continues to be alive and kicking in Wasseypur.
The other India
* Details in Gangs of Wasseypur II, akin to Nawazuddin’s fascination with Amitabh Bachchan, Huma emulating Madhuri Dixit and Definite aping Salman Khan are typical of kids in Tier-III cities.
* Dialogues and lyrics are kept as true to the local dialect as possible. Zeishan Quadri, born and taken up in Wasseypur, was answerable for bringing in the various authentic flavour.
Carbine copy
* To make Paan Singh Tomar as as regards to reality as a film can be, it was shot within the ravines of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh.
Paan * Paan Singh’s gang’s costumes were picked from the Chippi Tola market in Agra that sells used NCC uniforms. The garments were rubbed with sandpaper and crushed and made dirty to cause them to look the best way they did.
Blending in
* Unlike the glamourous Vyjayanthimala in Ganga Jamuna (1961), Mahie Gill’s make-up in Paan Singh Tomar made her seem like another village woman. Even while the shooting was on, the locals thought Gill was one among them, says Rucha Pathak of UTV.
* Fido Sachin Lovalekar, the film’s costume designer, picked up saris for Mahie Gill (below, centre) from Dholpur, near Madhya Pradesh’s Chambal region
Drawstrin Inc
* Peepli Live was shot in Badwai, Bihar, to illustrate the plight of a poor farmer, in step with director Anusha Rizwi.
* The roughly stitched crotch of Nathadas’ pants is as real as they come.
Desi is chic
* Vidya Balan made a statement, draped in sarees picked up from Meerut in Ishqiya
* The movie was shot in Wai, a small town in Maharashtra, with reference to Mumbai. The villagers could pass off as North Indians.
Yuva speak
* Parts of Ishaqzaade, shot in Hardoi and Lucknow, were occurred as Almor, a fictitious town in Uttar Pradesh, where the movie is set.
* The protagonist couple speak in a mixture of broken English and choicest Hindi abuses, which teenagers in small towns can relate to.
Learn the Hinterland lingo:
Here are a couple of specimens of the brand new cool lingo - straight from the hinterland. It's fast becoming the joys language of the urban youth too. For more, you'll have to watch the films.
1. Gaggle: [Gaag-gal] Goggles: These are my new Armani gaggles.
2. Sikari: [See-car-ee] Man at the prowl for a girl: He’s this kind of sikari. Always on the lookout for a lady to hit on.
3. Kahe: [Kaa-hey] Why: Kahe are you being so excited?
4. Ishqzaade: [Eesh-aaq-zaa-dee] Aka lovers or a pair: Only Ishqzaades are seen in Lodhi gardens post 6.
5. Katta: [Ka-tta] Local made gun: The good weapon to possess nowadays: America's laws at the katta makes people very at risk of gun violence.
6. Kamina/kaminey: Is the brand new ‘bastard’: Does wonders to the cathartic process: That kamina was troubling me for days. He just wouldn’t stop calling.
7. Prem nisaniya: [Prem-nee-sa-niya] Love bite: My colleague came to office with a prem nisaniya. She appears to be getting a large number of action.
8. Womaniya: [Woo-man-ee-ya] Sexy woman: She’s this type of womaniya. Makes my heart beat faster.
9. Baagi: [Baa-gee] The ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ method to describe someone who stands up or revolts against the system: He doesn’t care about what his boss says. He’s a baagi yaar.
