Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi
As I finished watching this movie on TV tonight, "Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi", a thought occurred to me. But before that some background.
This Sudhir Mishra movie which came out last year, is set in the politically turbulent times of the '70s, with Indira Gandhi at the height of her power and the emergency imposed soon after. This movie was highly acclaimed by the critics and so I watched it. And it was a good movie indeed, but for the fact that it assumed some knowledge of the history of the time, which unfortunately I am not completely familiar with. Those were turbulent times for India, but those of us who were born after that period, do not know much about what happened then.
So the movie left me thinking and hence the thought I referred to earlier - "Do I really know so little about modern Indian history"?
Why did my text books in school stop soon after Independence? As I recall, the last thing that happened in India per my history text book was the Constitution being adopted in '50. And I last studied history in school in '93.
I vividly remember reading about Tipu Sultan, the Vijayanagar empire, the Mughals. But I do not remember anything about what happened in the Pak war of '71, the China war of '62, the Emergency of '75, etc.
Isn't it more relevant for us to know more about the recent history than about someone who lived centuries ago? We hear stray cases of Laloo and Mayawati and Vajpayee getting a mention in text books, but we all know that's opportunism and political propaganda and nothing else.
But text books are largely controlled by the state governments, so lets not go there for now.
So coming back to the movies, lets see what movies that came out recently tell stories from Indian history. There's Mangal Pandey, there's the pick-your-flavor collection of Bhagat Singh, and the retouched Mughal-e-Azam. And then there have been many versions of the Partition story on celluloid.
But anything about post-'50 India? Too few and far between. Talking again of the Emergency, there was Aandhi. There was Bhopal Express about the gas tragedy. Remind me but I can't remember more than what I can count on my fingers. And that, when we make over 800 movies a year!
Why are there no movies about the unrest in the North-East, about Operation Bluestar, about the IPKF misadventure in Sri Lanka?
Ofcourse I'm discounting the glamourised versions like the bunch of movies that came after the Kargil war and cashed in on the frenzy.
Don't Indian film-makers really see this point of view or are they afraid of trying something outside their set formula. Or maybe they are just scared of hurting the sentiments of someone or the other and then facing their ire. Today's popular young directors in India seem to identify their lead protagonists more often in New York and Sydney, rather than in New Delhi.
We need film-makers to tell stories of contemporary India with their ear to the ground. And there are very few who can do that.
We would want to see more movies about the real India, like this one. May the tribe of such film-makers swell.
This Sudhir Mishra movie which came out last year, is set in the politically turbulent times of the '70s, with Indira Gandhi at the height of her power and the emergency imposed soon after. This movie was highly acclaimed by the critics and so I watched it. And it was a good movie indeed, but for the fact that it assumed some knowledge of the history of the time, which unfortunately I am not completely familiar with. Those were turbulent times for India, but those of us who were born after that period, do not know much about what happened then.
So the movie left me thinking and hence the thought I referred to earlier - "Do I really know so little about modern Indian history"?
Why did my text books in school stop soon after Independence? As I recall, the last thing that happened in India per my history text book was the Constitution being adopted in '50. And I last studied history in school in '93.
I vividly remember reading about Tipu Sultan, the Vijayanagar empire, the Mughals. But I do not remember anything about what happened in the Pak war of '71, the China war of '62, the Emergency of '75, etc.
Isn't it more relevant for us to know more about the recent history than about someone who lived centuries ago? We hear stray cases of Laloo and Mayawati and Vajpayee getting a mention in text books, but we all know that's opportunism and political propaganda and nothing else.
But text books are largely controlled by the state governments, so lets not go there for now.
So coming back to the movies, lets see what movies that came out recently tell stories from Indian history. There's Mangal Pandey, there's the pick-your-flavor collection of Bhagat Singh, and the retouched Mughal-e-Azam. And then there have been many versions of the Partition story on celluloid.
But anything about post-'50 India? Too few and far between. Talking again of the Emergency, there was Aandhi. There was Bhopal Express about the gas tragedy. Remind me but I can't remember more than what I can count on my fingers. And that, when we make over 800 movies a year!
Why are there no movies about the unrest in the North-East, about Operation Bluestar, about the IPKF misadventure in Sri Lanka?
Ofcourse I'm discounting the glamourised versions like the bunch of movies that came after the Kargil war and cashed in on the frenzy.
Don't Indian film-makers really see this point of view or are they afraid of trying something outside their set formula. Or maybe they are just scared of hurting the sentiments of someone or the other and then facing their ire. Today's popular young directors in India seem to identify their lead protagonists more often in New York and Sydney, rather than in New Delhi.
We need film-makers to tell stories of contemporary India with their ear to the ground. And there are very few who can do that.
We would want to see more movies about the real India, like this one. May the tribe of such film-makers swell.
posted by SN @ 2/26/2006 02:08:00 AM
1 Comments:
I love that movie - Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi!
When I watched it for the first time, I did not know what my reaction was - I knew so little about the post-independence era.
I can never forget the grace of Chitrangada Singh and the haunting melody of Shubha Mudgal.
Post a Comment
<< Home