Guess Filmmaking Intent

Long ago, I remember arguing with a friend about what made a 'good' film a good film and what didn't. Both of us watched and liked different films. He had little exposure to World Cinema and I found most American films consumer-focussed, shallow and unsatisfying.

I didn't agree with his point of view that validation of the box office or awards determined the merit of a film. Half the reason was that movies I loved neither made it to the blockbuster list nor did they win their deserved share of awards. I was quite sure that some of these films, which moved me or compelled me to think deeper than I usually do, had something powerful going for it. What I couldn't fathom was how these blockbuster films and their crew and cast beat these other films to the awards. The jury and the process seemed highly questionable. Earlier I was too naive about the idea of awards. Look around and see the number of film awards these days and you'll understand why. 

I appreciated 'good' artistic films even when I was 13 or 14 years old. I watched films by Ray, Bergman, Tarkovsky, John Ford, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and so on when viewing films wasn't fashionable or even an intellectual pursuit. Then, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a director or for that matter 'artistic' films. I got exposed to these films as my father watched them late nights on Doordarshan. I suspect he enjoyed the erotic content. He didn't mind me watching as long as I covered my eyes when these 'hot' scenes came up. I didn't miss anything because I left enough space between my fingers to see what the fuss was all about. I think those cover-your-face instructions were for mom's benefit. She'd be shocked and scandalised if she caught me watching nude adults kissing or making out. As life went on, I found myself drawn to films that had been  condemned at the box office turnstiles due to the lack of 'masala'.  

What is interesting was that that my admiration for films didn't arise out of an iota of intellectual aspiration. Though I could not articulate my feelings, I felt for these films and found it baffling when people said they didn't understand them. Along the way I saw a pattern-European films and regional and Hindi films that dealt with real subjects and issues that were being aired on Doordarshan on Saturday or Sunday afternoons were making an impact on my consciousness. I learnt that many of these afternoon films were National Awards winners. So National Award winning films became my source of enjoyable films. 

Later these awards and recognitions began to be fiercely vied for and were guiding the shape of films that were being made. Filmmakers deliberately made films that were needlessly slow paced or chose such subjects. The more dense a film was, the brighter the chances it were for it being heaped with recognition. Then, the Oscars briefly became another way of sourcing good films for me. But even that ceased to make sense after some time. Then I recognised that the Cannes Film Festival was attracting fabulous films. Even though Cannes continues to showcase the type of films I like, it was getting mixed up. It took me a while to realise that when commerce came into the picture the types of films I enjoyed dwindled or were getting sidelined. Somewhere the idea of 'good' films and filmmakers began to corrupt my experience of watching films. 

All this while, during my growing years, my favourite Hindi actors were Dharmendra and Mithun Chakravarthy. I loved watching the incredibly handsome and macho Dharmendra and dancing moves of Mithun Chakravarthy. I watched everything that was possible with my limited 'pocket money' with or without my parents. Regrettably I didn't watch Amitabh Bacchan films at the height of his stardom simply because I was a die-hard Dharmendra loyalist and many of Amitabh's films were deemed Adults by the Censor Board. In the late 80s and 90s, it became  impossible to watch a Mithun or Dharmendra film because of the sheer number of inane films that they featured in. That's when I tried to discover Amitabh Bachchan. 

I watched Shahenshah after great anticipation, then Toofan, Jadugar and Agneepath, all of which made me squirm in my seat through most of it. 

Then, when Main Azaaad Hoon was released, I went to a multiplex theatre in Vashi to watch it. At the ticket counter, I had cold feet due to my contemporary Amitabh film experience and changed my mind. I decided to watch an older Amitabh film, The Great Gambler which was re-released and was playing at the same multiplex, the same week. That turned out to be a horrible decision. I was terribly disappointed. Even to this day, I feel that the reels may have been mixed up or missing during the screening. Else how does it explain the superstar acting in such a poor film. In any case, the experience was too awful and I understood that I had missed the Amitabh bus. 

Another handsome dude whose films drew me to the theatre was Sanjay Khan. I was deeply saddened when he suffered major burns during the shooting of the teleserial The Sword of Tipu Sultan.  

I squirmed again when I saw Maine Pyaar Kiya one night at my college canteen with my friend. This friend did not like Hindi films because of what I believe were 'bad' Hindi film experiences. I was attempting to play an evangelist for his new 'good' Hindi film experience. So while the film played, my friend cursed the film so much that I tried to blend into the steel aluminium chair as I saw logic being massacred. Strangely enough, I went on to see the film seven times. Considering my limited resources that funded my voracious film appetite, it was a lot. Maine Pyaar Kiya is one of my favourite film experiences of all time. Those days, everywhere I went, I heard its songs. I was mesmerised by the voice of the singer, who represented singing voice of the young Bhagyashree. I was so smitten by the voice that in  my youthful fantasy, I swore (given an opportunity) I would lip lock with the singer, who I thought was a young woman. To my dismay, it turned out to be a more than middle-aged singer, who had held the nation to ransom with her voice for 30-40 odd years-Lata Mangeshkar. Obviously except for the inescapable Kishore Kumar, I hadn't been paying attention to singers in Hindi movies. I became her fan and fortunately haven't been disappointed like I have been with other artistes. There's a lot more I'd like to say about heroes, heroines, cast and crew who made watching films a pleasure but it will be diverging from what I began to explain. So I'll hold that for later.

Coming back to the argument about what a good movie was all about-over the years-I reluctantly began to understand with the help of my friend that what we argue about in our claims of what good movies are, is actually based on our personal likes and dislikes. When we like or dislike movies, we create articulation to validate our point of view. This has little to do with the merit of the film. And this disease is as rampant among the crust of film commentators-the 'so-called critics' as it is among us. 

To love movies in general irrespective of genre, type, etc, then to be able to spontaneously react to them, then to be able to be thoroughly informed about them and then to be able to interact with that information in order to the capture the changing dynamics of the craft and the world as it is and then to be able to articulate it and destroy the articulation and re-articulate it is (my opinion) what qualifies a person to determine the quality of a movie. Such people don't exist.

So, are we left with no way to measure a film? I think there is a way to make the task more objective. I remember a filmmaker saying something to the effect that even if he were able to execute 60% of what he set out to make, he'd be satisfied. That also implied being ambitious, not setting low targets. So for a while now, I have been paying little heed to what people say about a film's merit. I look for what the filmmaker is trying to say. It also gives me a perspective of what went into achieving those objectives. Based on that I make my 'assessment'. Practising this on a regular basis also gives me insights into random events related to these people, the crew and cast. 

I can't say for sure how often I am right. Sometimes, it seems eerily accurate. But I have gotten used to it. And it is a lot of fun.