This was perhaps the first year when Bollywood’s trade pundits cozied up to ‘women-centric’ films and finally saw them as a viable business proposition, thanks to Mary Kom, Mardaani, and Queen
like most years in the recent past, 2014 too enjoyed a familiar flood of releases. It had a flurry of the usual suspects, such as the big-budgeted star vehicles (Happy New Year, Kick, Holiday, Singham Returns, PK*), the surprises hits(2 States, Dedh Ishqiya, Highway), the sensationalists (Haider, Children of War) and the spate of regular same-same-hardly-different commercial fare (Jai Ho, Gunday, Main Tera Hero, Bang Bang, Entertainment, The Shaukeens, Kill Dil, Ungli, Action Jackson).
It was also the year when the old school was given the clear message — shape up (Govinda in Kill Dil, Happy Ending) or ship out (David Dhawan and Subhash Ghai’s no show at the box-office.) In spite of witnessing releases featuring almost the entire gamut of top box-office stars and the three Khans enjoying monstrous hits (Kick, Happy New Year and PK*), the year probably would have ended up being, at best, below average had it not been for a few gems such as Queen, Sulemani Keeda, andAnkhon Dekhi. A largely indifferent year when it came to the kind of subjects mainstream cinema addressed, 2014’s takeaways however are two remarkable facets seen amongst this year’s releases. This was perhaps the very first year when Bollywood’s trade pundits cozied up to the sub-genre of ‘women-centric’ films and finally saw it as a viable business proposition instead of the perfunctory message oriented fare or vanity projects, thanks to Mary Kom, Mardaani, Bobby Jasoos and of course, Queen.
But the biggest success of the year would undoubtedly be the coming of age of the indie. While indies have enjoyed success, and more importantly the critical, commercial and audience acceptance for a few years, 2014 saw a maturing of the genre as an entity unto itself.
In a traditionally male dominated industry, commercial Hindi cinema’s women-centric films would either oscillate between being statement-oriented (Rudaali, Daman, Darmiyaan, lajja, Mrityudand) or a vanity project (Raat Aur Din, Army), or often a re-launch to commemorate an actress’ return to active duty following marriage or motherhood (Aaja Nachle.) Exceptions such as a Mother India notwithstanding, women-centric films have been rare and in-between for leading actresses.
One of this year’s biggest hits, Queen, has not only been appreciated across the spectrum but may have perhaps even ushered in a change vis-à-vis the genre. For a while now, the trade had begun to view women-centric films as a viable business proposition and the success of a Kahaani made it sit up and think that maybe, just maybe, a woman-centric script had the potential to transcend the usual boundaries trapping it. Close on the heels of Kahaani, the immense popularity of Sridevi’s English-Vinglish, too, helped the transition, and this year saw not just Queen but also Mardaani, Bobby Jasoos andMary Kom.
There was also the double-whammy of Gulabi Gang, a documentary about the group of women vigilantes and activists in north India, and Gulaab Gang, the film based on the same subject featuring Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla. Interestingly, three of these (Mardaani, Gulaab Gang and Mary Kom) are based on real-life characters and while Mardaani and Gulaab Gang couldn’t generate the same response that Mary Kom garnered, they were nonetheless welcome ideas. Usually women-centric films demand a leading star whose box-office appeal makes the project sustainable. Ever since her first film, Parineeta, Vidya Balan has managed to carve a special place for herself in the minds of the audiences and her presence is enough to green-lit specific projects. It would have been possible to imagine a Kahaani with a Priyanka Chopra but then a certain part of the multiplex audience would have viewed it as, for the want of a better expression, ‘regular’ and while Balan’s presence ran the risk of pushing the film in a very niche art house category, its all-round success allowed a re-look at the rules. In the future, a film like Mary Kom that in 2014 needed the presence of a Priyanka Chopra, could be proposed without such a big name. In that context Queen truly becomes a soaring achievement as it didn’t have, in the manner of speaking, top-draw name, wasn’t based on a real event that could help raise curiosity and well, was a typical film. The success of Queen generated enough interest in its star’s, Kangana Ranaut, next release Revolver Rani, which enjoyed a decent opening largely because of her.
Being the world’s largest film-producing nation, the Hindi film industry’s output ratio tilts unevenly in the favour of the routine and this year was hardly any exception. 2014 saw most leading actors expectedly setting the cash registers ringing. Of the top stars Salman Khan hit the jackpot with Kick, Ajay Devgn returned with Singham Returns, Shah Rukh Khan struck gold with Happy New Year and Aamir Khan enjoyed year-end glory with PK. The year wasn’t too good for Akshay Kumar as his Holiday was quickly forgotten, and Entertainment and The Shaukeens couldn’t do much too. Salman and Devgn had big misses with Jai Ho and Action Jackson, while Saif Ali Khan had a particularly bad year with Humshakals incurring the wrath of patrons and critics alike. Even his own production Happy Ending, where he reprised the urbane-chic-lover-boy template that he is best known for, could hardly sustain itself.
The second-rung of stars too didn’t have anything worth writing home about. Sidharth Malhotra featured in two films — Hasee to Phasee and Ek Villian — that no one will remember by the time the next year rolls in, Ayushmann Khurrana, the great new hope, had a pathetic year with Bewakoofiyan, and Ranveer Singh contended himself with an average Gunday and the sub-par Kill Dil. Along with Kill Dil, Parineeti Chopra had another no-show with Aditya Roy Kapur in Daawat-e-Ishq. By contrast, Varun Dhawan had two solo starrers in Main Tera Hero, which did below-average business, but Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya (HSKD), a reimagined inversion of the cult classic Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge (DDlJ), was a success. Ironically, DDlJ, the film that inspired HSKD, completed its 1,000-week run in theatres and the fact that it’s still playing in cinemas while HSKD is almost forgotten speaks volumes about Bollywood!
And as expected there was a liberal dose of banality too and the top contender would be Ungli. This second high-profile flop of producer Karan Johar and director Rensil D’Silva after New York is about an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang that shows ‘ungli’ or the finger to authorities. The year also marked the end of an era with Subhash Ghai and David Dhawan running out of steam with Kaanchi and Main Tera Hero respectively. While Dhawan fared a little better, Ghai’s latest was a catastrophe. The writing on the wall couldn’t be clearer for the old school — no one’s interested in their cinema anymore.
The year was a mixed bag for the actors from across the border — Ali Zafar featured in Kill Dil and Total Siyappa, while debutant Fawad Khan had a better year with Khoobsurat, along with Sonam Kapoor introducing him as the new heartthrob. But on the subject of debutants, the spotlight was reserved for Tiger ‘the son of Jackie’ Shroff and his Heropanti. While still on the subject of debutants, the year also saw former porn… oops, adult entertainment actress, Sunny leone become a bona fide star with Ragini MMS 2. While Ms leone had already drawn blood with Jism 2, the success of Ragini MMS 2 proved that the first time around couldn’t solely be attributed to novelty.
The commercial successes of the year included Highway, 2 States, Bang Bang and Dedh Ishqiya. The Imtiaz Ali directed Highway was an instant hit and catapulted Alia Bhatt to a new league, and with her next release, 2 States, she and co-star Arjun Kapoor entered the Rs100-crore club. Based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller, 2 States enjoyed a pan-India success and along with Kick, made Bhagat one of the most successful entities of 2014. One of the earliest successes of 2014, Dedh Ishqiya was the saving grace for Arshad Warsi who had a disastrous start to the year with Mr Joe B Carvalho. Every year also witnesses a few films that are spoken about in public forums and Op-Ed pages and in 2014 it was Haider that ended up being discussed passionately.
Based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Haider transported the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark to contemporary Kashmir and walked a fine line between fiction, documentary and docu-drama. A charged statement on not just the state of Jammu & Kashmir but also the state of India and in fact, the state of the nation, Haider’s screenplay (Vishal Bhardwaj, Basharat Peer) opted for selective focus by not presenting either the Indian state’s point of view, both political and military, but practically ignored the presence of Kashmiri Pandits in the narrative. The film featured all the usual hallmarks of a ‘Vishal’ film — intense performances (Shahid Kapoor, Kay Kay Menon, and Tabu), soulful Gulzar lyrics (Jhelum Jhelum), and a Shakespearean hangover — and as expected of political cinema evoked impassioned reactions from either side.
Similarly, Mrityunjay Devvrat’s Children of War, that was based on the atrocities surrounding the 1971 Bangladesh liberation War, roused a lot of controversy because of its visceral imagery. The film was originally called The Bastard Child and left many, both in audiences as well as critics, divided into groups who either fervently loathed or zealously supported the film. Present day politics in an atmosphere charged up by the 2014 general elections also featured prominently in Bhootnath Returns, Youngistaan and Zed Plus that even had a Prime Minister (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) that looked similar to the present Indian PM.
Along the coming of age of the women-centric films, 2014’s other crowning achievement was the manner in which the indies made their mark. First seen by audiences at MAMI 2013, Sulemani Keeda travelled the global festival circuit earning rave reviews, including one from Roger Avary, the co-writer of Pulp Fiction; the film took almost a year to hit the screens in India. In spite of being hailed by industry bigwigs such as Farhan Akhtar, the film didn’t get an immediate release and yet it was widely anticipated, thanks to the great word of mouth publicity. The story of two struggling screenwriters who become sell-outs is arguably one of the best films in recent times and shows how a good product even with limited attention can manage in today’s world.
Ditto Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi. The story of an Old Delhi patriarch refusing to believe anything till he sees it with his own eyes, Ankhon Dekhi is a pure cinematic experience where very little happens as the film progresses yet it ends up being transformational for the viewer. The year also saw the postmodernist experimental film Om-Dar-Ba-Dar enjoy a theatrical release nearly two and a half decades since it was made. Additionally, 2014 would also be remembered for Citylights, Manjunath and Miss lovely… that were slightly lacking but engaging pockets of joy.
*As the writer had not viewed both PK and Ungli by the time the article went to press, they haven’t been included in the larger context