Reformed Parallel Cinema

It seems the face of the so called Parallel Cinema in India has finally decided to change its mode of messaging to the masses. The movement, which started with the legendary film maker, writer Satyajit Ray by making of his film Pather Panchali in 1955 (the genre of films which were popularly known as the 'Indian Parallel Cinema'), seems to have entered into a new era. I am of the opinion that it was long overdue. By bracketing it for a particular class, the deep social message, communication for the masses and subsequently its impact was lost because the medium was either not suitable for the masses or it didn't have a binding appeal so that the masses could get attracted to it.

Finally Shyam Benegal, who made films like Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) and created a new wave in this genre of parallel cinema, has decided to break away from the elite group of cinematic directors who only want to remain on the discussion boards (rather gossip groups) of a few pseudo-intellectual class/s. Welcome to Sajjanpur! Don't be shocked. This is the name of the latest experiment of Benegal, which I saw day before on 19th September 2008. And to my surprise, the movie which was running amidst urban crowd but in a language popularly used and understood only by rural populace of Easter Uttar Pradesh, was a massive hit. If the maestros of Indian Parallel Cinema were alive, they would have given a standing ovation to Benegal for his new experiment - An experiment, which is not done using the Parallel Stream but Mainstream and still keeping the messaging as intact as it should be.

Although Benegal's experiment with this alternative approach started way back in the 1990s when he made a trilogy on Indian Muslim women, starting with Mammo (1995), Sardari Begum (1996), and Zubeidaa (2001). But it was probably Zubeidaa, when Benegal decided to breakaway from the so called 'elite group' (far away from reality and not interested in addressing to the masses). Even if the messaging is anti-establishment, anti-government and pro-proletariat, it doesn't have to be through an isolated medium, which only appeals to a certain class or I would say pseudo intellectuals. I think Benegal realized it and revived the old, dead tradition of Satyajit Ray, who must have died in aghast despair having no successor to his popular, parallel yet very appealing cinema for masses. Though Ray made a lot of it for a regional viewership (mostly West Bengal) but still those movies had mass appeal.

The so called parallel cinema (also known as Neo-realist) which got the somewhat desired acceptability through the makings of Satyajit Ray, followed by Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihilani (not of the same generation but greatly inspired by Ray, Benegal and Sen) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan (in South) did not last longer than two decades (mostly 702 and 80s) Later, it got severely overshadowed by the glitz and glamour of the commercial cinema, which ultimately pushed the parallel cinema into history except a few aberrations where we saw a couple of releases here and there.

This parallel cinema, which gave careers to a whole new breed of actors including Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Amol Palekar, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Pankaj Kapoor (who now form a brigade which either decided not to act or succumbed to the massive push from commercial cinema), seemed 'dead' without a reason to me.

The socio-economic conditions remained the same. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that conditions have worsened since then. The political situations have drastically changed - more towards negative side. Earlier, when this cinema was born the political ideology of India was still left to the center. Today, we are not just right to the center but also embracing the capitalism in totality. When the Neo-realist cinema could got accepted in 1980s and 90s, today's conditions are more ripe than ever for such kind of cinema. Then why did it disappear? I think there were a few very important reasons behind it. One, the onslaught of the commercial cinema on the minds of non-thinking masses was too strong for their resistance. The glamour of the commercial cinema, depiction of unrealistic things in an almost real way, idealizing the whole world for those two-three hours (normal duration of a movie) compelled an average Indian to opine that Cinema is ultimately cinema and one should not relate it to reality. There is a huge class (i would say vast majority) of people who don't see cinema for any kind of messaging but only go there to step out of the real world and go into the world of fantasy. Exploiting this are our dream weavers (the producers and directors of cinema) who, knowing the psyche of Indian masses, have started serving them totally unreal stuff - made after taking a misconceived inspiration from the Supernatural Powers. Without naming the films (as almost all of them belong to the same genre), I can say that Indian cinema, instead of created an awakening, created apathy and lethargy amongst the masses. The average cinema viewer, as I mentioned earlier, started believing that best cinema is the one which leaders him/her to fantasy than provoke him to think or believe in reality.

With Benegal's experiment with 'Welcome to Sajjanpur' the wave of parallel cinema (with a new dimension and way of messaging) seems to be back. The characters are chosen from mainstream cinema (all good artists - mostly from National School of Drama) because to appeal the masses, its the first condition to have an acceptable faces and not the aliens. The set up of the film is not at all unusual. There have been umpteen number of movies made in a village set up with rustic surroundings and folklore, so that was the second stroke of Benegal to make sure that the movie doesn't remain confined to a particular class, which I suspect even exist in India today. Third, the messaging is not done using an elite style. It is subtle using the trusted mediums and styles. For example the nationwide furor over the Nuclear Deal and left's resentment over it (Benegal belongs to that ideology) is very craftily depicted in the film. Another very drastic deviation from the erstwhile parallel cinema was inclusion of a couple of songs in the movie. Generally the Indian parallel cinema had been serious, one-set, one location kind but welcome to Sajjanpur was shot in a vibrant setting, breaking away from the monotony. Whether it was Mahadev's (the key character of the movie who acts a letter-writer) desk or the election campaign of Munni Bai (the eunuch who wanted to contest the election using the democratic right to contest an election) or the style of living of Bhayya Ji (the typical local goon who uses his might over the rights of people), everything looks transformed and engages the audiences - importantly not disappointing them.

Another minute observation that I made and was very relevant was not prolonging any particular shot to the stage of boredom. If the cinema was reaching to a level of seriousness where an average mass viewer would like to get agitated with this new experiment, the scenario changed.

And the topmost change (according to my evaluation) was that the film is not shot in a gloomy environment. If there is a barber or a cycle repairer working in poverty, they are not depicted as people who have lost the right to 'Laugh'. Don't we see the 'rickshaw-pullers' enjoying and launching? Sure, they don't have everything that they desire but they do have a desire and aspiration to attain a decent lifestyle one day. This is normal and Benegal has changed this perception and has depicted it very well.

As a conclusion, I would say the stigma that parallel cinema is meant only for classes and can appeal only intellectuals, is broken by Shyam Benegal. I salute the film maker.