So, some part of this piece is going to be about Pink. It’s by far the most definitive Bollywood flick I have seen in a while
Illustration/Uday Mohite
So, some part of this piece is going to be about Pink. It’s by far the most definitive Bollywood flick I have seen in a while.
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I am a bit of a tough ‘desi’ film-watcher — my sensibility is essentially western, and I don’t really represent the masses. But, it is perhaps for the first time that I have sat in a Mumbai cinema hall, not saying, “Really good for a Hindi film”. Pink is a taut, tight courtroom drama, up with the best of them in the West. Devoid of all melodrama, the tension and emotional upheavals are in your head, not on the screen. It is possible to make a movie where indeed, less is more. This isn’t a vendetta saga, nor is it a vacuous moral tale.
Made in a post-Nirbhaya era, it’s a story about three brave girls standing up to three brutal men in an even more brutal chauvinistic system, aided by an ageing lawyer. But, crucially, it’s a film about an old man finding himself — his rising from the ashes to finding absolution. There is a moment at the end of the 120 minute-film, where an exhausted Amitabh Bachchan sits in a rickety chair in the cockroach-infested courtroom, looking blankly into space.
As the houselights came up on the popcorn splattered floor, I sat in my seat for a while thinking why we don’t make films about old people?
Is it because we’re scared that the audience will get bored? Or, do we not have the actors to pull off the roles while still pulling in the crowds? I also thought of what would happen when Bachchan finally hangs up his huge boots. Who will be the thespian torchbearer for our emerging cinema?
Of course, don’t get me wrong, we are making superb movies. But often they are cast with non-biggies and involve small budgets. Finally, we Indians want our “big stars” to helm films.
Shoojit Sarkar with Piku and Pink, R Balki with Cheeni Kum and Paa, Sujoy Ghosh with Te3n and Bejoy Nambiar with Wazir. They are not only writing parts for this man, but are also making films that attempt to push the envelope within a rigid Bollywood structure.
With Bachchan, it’s still possible to cast smaller actors who “bat” around him. With anyone lesser, like a Rishi Kapoor, who can’t carry a movie on his own, Shakun Batra required young guns like Alia Bhatt to add the star value (in Kapoor & Sons). But vitally, and here’s my point, it’s the time to make movies with the many themes concerning India — old age being a massive one — dementia, euthanasia, Alzheimer’s, loneliness.
I can’t really tell if Bachchan saab is our greatest actor, but for me, he is the vehicle that a lot of our younger makers invest in to take their ideas forward.
Many generations have built their cinema around his gravitas — the Ramesh Sippys, Prakash Mehras, Manmohan Desais hacked their half-baked stories with him in the 70s. Now, the young guns see Bachchan as a powerful lodestar to push the boundary, test a theme, dip their toes in an ocean of uncertain cinematic terrain.
In conclusion, I’m inspired to make a sequel to Pink called Pak. Bachchan will play an ageing pilot, who bombs the hell out of a neighbouring terrorist state, while he yells, “No means No!”
Rahul da Cunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahuldacunha62@gmail.com
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