ARTICLE 15, GULLY BOY AND A HANDFUL THAT SHONE IN AN
OTHERWISE ANNUS HORRIBILIS
2019
has been the worst year of an already problematic decade for Bollywood, the Mumbai-based
(primarily) Hindi film industry that gets a disproportionate amount of
attention from the so-called ‘national’ media in comparison with India’s other
film industries. Islamophobia and pro-establishment messaging were the dominant
trends in Bollywood this year, while quality and depth took long vacations from
theatres. So few films left a lasting impact, that instead
of compiling my usual annual list of best 10, this time I have
stopped at nine.
(Note: This year I have
kept this list to theatrical releases, although next year I will in all
likelihood expand it to cover direct-to-online releases too.)
Here
is my pick of the saving graces in this annus horribilis.
BEST
BOLLYWOOD FILMS:
1: Article 15
Unlike India’s other film industries, Bollywood in recent decades
has largely ignored the very existence of the caste system. The most powerful
Hindi film of 2019 though put caste at the front and centre of its storyline.
In Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15, Ayushmann
Khurrana plays a Brahmin policeman who is schooled in this oppressive social
practice when two Dalit girls are raped and murdered in a UP village where he
is posted. Among a bouquet of beautifully written, beautifully acted
characters, the ones whose journey ought to spawn a sequel, prequel or both are
the Dalit activists Gaura and Nishad, played by Sayani Gupta and Mohammed
Zeeshan Ayyub.
Article
15 combines great courage with great storytelling. I choke up
even now at the thought of Vande Mataram
woven into the narrative in a soul-stirring scene that vehemently reclaims it
from today’s aggressive nationalists who have weaponised patriotism and
patriotic songs.
2: Gully Boy
A
marginalised genre of the arts meets a poor man from a marginalised community
in Zoya Akhtar’s stunning Gully Boy
inspired by the lives of Mumbai rappers Naezy and Divine. In spite of rap’s
massive popularity, many traditionalists still do not acknowledge it as literature
or music. Akhtar snubs them through the medium of a Muslim driver from a Mumbai
slum who dreams of being a rapper. Ranveer Singh is flawless as the shy
youngster whose seething resentment towards those who seek to invisibilise him
erupts in his rebellious writing. Alia Bhatt is superb as his girlfriend
who is fighting massive battles with patriarchy. The top-notch cast also
includes one of the big discoveries of this year: young Siddhanth
Chaturvedi.
Gully Boy is technically slick,
unapologetic about its politics and brimful of brilliant poetry. One of the
joys to be derived from it comes from watching the hero’s creative process,
from actually watching his songs take birth on
screen. In its own unique way then, it is a procedural. At a time when most of
Bollywood is bowing and scraping before the present government, it takes a
special person to feature Jingostan
beatbox in a mainstream commercial film. And Apna time aayega (Our time will come) is an anthem for every human
being who has known what it is to be discriminated
against, sidelined or ignored by a dominant social group. Gully Boy is gut-wrenching cinema from a
gutsy filmmaker.
3: Mardaani 2
Rani Mukerji returned this year as the genius cop Shivani Shivaji Roy
from 2014’s Mardaani who wastes no
time on hollow politeness and bruised egos. The off-putting title
notwithstanding, writer-director Gopi Puthran’s
Mardaani 2 is a sharp, incisive critique of how patriarchy reacts when
it encounters a questioning woman. Mukerji’s immersive performance in this
suspenseful thriller makes for a potent combination with the antagonist played
by TV’s Vishal Jethwa who gives us one of the eeriest, creepiest, most
convincing villains seen on the Hindi screen
in a long while. For a change, a genuinely feminist film from Bollywood, not a
film pretending to be feminist while camouflaging a conservative
core.
4: Sonchiriya
Banditry
in the Hindi heartland is resurrected on the big screen in one of the most
underrated, under-marketed and therefore, sadly, under-seen films of the year. Abhishek
Chaubey’s Sonchiriya stars a spectacular cast – Sushant Singh
Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Manoj Bajpayee and Ashutosh Rana among them –
inhabiting a story of outlaws traversing a dusty north Indian hinterland. These
are not the conventional daakus
(dacoits) commonly seen in an earlier Bollywood. They are not fearsome and
lionised, but instead tired of this off-the-grid existence. And baaghi (rebel) is the label they prefer
for themselves.
Sonchiriya’s stark
messaging is enhanced by Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s austere cinematography. The film
has the courage to speak truths that even most liberals avoid: such as the
fact that women are subordinated across all castes including by the most exploited.
It also reminds us of a reality that too many men fail to see while they enjoy
the powers most societies bestow on them: the reality that while patriarchy
marginalises all women, it also extracts a heavy price from men.
5: The Sky Is Pink
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar show remarkable restraint
playing parents of a child born with a potentially fatal disorder in Shonali
Bose’s The Sky Is Pink. Despite
being a saga of death foretold, the film is about hope as much
as it is about despair, the value of every second we have on earth as much as
it is about our inevitable ends. Grief and positivity are life-long partners in
this poignant account of a couple whose relationship survives every loving
parent’s worst nightmare.
6: Saand Ki Aankh
Two
women in rural north India happen to pick up guns for the first time in their
60s and end up becoming successful competitive sharpshooters. It is surprising
that Bollywood took so long to chronicle the real-life story of UP’s
now-octogenarian Shooter Daadis, Chandro and Prakashi Tomar, but when it
finally did, the result was Tushar Hiranandani’s entertaining, uplifting, socially insightful film.
Bhumi
Pednekar and Taapsee Pannu are in top form as Saand Ki Aankh’s leading ladies, and Viineet Kumar is sensational as their
supportive coach. The film has drawn considerable
flak for casting young female stars as the elderly leads, but even this starting-point flaw does not mar its heartening celebration of feminine
fortitude.
7: Nakkash
A
Muslim artisan practising his craft in a temple in one of Hinduism’s holiest
cities is the fulcrum of Zaigham Imam’s Nakkash.
Inaamulhaq plays Allah Miyan who becomes an object of conservative Hindu wrath
in Varanasi when his steadfast patron, the temple chief priest (Kumud
Kumar Mishra), refuses to be influenced by bigots. Islamophobia is so rampant
in today’s world that many well-meaning liberals now steer clear of addressing
Muslim fundamentalism in their works. Imam, thankfully,
has no such qualms. The director is as unsparing in his take on how Allah Miyan
is ostracised by his fellow Muslims as he is in his indictment of
fundamentalists from the majority community. Nakkash is a moving saga of love and hate, innocence and venom
residing side by side in a communally charged universe.
8: No Fathers In Kashmir
The
spotlight falls on half widows, missing men, sexually exploited women and
conservatives with double standards in Ashvin Kumar’s No Fathers In Kashmir. It should surprise no one
that this film came to theatres after a long battle with the Central Board of
Film Certification which initially – unfairly – awarded it an A (Adults only)
rating. Contrary to the current popular
discourse that demonises Muslims, or for that matter an earlier Bollywood era
that tended to paint the entire community with a positive brush, this film sees
Kashmiri Muslims as regular people – good and bad, evil and virtuous, and all
uniformly troubled.
Despite
the harshness of the reality it examines, a tenderness pervades No Fathers In Kashmir because of
its decision to explore the state through the wanderings of two artless
children. Their charming sweetness ends up further underlining the bitterness
and hopelessness that have beset care-worn Kashmir.
9: Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
Of
the very few Hindi films made on LGBT+ persons, most have chosen to focus on
men. In that sense, Shelly Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga this
year breaks new ground by relating the story of two women in love. It goes many
steps further by staying doggedly mainstream in its format and upbeat in
its tone, busting prevailing stereotypes by casting a glamorous mainstream
star as the lesbian heroine, and treating her neither as a source of comedy nor
tragedy. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja plays Ek Ladki’s
Sweety Chaudhary, while Anil Kapoor plays her father, a man whose heart lies in
a profession considered unsuitable for men. Through his presence in the plot
along with characters played by Juhi Chawla and Rajkummar Rao, the film
stretches its discussion beyond gender in romantic relationships and extends it to the suffocating nature of all forms of
gender stereotyping, prejudice and straitjacketing.
The
title harking back to the most iconic song of Kapoor Senior’s career, is among
the many factors that makes Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga one of 2019’s most heartwarming films.
Related links:
A
VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO ON FIRSTPOST:
Photographs courtesy:
The Sky Is Pink poster: Creeshul Media
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh
Aisa Laga poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ek_Ladki_Ko_Dekha_Toh_Aisa_Laga
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