Moga to Melbourne

Jasmine Singh

Booming voices, dialogues ending and beginning with ‘oye’, every sentence punctuated with word ‘jatt’, his goodness and generosity showcased with his customary dunali in tow and the jatt or hero commuting only on a horse even though the villain is ferried in an ambassador — Punjabi films of the yore were being made in a time warp.

But this bubble has burst showcasing a totally different world now. The rustic jatt has become suave, he rides a Harley Davidson, he is unbelievably funny, romantic, deadly and everything else you want him to be.

He no longer spreads a chaddar in the fields of Punjab for his lady love, rather he woos her at Starbucks in Canada. The changed look and face of the evolving Punjabi cinema is now the talk of the entertainment industry. This new-found success has attracted many film-makers, actors, scriptwriters and technicians from Bollywood to be a part of this regional cinema.

Punjabi cinema has also made superstars out of its singers who were once happy releasing a couple of albums every year, doing live shows in unknown institutions and performing at NRI weddings. Even Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan admitted that his wife Gauri Khan is totally floored over the Punjabi film Jatt & Juliet.

If this was just the beginning, recently there was ‘breaking news’ about Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh being signed opposite Kareena Kapoor Khan in the upcoming film Udta Punjab, which also stars Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. There was another ‘big news’ about yet another popular singer-actor Gippy Grewal getting a congratulatory tweet from Aamir Khan on Gippy’s upcoming debut Bollywood film Second Hand Husband opposite Tina Ahuja (Govinda’s daughter).

This definitely shows the Punjabi cinema’s growth. In fact, if we go by the figures, 2012-13 saw the release of 42 Punjabi films, with a 50 per cent success rate. Out of the many that made a mark on the boxoffice, Punjab 1984 went on to bag the prestigious national award. Another film, Chaar Sahibzaade, also won acclaim worldwide and also had the boxoffice ringing!

Today, Punjabi cinema is a world over phenomenon with some Punjabi films even making it to the Cannes and other acclaimed film festivals.

The regional cinema that started in 1936 when director KD Mehra made the first Punjabi talkie film, Sheila, which was also known as Pind di Kudi is on the Ferrari lane now. A few hiccups off and on have affected the speed, but hasn’t derailed it. Not yet!

A new lease of life

Punjabi cinema was all about the jatt, his revenge and his bravado spread across 70 villages till an acclaimed director like Manmohan Singh gave the audience a fresh serving called Jee Aaya Nu in 2002. The film starred Harbhajan Mann in the lead role. The film was made on a bigger budget, wider canvas and went on to make a mark in the overseas (NRI) market, particularly the Punjabi-dominated pockets like Canada, Australia and England. “I was surprised when someone mentioned that we had only one release in 2000, called Dard Pardesan De starring Avinash Wadhwan, Upasana Singh, Paramveer and Deepshika,” shares singer-actor Nishawn Bhullar. Bhullar has won accolades for the national-award winning film Nabar.

“Punjabi cinema changed drastically after the entry of Manmohan Singh. I actually saw a ‘houseful’ board outside a theatre in Moga,” adds Nishawn.

Punjabi films picked momentum with more than a dozen releases in 2007. By 2010, there were 16 releases. Punjabi cinema was growing rapidly, and it grew in leaps and bounds especially in 2011-13 also known as the golden phase of Punjabi cinema.

The story ahead

It wasn’t just about growing numbers now; directors had put on their thinking caps. Newer themes — bringing in love triangles, comedies, real-life incidents, short stories, etc. were being explored. Director Navaniat Singh, who is credited with bringing in love-triangles in Punjabi cinema, showed a young, happening and equally love-struck Punjab in his first film Mel Karaa De Rabba starring Jimmy Shergill, Neeru Bajwa and Gippy Grewal. The film was a superhit. This was Gippy’s debut film as well. He smiles talking about his long journey. “A love triangle, Mel Karra De Rabba, set up in a university, with all actors sporting trendy clothes and singing peppy songs was unheard of. Now, every second film boasts of the same plot,” he says without mincing words.

What followed were around five to 10 films on similar lines, till someone discovered that comedy could be a lucrative genre that would bring both the audience and the moolah.

Don’t laugh it off

Thus started a laugh-a-riot, with the film, Carry on Jatta, starring a battery of actors like Gippy Grewal, BN Sharma, Jaswinder Bhalla, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Mahie Gill. The movie is considered a cult film in the comedy genre making it the biggest hit of 2012. Filmmakers had now stumbled upon a hit formula. What followed was yet another set of films on the same lines. Ironically, most of these were a hit. So much so, a film like Jatt & Juliet starring Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa is now a cult film in the comedy genre.

Diljit Dosanjh, who has bagged a Bollywood film Udta Punjab, gives a fair share of his credit to Punjabi cinema. “Punjabi cinema has come a long way, making each person associated with it, a phenomenon.” Diljit’s most-awaited film of the season, Sardaarji released just couple of days back.

At the moment

What has gone wrong suddenly is the repetitive mode — every filmmaker trying to imbibe the same winning formula, using comedy as and when it is possible. What we have been having are films with almost the same dialogues, almost similar screenplay in bits and pieces and yes, similar comedians in all films. It is only when someone from the industry decided to do something different that there were films like Chaar Sahibzaade and Punjab 1984. Both films went on to do a business of Rs 20 crore, previously unheard of in the Punjabi film industry.

Says Bollywood filmmaker Harry Baweja, the man behind Chaar Sahibzaade, “I worked on the script for almost four years before I decided to give it a film format.” The success of this animation film has definitely raised the status of Punjabi cinema with people accepting that ‘this cinema can be different and good.’

At present, Punjabi cinema is seeing many changes, similar to the movement of the tectonic plates. One such change is the willingness of Bollywood actresses, actors and directors to work in Punjani films who see much potential in this cinema. Recently, a good number of actresses, Neha Dhupia, Gauhar Khan, Zarine Khan, Mahie Gill, Anita Hassandani, Sagarika Ghatke and Veena Malik were seen in different Punjabi films.

Another change that has come is in the script writing department. Amberdeep, the famous script and dialogue writer in Punjabi cinema, has two ways of looking at the change. “We are glad that the directors and producers are opening to new subjects like film/scripts based on some real-life personalities, incidents, short stories, at the same time, they tend to get repetitive with the themes like a good number of films were made on either the 1984 riots or on the Khalistan movement.”

Repetitiveness is certainly something which can take the steam out of Punjabi cinema, it can pull it back to the dark dungeons, from which it has recently started emerging.