The 80's and the Danny Boyle Moments of Hindi Cinema

Growing up in the sub-continent and that too in a difficult city in Eastern UP (Uttar Pradesh) it was/will always be difficult to miss the subtle undercurrents that blows through cities, societies, towns and the villages. Class, caste, disparity, religion and the simple existence of everyday life remains a challenge. Always judgmental and willing to tow the line it becomes difficult after a point and even starts to become a state of mind. I remember for the longest time it was hard to make people understand that I was not a Baniya (a trading community in India) just because my surname ended with a Gupta. Infact, it was even more difficult to make them understand that I was myself unsure of my caste and was pretty much happy in being just a random teenager with a Bong mother tongue. 

The scarcity of the 70's and the 80's further added to the pangs of staying in a small city. Both parents being in academics and me in further ignominy of being always handed limited dole as pocket money. 50 paisa was my pocket money on a daily basis, which ended up as a cool sum of 15/- bucks by the end of the month. My imagination never went till the end of the month. By the 7th day a 3.50/- was good enough to get me a Thums-up and pastry. Why bother. Or I could watch an evening show paired with a samosa or a soda. 

And, more than often I ended at a cinema hall with my best buddy (he was limited to just the cinema sojourn only) to watch a pot-boiler. Remember, this was late70's and the 80's when cinema travelled to smaller cities at it's own pace. We had to wait for it to arrive. And if the cinema carried a reputation (a big star cast or a big star) before it landed into the hall and city then be rest assured an additional 5 week waiting time to get tickets. Our measly budgets never could afford a gray market ticket. But, once inside those rickety halls, smelling of sweat, a smear of the nearby toilet whiff, the sound of the fans, the endless noise of hawkers inside the theatre, the rambunctious crowd trying to settle down and all of it gave us the heady feel of the cinema to start. And once the images started coming on the screen, suddenly everything went silent. 

And, that was the power of the cinema I guess. Those larger than life characters, the over the top dialogues, those menacing villains and yes, the damsel in distress. All conjuring up images in our teenage minds into a mellifluous potpourri of imagination and dreams. Dreams that were like silhouettes caressing us with the recklessness of the ideas or the garrulousness of the approach. It looked systematic and perhaps a very Nietzsche moment for us. And those images stayed on with us for a very long time. It gave hope and also it helped us to move away from all things inane and run away from a society that was always asking you questions. Questions, about you, your caste, your religion, your orientation, your belief and all things that as a teenage I was not too clear or conscious about. Cinema was that escape chute for us. And we could press at anytime when the cockpit got hot and warm.

I would still like to believe that the 80's cinema was the defining moment for us. This was the time when the angry young man stepped in; this was also the time when the society was transforming and the disparity was more disparate. This was a period of gumptions and of revenge and anger and frustration that was forthwith. If the 50's, 60's and 70's were on the periphery of family or social drama, cause related, comedy and at times the classic love story. Revenge in any form was light hearted (a la Chupke Chupke kind) and remained so till the 80's came in. What it did; the class divide was breaking through and an equal opportunity partner was looking for ways to preen his neck out. If Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar refused to pay the hafta, he was questioning the system; and if the same Bachchan questioned the police about their callousness through the iconic line, Don ko pakdna mushkil hi nahii namumkin hai he was again questioning the system and if the same Bachchan was asking for his basic rights as the porter (Coolie), he was again questioning the system.

No one did that before Bachchan and that was the norm. You lived with it or perhaps stayed in with it. In Phool aur Patthar, Dharmendra questioned the society and said that you need to follow the path of immorality to survive and live. Yet, somewhere, he had a Meena Kumari to water him down. But, Bachchan was on a bull run. Nirupa Roy tried stopping him, yet he refused; Parveen Babi tried again but he refused, later his father the thespian Dilip Kumar in the iconic Shakti, tried to stop him but he still refused. In Sholay, the only outlier, the rules of the game were different. It was revenge but then it had it's own way of being served. Not cold or piping hot but warm. 

80's may be written off for the video piracy and the lack of the audience entering the cinema or the theatres. The audience was busy questioning the system and trying to find a feet for themselves. If 100/- bucks got him 3 films for a night, then so be it. And that also included the VCR/VCP cost. The audience was willing to be wide eyed through the night and watch the gibberish being thrown back to them. It could be a Mithun on a revenge seeking spree or Govinda dancing away to a lost cause or the Big B trying to look for a cause (this was the time when the string of cult films Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, Toofan, and a few other forgettable stuff got doled out) or Dharmendra/Vinod Khanna/Shotgun still trying to battle it out for a cause which was yet to be discovered. 

In all I will like to keep 80's as the watershed decade as it gave a new leeway to the classic 90's. The Khans started entering and there was much happening at this point. This was the time when Hindi cinema was beginning to find it's feet. Much of that owes to the 80's though. Why? elementary; the audience was now looking to move on from the VCR/VCP deluge, he/she was mentally prepared for cinema which was not corny and dishy as like the one he watched on a binge. He had moolah in his pocket (the young Rajiv Gandhi teamed with the now forgettable Sam Pitroda to bring in the first whiff of consumerism) and was willing to consider the good and the bad of everything. And, yes; this was the time television simply was able to bring in content which was rich, meaningful and had a message. Therefore, why should cinema be left behind. 

It is like the the younger brother (television) simply was a bolt from the blue and the elder one did not want to be left behind. So, much of the 90's and the transformation of Hindi cinema must owe it to Television and the learnings from the 80's. My dear colleague from the advertising days (we were the regular partners in crime) and me were invariably lined up at a cinema hall on Friday night for such corny stuff being rolled out (he branded it the ajhel series or in plain English insufferable series) and I for one enjoyed it thoroughly and gave my copywriter colleague a lot of food for thought. At least, he could get to learn new ways to curse the clients for whom he wrote those cheesy advertising lines and slogans.

I would guess Danny Boyle realized this when making the vexatious Slumdog Millionaire. He punched all of that in his iconic dance moves at the end to Jai Ho. Well, 80;s would remain the Jai Ho moment for Indian cinema and as these lines resonate the feel:

Aaja, aaja jind shamiyane ke tale
Aaja Aaja jariwale nile aasman ke tale

Chakh le, ha, chakh le ye raat shahad hai, chakh le

A lot of 80's stuff streams on YouTube. You could start with a any of Mithunda classic or a bête noir. Go watch!