Cinema’s Glorious Decade
By Abhilaksh Likhi

POPULAR Indian cinema of the 90s is at its pervasive best. As one of the mass media that draws extensively from our cultural resources, its dominant role in shaping the changing Indian consciousness is stupendous. Crucial to the above context is the multi-sensual communication so evidently built in the contemporary film maker’s craft. The same creates the apt cinematic environment to both entertain and engage the audience. Varied nuances of character motivation, plot delineation, camera angles, music, set design, lighting, acoustics and editing enable a deep involvement and identification with film makers’ thematic and emotional concerns within the secure environs of the darkened hall.

Consequently, whether the film-maker highlights the changes within the matrix of the family, or deals with the delicacies of heroism, youth and romantic love, most successful screen stories have usually displayed an intense engagement with virtues and woes of values, attitudes and social perceptions of our times. What is, however, remarkable is that while narrative styles may have varied, the cinematic experience in itself has achieved such a masterly and complete life form in the 90s that it attracts even larger crowds than ever.

In the above context, one of the most enduring enigma of native movielore has been the unprecedented success of Hum Apke Hain Kaun. Sooraj Barjatya deftly weaves a pristine love story in the backdrop of family ties, filial bonds and fraternal camaraderie. He in fact brings to the forefront what has always been uppermost in the average Indian psyche: the family. Though dramatically etched with long stretches of engrossing songs (14 songs) and interspersed with short tracts of dialogue, the film nevertheless depicts a well oiled, self propelling social set-up in which discord is an alien entity. The moral code and behavioral patterns that govern parents, uncles, sons, daughters and lovers derive legitimacy from ancient religious texts. And in Barjatya’s celluloid family, modernity is permissible only in material terms — an expanding business empire or perhaps a sprawling bungalow — the interiors of which reflect, glamour and grandeur both.

Interestingly, within this milieu all screen characters in HAHK do not clamour for distinct identities. Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) and her sister (Renuka Sahane), for instance, may be excelling in computers and painting with consummate skill but they prefer to sacrifice their love rather than to protest against adult interference. The traditional balance is thus carefully reinstated in the family hierarchical structure. Further, HAHK reaches the climax only through divine intervention, entering the pet dog’s psyche to bring about a union of the to be separated lovers. Barjatya’s cinema thus aims at the ideal state where everything and everyone is well adjusted and pre- ordained. However, the story line is suitably compensated by a narrative that sketches filial harmony to the core and a music track that perfectly matches the central sentiments of the film.

On the other hand, the success of Aditya Chopra’s debut film Dil Wale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge can be largely attributed to the fact that it unabashedly romanticised the "loser" image, bringing to fore a clear cut conformist hero. Unlike the angry young lovers of the 1980s perfected in films like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak or Sadak, Raj (Shahrukh Khan) is neither angry nor rebellious. He is desperately in love with Simran but instead of turning his back to familial discord, he longs for acceptance. His entry into the girl’s household, his participation in her marriage preparations (with the popular track Doli Sajake Rakhna mesmerising the masses) and the hope to win over the family members, depicts an intense reverence to behavioural codes sanctified by tradition and custom. Interestingly, this is what makes him a ‘hero’. The allure of this 90s man can be traced to certain time-tested values: respect for elders, obedience to the patriarchal law and an overwhelming desire to belong to the fold, clan, community or tribe. Thematically, DDLJ is a simple love story retold with a shifting focus, old-fashioned mores blending effortlessly with refreshing modernism in the backdrop of the emotional travails of NRI families. However, with beautifully cinematographed sequences and intense portrayals DDLJ’s narrative showcases the yearings of new generation without the usual hype of mainstream kitsch.

While conformism and preordained behaviour mark the cinematic structure of HAHK and DDLJ, Raja Hindustani (directed by Dharmesh Darshan) infuses the luminiscent quality of innocence with progressive values that could tear apart class differences. The tender bonding between Raja (Aamir Khan), the cab driver, and the rich heiress (Karisma Kapoor) in the backdrop of bedazzling landscapes unfolds the overcoming of fear, reserve and distancing, so obvious in a class-driven society. The film’s text is a revelation more about attitudes than about relationships.

Raja may be a simpleton who wears his heart on his sleeve but his determination to recreate a lost world of innocence amidst scheming in-laws and a misled wife enables him to return with his child to his sanctified home. In Dharmesh’s cinematic credo the stereotype thus becomes novel and the common place acquires the chimera of originality. Besides, an empathetic treatment in an otherwise foregone and predictable narrative uplifts the dramatic core of a film in which a scintillating musical score too is indeed a highlight.

Stylistically speaking, all the three films indulge in cinematic imagery that mirrors a social order without too many moral dilemmas. They could also be termed as romantic musicals that are secular in outlook but nonetheless use religious concepts to structure the narrative and impart the latter with deeper layers of meaning. Their demeanour, decor and gesture motivation not only convey the nature of the characters but also explore changing modes of mythic consciousness. This has indeed nurtured the basis of a carefully articulated morality play that has increasingly become an integral part of the collective cinematic psyche of the country.

This is also fairly evident from the success of two recent films — Dil To Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Both are about love, friendship and commitment. Both seem to take a sympathetic look at situations where conflicts are internalised. Both give the impression that they wish to delve deep into the human predicament of circumstances. Both are paradoxically about upper class ambience, and underscore the agony, ecstasy and expression of the romantic aura. And both are love stories which by bizarre coincidence end up us fairy tale love triangles.

But with easy straddling of characters across the two worlds of modernity and tradition, both DTPH and KKHH enable the vast mass of people to come to term with social modernisation even while retaining their Indianness. Rahul (played by Shah-Rukh Khan in both films), Pooja (Madhuri Dixit in DTPH) and Tina (Rani Mukerjee in KKHH) are youthful, energetic and modern but what lends their characterisation intensity and depth is a typically Indian consciousness rooted in good values. Rahul’s intensive ravings about ‘Maya’ in DTPH) do, indeed, take us deeper into the real world of his inner self. Of course, both Yash Chopra and Karan Johar also skillfully capture the designer glitz and glamour, in the backdrop of melodious music and breathtaking scenery, with conviction and cinematic finesse.

While cinematic representation of a changing Indian consciousness may have been carefully articulated by successful film makers of the 90s, critics have often viewed this as a depiction of a conflict between westernisation and tradition. In the backdrop of dazzling stagecraft, well-etched characters, humour, melodious songs and melodrama, the real contest, however, is between religious values and secular values. With emotions always in excess of what the situation demands, acting styles and a personalised treatment have further made a tremendous difference to the popularity of these films. But this is not to deny that in today’s popular cinema, reality, dream, magic, intellect and emotion metamorphosise into a cinematic language that engages itself not only with the audience but with contemporary times, too.