The winds of change

When a 31 year old filmmaker from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, made a film about wayward youth called 'Paanch' way back in 2003, he probably had no idea that it would be a moment in the history of Indian cinema that would always be remembered as a begining of change. The film never got released as the censor board thought it would have a negative impact on the youth. The board said that the film portrayed a young group of people indulging in drugs, sex and rock and roll which was not our culture. As it is clearly evident now, the board had been very short-sighted at the time. The filmmaker in question is non other than Anurag Kashyap. The man behind landmark films such as 'Black Friday', 'Dev D', and more recently, 'Gangs of Wasseypur', an epic, two part crime saga on the coal mafia of Dhanbad. 

Even though his first two films were met with bans ('Black Friday' was banned for a year because of a restraining order from the high court), Anurag did not get detered and kept treading a path unknown. Making films on his own terms, he never compromised on even a single frame in any of his ventures. Wacthing the first part of his latest release, 'Gangs of Wasseypur', (part two is set to release on August 8), it is evident that India finally has an answer for the likes of  Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. With this masterpiece Anurag has once again proved that success of a film is purely based on the script and method of storytelling and not star power. If it was not for directors like him, amazingly talented actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui would have gone unnoticed in this mindless haze of talentless models and star sons.

 In a time where senseless films like 'Wanted' and 'Dabanng' cross the 100 crore mark at the box office, Anurag stands in a league very different from the mob. He does have fellow soldiers too in the form of Dibaker Banerjee, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Bhardwaj. Interestingly, Kashyap, Bhardwaj and Dhulia are all from Uttar Pradesh and used to hangout in their college days discussing films and art. Probably it is there where this whole idea of realistic cinema was born. Dibaker Banerjee, the mind behind 'Oye Lucky Lucky Oye', 'LSD', 'Khosla ka Ghonsla'( which won a national award) and 'Shanghai',  is another important voice which is a vital part of this new wave of Indian cinema.

Anurag's life long struggle to co-exist with bollywood is finally over one would hope.Because with films like 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and 'Dev D' he is setting new standards which I am sure will be hard to match. It is true that bollywood will keep churning out its usual nonsense masala films, but this new wave of writer-directors seems determined to change the tide in their favour and with their films now showing up at festivals like the Cannes, it should just be just a matter of time before the ways of filmmaking change in this country and priority is given to the content and not to the look of a film.

Photo Credits - Google

Mir Kashif Iqbal

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