Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Resolution Week / Film A resolution for 2012: Watch more Indian movies
Posted by Ben Sachs on 01.04.12 at 08:00 AM
Now that I write about movies for a living, I have little excuse to remain ignorant about the world’s second-largest film industry. For that matter, I have little excuse to remain ignorant about India, period, as it’s home to one-seventh of the world’s population and one of the oldest cultures on the planet. And since this culture evolved for thousands of years in relative isolation, its traditions and social mores can seem impenetrable to an outside observer. Yet the same can be said of Japanese culture, which I found increasingly fascinating as I watched more Japanese films. I hope that spending more time with Indian cinema will yield a similar result.
The few Ray films I've watched in the past month presented me with images of the Bengali middle-class, of which I’d known practically nothing, and they’ve challenged my reductive concept of Indian culture as insulated. Indeed, a 1984 documentary on Ray (included on the Criterion Collection’s superb new reissue of The Music Room) features the great director discussing the influence of Italian, French, and American movies on his work. From the little I’ve read about Ritwik Ghatak, another great Bengali filmmaker, I suspect this Western influence is not uncommon among Indian directors.
The earthiness of Ray’s films—regardless of whether the setting is rural or urban—reflects a distinctly non-Western concept about human beings’ relationship with nature. And the spectacular musical numbers of 1978’s Don (my first introduction to Bollywood cinema, thanks to a recent screening at Logan Square’s The Whistler) emphasize different aspects of performance than I’m used to seeing in Hollywood musicals. In short, these films offer a way of seeing the world that I haven’t engaged with much. The fact that I can discover this perspective through entertaining two-to-three hour sessions is a reminder of why I love movies in the first place.
This year, I want to catch up, finally, with this subcontinent's film history. And I’d like to go outside my small comfort zone of Ray and Ghatak. Given the number of Indian video stores around Devon Avenue (and the number of Indian classics in the Chicago Public Library’s movie collection), I know this won’t be difficult. If there are any Indian movie buffs reading this, feel free to drop me a line with any recommendations. The only title Ahmed told me to check out was Don, and I’ve seen that one now.
Read more from Resolution Week:
"NBA resolution: Walk less, not more" by Ted Cox
"Once burned, thrice shy" by Kate Schmidt
"Say you want a resolution?" by Tony Adler
"Rahm swears off swearing for 2012" by Steve Bogira
"Nixon, Mayor Rahm, Herman Cain, and Pam Grier—only in the Reader!" by Ben Joravsky
Comments (3)
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I wouldn't recommend anything produced after the 80's. Being an Indian and living in India, I hardly bother with them. I watch a couple of best reviewed popular movies a year which are usually some the worst of the year. I suppose these are the reasons I keep avoiding older Bollywood movies.
But from what I've seen, I would definitely recommend Mughal-e-Azam and films by Guru Dutt. Also, Sholay is probably the most popular Indian film and I've been meaning to watch it. You should try to find that.
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dislikeI'd second 'Sholay,' a terrific shaggy-dog crime thriller that I liked a lot. Also, 'Taal' is an A.R. Rahman musical with Aishwarya Rai that's also very good. You'll discover that a lot of mainstream Indian films routinely run over three hours; it doesn't bug me, but it's notable.
If you want a challenge, try watching the 10+ different remakes of Devdas. The most recent one (with Aishwarya Rai) is now the most well-known and visually stunning of them all, but the others might be more difficult to find. And how could you get a Bollywood education without watching the early work of Amitabh Bachchan, or films with music composed by O.P. Nayyar? There's always the bewildering Dil Se, and if you haven't made it 'round to Ray's Charulata, you should. Just please disregard Slumdog Millionaire's pitiful misappropriations of Indian culture and your journey will be most fruitful.
