The changing face of Bollywood
Lately, Slumdog Millionaire has been delighting critics in Hollywood and grabbing some major awards on its way to the Academy Awards where it will be a frontrunner with an amazing haul of 11 nominations (4 of them attributed to Indians). The West is finally warming up to the concept of the Bollywood movie: deep emotions, the underdog who becomes a hero, the lovers separated by circumstances and brought together by destiny(another BIG word in Bollywood), the estranged brothers, the emphasis put on music and songs and the happy ending. At least that's how it used to be... Bollywood is changing, the critics are changing and tastes are changing.
When Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic (the story bears a suspect resemblance to that of Nanny McPhee, a Disney movie released in 2005) collapsed at the Box Office, there was no major consternation. TPTM was full of A-List Bollywood stars with a young talented director at the helm. But the production team, like so many others (for others, read Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Tara Rum Pum Pum, Dostana,...etc) got one thing wrong; Bollywood audiences were no longer solely after sugar-coated entertainment with super stars effectively eclipsing the story and all other aspects of the film which consequently suffered from a lack of quality and substance at times. Sure, these so-called entertainment projects still pulls crowds to the theatres, but a new wave of movies has started to appeal to the cinephiles. Stars don't weave magic anymore, movies do. Music is still an integral part and hopefully Himesh Reshammiya will die a painful death,I mean his music will slowly fade as a faint distant memory... So no more Khans and Kapoors 'carrying' movies on their shoulders. From now on, movies will carry themselves as well as their cast to acclaim. I think this is Bollywood finally maturing and coming out of its comfort zone.
With the prestigious Filmfare Awards or the Indian Oscars around the corner, I have compiled a review of the best movies of 2008 and although it includes the usual suspects, I think some of them would not have stood a chance 10 years ago. Since this post is already quite long, the list will be a separate post!
