Twist in the tale

Jasmine Singh

Rupinder Gandhi the gangster? Toofan Singh, Jinda Sukha, Angrej, Faraar and Sardaarji… all these Punjabi films have something common. It is the ‘newness’ in the story. Whether or not, Punjabi cinema will go anywhere with the barrage of releases, it has certainly risen from the regular storylines. Thankfully, with the audience accepting more than just mush and jatt da gussa or jatt di NRI problem, Punjabi filmmakers, script and screenplay writers are now juggling with something new. In fact, a good number of upcoming releases have been plucked from real life and real incidents. This effort to tell different stories is being taken differently by the industry as well as audience.

For a change

This year’s current most hyped and popular film Angrej starring Amrinder Gill, Sargun Mehta, Aditi Sharma won hearts because of its simple yet meaningful plot. Amberdeep Singh, screenplay and story writer of the film, including many other Punjabi films calls it a period of good story-telling in Punjabi cinema. “There was time when the producers and filmmakers would ask for a particular kind of script, essentially comedy and romance. We would guidelines to keep the story between certain fixed notions.” This obviously left no room for creativity and the result was, every second Punjabi film revolved around more or less the same plot. “Filmmakers and the audience is ready to take risks, not that they want to see anything in the name of different, they are at least okay with the fact that their could be a pure love notion before 1947 or a Punjabi goes all the way to Canada to take his badla from the gorey.”

The word is experimentation

Themes and plots unheard of in Punjabi films before are getting acknowledgment. If a filmmaker here is experimenting with the idea of a ghost buster falling for a ghost, someone else is bringing to life the incidents that made the ‘real’ person Rupinder Gandhi a gangster, while someone else is solving a murder mystery through a courtroom drama. Director Atharv Baluja who is all set to release his next film, Judge Singh LLB has no reason to complain when it comes to bringing fresh themes to life on screen. “The pace of change in our cinema is pretty slow, but at least we are trying. Filmmakers for a long time thought only comedy and romance can do well, but there are different ways to present them as well. They can be used nicely in a new storyline.”

Ditto for actor Nishawn Bhullar who is always faced with one question when he suggests a film plot based on some Punjabi writers story or some real incident. “Only one year back, a producer would out rightly dismiss my idea if I suggested something which did not fall in the realms of comedy. Dark stories were a big no, but I am glad things are changing, and the industry is waking up to value and impact of different from the regular plots.”

Fan fare

Punjabi movie watchers are a smart bunch now, they will not lap up anything served to them in the name of a film. Akaash Sood, student of engineering reads reviews on various websites before he makes up his mind for a Punjabi film. “However the fact that he is seeing films which have a strong plot and a ‘story’ makes him want to go for a Punjabi film.”

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