CINEMA OF THE SOUL
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By Mahesh Bhatt
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There are two kinds of
films. One that comforts the jolted and the other that jolts the
comforted. I have made both these kinds of films over the last forty-odd
years. Films like Naam, Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin, Aashiqui, Raaz, Murder
and Jannat, comforted the jolted. They brought colour and
excitement into weary lives. On the other hand, the films that were
born out of the dark night of my soul, like Arth, Saaransh, Daddy, Janam
and Zakhm, and which defined my brand, tore into the hearts of cinema
goers with ferocity , and made them experience reality like never
before.
At one time the silver screen was a place where human truths were revealed.
Masters like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray used this space to tell their tales and connect with the audiences, using these truths as glue to cement people of different classes together.
That was the Golden Age of Indian Cinema which saw movies like Do Bigha Zameen, Pyaasa, Pather Panchali and many more classics by these masters.
Those were the times when cinema helped people to connect with real issues and through that, to feel less lonely and isolated.
However, for a long time now, the screen has been used as a masking device, behind which human beings hide from their pain. People go to see movies in order to numb themselves from harsher reality , and to escape from their own inner silence by drowning themselves in noise. But those who aspire to escape from the pain of life, land up escaping life altogether. Enduring joy only comes from ploughing through the heart of painland.
A hall full of people sharing human pain connect far deeper with each other than those sharing those manufactured images of other people's joy. In fact, they end up feeling more isolated than ever before.
Hansal Mehta's Citylights is a film that belongs to the category of films which put truths on the table, and dares to touch you with reality rather than fantasy . It is not a `comforting' film. It rips into your apathy and forces you to look at those `invisible people' on whose shoulders the very core of the city rides, with new eyes.
In this age, when we know so much yet feel so little, and where amusing ourselves to death has become our dharma, this moving love story of those extraordinary ordinary people who come from the heartland of India to cities just so that they may survive, manages to reconnect one to those emotional wells within, which we have wilfully walled up.
For all those people who thought that I had stopped making my brand of films, here is one for the soul.
Citylights, produced by Vishesh films,
Dharmaswaroopulu
Maharajashri Anjani Ravishanker Pilla
Office of Dharmaswaroopam or Office of King and Queen
Hyderabad
At one time the silver screen was a place where human truths were revealed.
Masters like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray used this space to tell their tales and connect with the audiences, using these truths as glue to cement people of different classes together.
That was the Golden Age of Indian Cinema which saw movies like Do Bigha Zameen, Pyaasa, Pather Panchali and many more classics by these masters.
Those were the times when cinema helped people to connect with real issues and through that, to feel less lonely and isolated.
However, for a long time now, the screen has been used as a masking device, behind which human beings hide from their pain. People go to see movies in order to numb themselves from harsher reality , and to escape from their own inner silence by drowning themselves in noise. But those who aspire to escape from the pain of life, land up escaping life altogether. Enduring joy only comes from ploughing through the heart of painland.
A hall full of people sharing human pain connect far deeper with each other than those sharing those manufactured images of other people's joy. In fact, they end up feeling more isolated than ever before.
Hansal Mehta's Citylights is a film that belongs to the category of films which put truths on the table, and dares to touch you with reality rather than fantasy . It is not a `comforting' film. It rips into your apathy and forces you to look at those `invisible people' on whose shoulders the very core of the city rides, with new eyes.
In this age, when we know so much yet feel so little, and where amusing ourselves to death has become our dharma, this moving love story of those extraordinary ordinary people who come from the heartland of India to cities just so that they may survive, manages to reconnect one to those emotional wells within, which we have wilfully walled up.
For all those people who thought that I had stopped making my brand of films, here is one for the soul.
Citylights, produced by Vishesh films,
Dharmaswaroopulu
Maharajashri Anjani Ravishanker Pilla
Office of Dharmaswaroopam or Office of King and Queen
Hyderabad
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