1) Anurag Kashyap
2) Vishal Bhardwaj
3) Dibakar Banerjee
All three of them have had different level of successes in last few years, but one thing that has been common is critical appreciation that has been bestowed upon them by critics and people who have seen their movies. They all operate with small budget, have really good ear for music, relatively unknown star cast, realistic movies, and in a way they make movies which have real people, not heroes and heroines. I am just going to try to explain what I like and what I do not about each one of them, and who I think is the best among some of the finest directors of India.
1) Anurag Kashyap: I saw his Black Friday, No Smoking, Gulaal, and Dev D. Black Friday was one of the most talked about movie when I first saw it. Banned in India, selected in countless film festivals, with very interesting premise, based on the real incidents before and after the Mumbai blasts of 1993. It was like a documentary, the way camera was part of the conspiracy, even and finally the crackdown, the way tension of criminals involved was shown, it was so realistic. It was as if you were watching events of that horrible day unfolding in front of your eyes. Taking the best out of his actors, Anurag was delivering the movie like anything till first half. After the bomb blasts, may be due to lack of content, or whatever, movie starts dragging. Things stop moving, and everything appears confusing. I think that problem of Anurag can be seen in probably all his movies.
No Smoking was another confused effort, it had sparks of brilliance, an Alif Laila kinda world, a fantasy story going on in front of your eyes, what is real what is not, you have no idea about it. While watching the movie it was like OMG whats gonna happen next, even actor like John Abraham was acting, yes ACTING, but then again after interval it kinda lost the way. Movie appeared like a drag, and it started confusing me, by the time it ended, I had no idea what happened, why and what was the purpose of the movie.
Dev D and Gulaal are the most accomplished movies of Anurag till date, they had a purpose, the style, the content everything was clear to audience, and I think to Anurag as well. Gulaal dealt with the politics at state and cllege level in Rajasthan, the separatists movement of Raajputs, confused kids of college, and how they are used by people higher up the hierarchy. Dev D also dealt with a youth in all kinda problems, sex, drugs, prostitution, alcohol, ego, arrogance, journey of a guy. Dev D and Gulaal were antithesis in a way that Gulaal had a perfectly fine guy ruining his life for a girl, whereas in Dev D it was a guy who lost the track of his life for a girl gets back on track again with the help of a girl.
One thing which I noticed in Anurag's work is, I guess I realized while talking to Rikky on SB, that he makes woman characters of his movies very strong. For example, Kay in NS is weak, addicted to smoking, not able to keep a check on himself, arrogant and fool, Ayesha on the other hand is wise, smart, caring but extremely strong woman who leaves her husband. Similar in Gulaal you see woman characters almost toying with "alpha malish" characters of the movie. Even in Dev D, its woman characters of the movie influencing the hero of the movie, Dev. First when Dev tries to play cool with Paro, she leaves him in a heartbeat and gets herself settled very nicely in her new home with her husband, who is richer, better and even a better lover (in Paro's words), whereas Dev goes on the path of self destruction. Then he finds his savior in Chanda, who had been through hell, and is going through hell, a girl who gets her MMS leaked to the whole world, even her father, again a male, commits suicide from the shame, but she, even being a teenager, fights the situation, and give inspiration to Dev to change his life as well.
In a system where heroes save the day with his one punch while heroine is busy singing in the pool, Anurag is very different director from his contemporaries. His way is not subtle, he is not scared to do what he likes, he has his own take on things and not scared to tell that to everyone.
2) Vishal Bhardwaj: I just saw Omkara and Kaminey of his. Thought Omkara was a masterpiece by him, he extracted performances out of Vivek Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan. Taking Othello and blending it with rural India was a stroke of genius, and all that so seamlessly. From dialogs to direction to music, everything was super in this movie. The realistic feel of the movie made it look scary honestly, that so easily so much of hell can be created by just one man.
Kaminey was even better in a way that he made Shahid Kapoor act, and act so well. Again a movie which is based on confusion and accidents, VB does a great job. Movie has a swift pace, strong premise, good songs, but in the end it stutters like Guddu. I think VB suddenly had an urgency to wrap up everything and pretty quick. Because nothing explains such a decent movie ending like that. It was almost like a Priyadarshan movie. Movie's success also owes a lot to its soundtrack and spl Dhan tana, which was TBH lifted from an old American TV series I guess Get smart.
3) Dibakar Banerjee: The most inexperienced of the trio, and for me, the best one out there. Why? Because no one in the whole BW industry has made movies about common man the way Dibakar has. Look at Khosla ka Ghosla, the way this movie deals with the issue of land mafia in Delhi, its amazing. See the scene where a pehelwan, wrestler of sorts, stops Anupam and his son from entering into his own plot, the way he talks, accent, dialog, everything just scaringly real. Now see character of Boman Irani, his entry as a Vaishno Mata devotee, what a gem of a scene, and how freakin realistic. There is probably no property dealer in Delhi who is not vaishno devi bhakt. How the land scams are done, how property is illegaly acquired, and sold, everything like he himself has gone through it. A story of a middle class man who just wants to own a home, son who wants to escape to US, wife who is torn between son and family, thats what I call, DELHI. The sense of humor in the movie is so amazing, satiric, slapstick, self deprecating, everything is amazing in the movie, and even the songs, amazingly Delhite.
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Dibakar's second movie, though I never found as good as first, but again a tale of a man with nothing, just trying to run towards things he always dreamed of, much like Anupam Kher in Khosla... only difference is that here Abhay is not scared to take whatever route he has to to get there. If in Khosla, Anupam had all relations with him, he was chasing for material stuff, like a plot, in OLLO, Abhay was stealing these material items to get relations. Like the scene where he says that he will give 2 lakhs to his brother if he comes in his marriage. based on a real super chor of Delhi, OLLO again puts city alive on screen. From the little streets of Lucky's childhood, to big plush neighborhoods he moves to later on, everything was like real world. It was a tale of Abhay trying to find a father figure in 3 people he came across, his own father, crook he works for, and then crook who cheats him in the end, was as real as it was sad. In the end when Lucky was arrested, he had 1000s of sarees, stereo systems, TVs, radios, watches, cars, everything, but no one to bail him out, and he runs away in a dark street in the end. Dibakar again gives an amazingly real account of a real chor in such an interesting way, its tough to take your eyes off of it.
Finally moving to Dibakar's best, Love Sex aur Dhoka. A real low budget, small movie, which shook me off in a big way. It dealt with 3 of the most common news items in newspapers nowdays, sadly enough. Honor Killings, MMS scandals, and casting couch. It shows how cameras have entered in our homes, and how they are changing things for the whole society. A movie divided in three parts, all connected to each other in some way, it was as real of a movie as I have ever seen. The scene where a young couple is brutally killed, cut into pieces and filled in a bag, man, it was like terrifying. Even if I describe that scene here, I think it would be too violent. Second part had an innocent girl whose video clip while having intimate relationship with her BF was made public, by her very own BF, all for just Rs 40,000. And how at the end of the part, girl goes missing, with even her parents refusing to know anything about her, and guy getting ahead and marrying some other girl., it showed the not so hidden but hideous face of the society for which guys are studs and girls are sluts. In the final part of the movie again it shows how women are handled by those in power, whether that be media, or people of showbiz. And finally how a camera rescues her and finally gives her some success.
LSD was surely a movie which showed the vulnerability of women, seen as honor, cash cow or just a medium of entertainment by the male dominated society.
I think as a storyteller, director, visionary I will put Dibakar ahead of both AK and VB. The way Dibakar showed us our image in his work, I believe no one has in entire film industry, not in last decade or so at least. Dibakar makes us laugh on ourself, makes us pity on ourselves and in LSD he made us hate ourselves for our actions. Clearly a winner for me, and not one of the most, but surely the most talented director of hindi movie industry today, yes ahead of Raju Hirani.
If we have to take Raju Hirani as the "default" to compare others to, it is a crying shame. After a decent debut with the first Munnabhai (which seemed very Patch Adam-ish), he hasn't done anything noteworthy if you ignore the box office takings of those movies.
ReplyDeleteBoth Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots come across so cheesy and corny, the same jokes stretched into oblivion for the nth time. How can something make you sick of Gandhi? Watch Lage Raho, that's how.
I fear for the "intellectual" school kids making movies like 3 Idiots such big hits by laughing at peeing jokes and butts swinging and the hindi word for "rape" said over and over. I fear for comedy itself as well. To put it mildly, I would even rather watch Chris Rock, crass as he may be, than these excuses for comedy.
hahahahaha yes you are right in a way that Raju seems to dumb down the content a lot, he make movies for the lowest common denominator, kinda "steals" the script while trying to ask everyone to get original.
ReplyDeleteBut honestly, he is the most successful director of India, he connects to the people, and honestly I think his movies have better content than say most of the BW is producing by the name of SIK, Blue, Ghajini, OSO, Dhoom....
About these three, yes, I think they all are superior to Raju in talent, but in success? I really doubt that.
Dibakar as its rare that i like 2 back to back movies of a director, Khosla and OLLO.
ReplyDeleteThough agreed, that all 3 are very good.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone of you filmiblogging on IFM forums, I am kanwal there.
ReplyDeleteNice analysis! I think Vishal is head and shoulders above the other two. Watch his Maqbool and The Blue Umbrella - he does not miss a beat. Even Kaminey - his weakest, is still eminently watchable and enjoyable. I think he will emerge as a great producer too, his Ishqiya was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI liked Dibakar's KKG but it was Jaideep Sajni's script. OLLO was a much weaker film.
Anurag Kashyap's Gulaal I liked a lot, rest left me cold. Well Black Friday was an accomplished reportage type film but I could not like Dev D at all.
Pardesi, I don't think Jaideep can be a reason to dismiss Dibakar in KKG, if yes, then why not dismiss VB because lets see, Maqbool-Macbeth, Omkara-Othello, Kaminey was not exactly any good movie.
ReplyDeleteIn my own opinion, OLLO, was not only much better movie, but also way more layered and complex than Kaminey. For example, Kaminey was just story of a crook, how he gets his hands on probably biggest "jackpot" by accident. Whereas OLLO was not only a story of a thief, but story of a human being, with relations, with money, with friends. Like see the scene where Lucky is giving money to his GF for her household expenses but his GF tells him that she doesn't touch his money ever, because its wrong money, see how Dibakar shows so many faces of people, a person who has problem even touching money from shady business, has no issues spending that money on herself and her family. He had to bribe his own brother to attend his marriage, his childhood friends cheats him time and again, and he still has no one else to trust but him. He knows that he is being duped time and again, but he goes back to same people, because he has no one else. Such complexities of life, I do not think VB ever even attempted to show.
I think after Dibakar I would pick Anurag, because even his movies have dealt with much more complexities than VB has.
TS once said about Anurag, which I thnk is very true "he is trying to find his voice" As if he doesn't know himself what he wants to make, he has no set style, or type, or genre, may be he is trying to be versatile, but he comes out more as confused.
ReplyDeleteOh Doga, yes, I am on IFM :D I will keep Kanwal in mind now :D
ReplyDeleteI was not very impressed with OLLO. Once the teenage Sardar actor left and Abhay Deol came in OLLO began to flatten out. And it was highly predictable. Still it was a decent effort, but KKG was a fantastic effort. I can watch it any time, and OLLO - once was enough for me.
ReplyDeleteAbout VB and adapting great stories - do not forget that Bhansali tried to adapt Dostoyevsky in Saawariya, and even Aisha ia an adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma! It is not so easy to adapt to Indian circumstances and get a good product. Both Maqbool and Omkara were fantastic adaptations!
I think there is confusion here between "auteur" directors and directors who present on screen material written by someone else. Once Dibakar directs a story by Jaideep Sahni (KKG) or Anurag directs a story adapted from Bengali literature (DevD), they are really no different from Shakespeare adaptations!
As an original writer Kashyap is quite good - he was the writer for Yuva, Satya many other films! I found Kaminey to be a nice story - though identical twins is a bit played out theme. Both OLLO and LSD have another writer who is credited - so I do not know what Dibakar's writing credentials are.
As an aside - I have always felt that Indian directors want to portray themselves as auteurs and stretch themselves and grab content that belongs to others. Why not adapt good stories? There is no dearth of decent literature that could be made into films.
Bhansali I think is a very overhyped director, his efforts I see shallow, long and boring. I had the same feelings when I saw Khamoshi, Devdas or even Saawariya, never could muster enough courage to sit through Black. His HDDCS was his only good effort.
ReplyDeleteAbout Aisha, well, it was never attempted as any adaptation but just more like a fashion show I guess.
VB, I never can doubt on his directorial skills, still has not shown any great promise in original stories, I guess even Blue Umbrella was Ruskin Bond.
Dibakar also has this one problem, all his movies, no matter how good, all are Delhi based. May be he connects with the city more and is at ease while showing a story of a Delhite.
Ishqiya is Vishal B's screenplay. So is Makdee and I think those two are originals and very fine efforts.
ReplyDeleteAisha was a stated attempt to adapt Emma. What it turned into is another story.
I didn't like Ishquia a lot, and I think we can see from its BO, not many did either.
ReplyDeleteMakdee, again I was not impressed at all, may be as a genuine effort for a one of kid's movie, it was fine, but as such I don't think it was any big effort anyways.
Aisha, I do not even think was an earnest effort to make anything other than what they actually came out with. India is not a market of some intellectual or classic cinema, just light hearted movies which pretends to be dealing with social cause is the key here.
Thanks for providing list of dofollow blog.
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