Devil’s Advocate | Bollywood can look southward for inspiration rather than westward at Cannes and Oscars

Devil’s Advocate is a rolling column that sees the world differently and argues for unpopular opinions of the day. This column, the writer acknowledges, can also be viewed as a race to get yourself cancelled. But like pineapple on pizza, he is willing to see the lighter side of it.

It’s that time of the year when some of the finest artists in the world of international cinema descend upon the French Riviera to showcase some of the finest films from around the world. It’s also the time when people who have nothing to do with good cinema or good art in general are for some reason walking down red carpets, posing for photographers, giving interviews like they care and making a meal out of what is clearly a teaspoon of warm milk. You’ll find cinema lovers with deep pockets telling everyone on social media these days that Cannes is the place to be, that it is imperative India makes its mark here, be it through our films or podiums we set up to sell tourism catalogues. But while obsessed critics and avowed lovers of cinema can toot the horn of this Western extravaganza the cold, harsh truth is that Indian audiences have chosen the path for the cinema they want to see. It heads South and it is unlikely to end up at Cannes anytime soon.

The festival this year has already had its fair share of controversies. Deepika Padukone’s   “India is on the cusp of greatness” comment has derived, rather comically, frowns from all sides of the political divide. There are people who have argued that India is nowhere close to greatness and there have been those who have claimed India was always great, hence the comment is irrelevant. There has of course been a Ukraine- related protest, curious sightings of some near forgotten stars like Michael Fassbender and an annual reminder that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is up and about. Padukone, to her mysteriously conjured credit, is on the jury this year. What has she done to be bestowed with this honour is anyone’s guess. Maybe _Gehraiyaan_ was beguiling and confusing enough to be deemed high art?

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Anyway, more than debate about what is being said and what isn’t – much of which doesn’t matter to people back home anyway – Hindi stars, who are consistently bombing at the box office would be better provisioned to survive if they look southward rather than towards the west. We haven’t been able to place a film in the competition section at the Cannes film festival for decades now and now Hindi cinema is struggling to place a hit at the theatres - maybe Kartik Aaryan will prove to be an unlikely rescue act after all. We have grown up on hallowed stories around western institutions like Cannes and Oscars, but rather than build our own, we have surrendered to aping what the west qualifies as great filmmaking rather than sticking to our own cinematic language. It’s why Hindi filmmakers have been trying to forcibly inject cinema with social causes to derive meaningful films out of them when all the audience is really asking for is good entertainment. Not all social issue films are bad, but the template has now worn itself dry and rubbery.

There is no question that Bollywood is at a crossroads, forced to rethink every step because formulas – even recent good ones – have begun to flunk at the theatres. Even a narrative as storied as 83 struggled and the closest thing we have to a superstar - Ranveer Singh - has ow struck out twice in a row. Even for his infectious energy and enthusiasm this must be sapping. The solution to this problem is definitely not available in Cannes or in the films that play there. Rather than imitate the west out of un-addressed creative complexes, Hindi cinema should maybe just embrace the soul it emerged out of. Write stories because they work for us and not because they seem socially, politically rewarding. It is the lesson you can learn from the Malayali new wave, from the likes of Rajamouli and Pa Ranjith, and from recent hits like RRR, KGF and Pushpa for they are searing, if problematic affirmations of controlled vision. They can be dissected for the many social and moral things they say about masculinity and violence, but they are, all of them, wholesomely entertaining and larger-than-life in the sense that Bollywood has never quite been since, maybe, Lagaan.

None of this is to say that indie films, deeply constructed and linguistically obscure cinema shouldn’t be made because every creator should be allowed the right to do with their license as they please. Drive it off a cliff or sit under a tree to write a poem about dissent as mist begins to circle the meadow. Do with your time as you please, but let’s please stop giving Cannes such undue importance and bemoan our lack of representation in the films and overrepresentation on the carpets. It’s still something you can obviously learn from, but there is no point bickering over our lack of cutting edge at foreign festivals and award shows. Keep Bollywood aside and Indian cinema – in a holistic sense – is already on a revival path with some smashing pan-India hits being delivered by the southern film industries. Either Bollywood can mope around and poorly imitate western ideas, haplessly recycle southern films or it can look inwards and find the soul that has for now gone missing. One thing’s for sure, you won’t find it at Cannes or its discourse.

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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