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Wanted urgently, Director No 1
David Dhawan is the biggest symbol of a cinema that is now passe, says Deepa Gahlot.
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Deepa Gahlot
David Dhawan always boasts that the masses like his films, so why care about what the press says?
After watching Yeh Hai Jalwa, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Kyo Kii...Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta, Kunwara, Chal Mere Bhai, Dulhan Hum Le Jaayenge, Banarasi Babu, Gharwali Baharwali, Mr & Mrs Khiladi --- interspersed with a couple of successes like Jodi No 1, Biwi No 1 --- one cannot but ask the votaries of the Dhawan school of filmmaking: what masses are they talking about?
It does seem like Dhawan has burnt out. He needs to pause, think and start afresh, preferably with a new team of writers. Dhawan has never made one great film in his career, but success somehow covers up all faults and when films make money, even bad work gains respectability. Then somebody will do an academic study on the popularity of Dhawan's films. So who will point out the film equivalent of the Emperor wearing no clothes?
The Manmohan Desai kind of films had sharpened the art-commerce divide, and dumbed down popular cinema to the level of the idiot 'classic' Amar Akbar Anthony. Still, it took some flair to pull of that level of loony stuff, and Dhawan displayed it in some of his films like Bol Radha Bol, Aankhen and Hero No 1.
As for some of his other films --- Raja Babu, Coolie No 1, Judwaa and Mr & Mrs Khiladi --- along with sense and logic (never a prerequisite for popular films anyway) he also chucked out decency and good taste (the dubious morality is not even being brought up here).
When things hit rock bottom with Andaz, even he realised he had overdone the vulgarity and resolved to make only family entertainers. Even so, films like Banarasi Babu and Gharwali Baharwali staggered out of his factory.
However, since his flops were interspersed with hits like Biwi No 1, his position as one of the top directors of Bollywood stayed undisputed.
His films may be perfectly idiotic, but it cannot be denied that he has the ability and discipline to churn out films at a furious pace --- and saves his producers a lot of expense. His films also have a chaotic energy that make it possible for actors like Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Sushmita Sen to come up with good comic performances.
But he seems to pay no attention to his plots (mostly borrowed), scripts (mostly slipshod), or songs (mostly awful). The rate at which he makes films also tells on the quality: there is a visible ad hoc-ism to his work.
One can tell that in the hurry to wrap up, nobody bothered about details, continuity or quality. Still, there are enough apologists for his brand of cinema, since he thrived at a time when anything was passed off as entertainment.
The argument is that if audiences are getting their money's worth, why crib? It shows contempt for the audience --- if the fools are taking substandard films, why bother to do better?
But what happens when a film lines up Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai, and the same public to whom these films were pandering turn up their noses? What happens when Govinda and Salman Khan cannot pull in audiences any more?
Time to stop and think.
Dhawan is just a symptom not the disease. The malaise hit commercial cinema long ago. But, as it always happens, times changed, a generation changed, and the kind of cinema that he stood for became passé. It took a whole lot of flops for the industry to realise that. Subhash Ghai, Satish Kaushik, Raj Kanwar, David Dhawan, Ram Gopal Varma, the Yash Chopra-copycats flop, but heck, Spider-Man is packing them in, Bend It Like Beckham is running to nearly full houses.
Audiences --- at least in the Indian metros --- are simply not willing to accept junk any more.
The big filmmakers, the biggest stars are falling flat. So the scramble for fresh ideas, untried genres. Raaz is a hit, and everybody wants horror plots; Awara Paagal Deewana is a hit and everybody dives for comedy-thrillers; Humraaz opens well and everybody is hunting for suspense stories.
The plots may still be borrowed and the scripts sloppy, but audiences now expect some gloss, a tiny degree of sophistication from films, if they are dishing out anything from Rs 50-Rs 200 bucks for them. They do not want to be insulted by brainless, plotless unfunny comic capers.
The industry is going through a major crisis right now with films failing. And nobody has a clue about what formula will work.
Perhaps it is too early to say, but it looks like the age of the formula is over. And with it, the age of the filmmaker who refuses to upgrade with the times. David Dhawan is just the biggest symbol of the kind of cinema that is now passé. He keeps saying he wants to make sensible films he can be proud of.
Maybe it is time he and other powerful mainstream filmmakers polished their rusted talents and pulled the film industry out of this rut.
Wanted urgently: Director No 1.
Earlier column
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