Return of the action film

Sharmistha Gooptu / Nov 11, 2006, 00:08 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

Don reaches out to a diverse set of viewers.

A substantial focus of studies of Hindi cinema has been to highlight the relation between cinema and the nation. Hindi cinema has typically articulated a popular sense of nation and nationalism, but more crucially the Hindi film had been, till the end of the 1990s, the closest call to a 'national cinema'.
For as Ashis Nandy put it, the Hindi film "had to be, to the extent possible, everything for everyone".
Since the multiplex boom, however, the Hindi film market has become more differentiated than ever before, with niche films directed at overseas and upmarket multiplex audiences on the one hand and B-grade formula films that continue to do brisk business at small-town theatres.
This makes for a fracturing of the paradigm of a national cinema, for 'national' typically stood for a cinema that was able to address the widest cross-section of the nation.

One genre that has receded as a result of the fracturing of this national cinema paradigm is the action film, which had held sway through the 70s and 80s. Since the end of the 90s the conventional action film became more dispensable with top rank film-makers focusing on love stories set in the diaspora, the mafia films or intense family dramas.
Even the period film was reinvented. Not that violence in these films was lacking. The new genre of mafia thrillers for instance had graphic violence, but was less stylised than the dhishoom-dhishooms of the 70s and 80s. These films were also intensely psychological. In other words, action for action's sake took a back seat in Bombay cinema.

Several stars with an action-oriented image reinvented themselves, a classic case being Ajay Devgan, who metamorphosed from a stunt performer into the cool, calculating mafia don of Company.
Or, for that matter Sanjay Dutt, who has seen an all-time high as the friendly-neighbourhood Munna Bhai. Others like Sunny Deol, who chose to remain the muscular action hero, tended to recede into the B category.
Conventional action cinema itself became more and more the stuff of B-grade movies. The action film understandably fell behind because Indian directors, action stars and stuntmen were not equipped to undertake international-level action sequences.
For those directors who looked at overseas markets or multiplex audiences, the action genre would be an incompetent showing because these audiences would be exposed to international action cinema.
For this class of Hindi film directors, the action film becomes viable again because of the new option to import technology and expertise. Hi-tech action has only recently been imported in a film like Krrish, where a large part of the film's budget was consumed by the digitised action sequences.
And what was still a bit jerky in Krrish has been perfected in Don. Don is a film that brings back pure action drama, and with a bang. Though inspired by and adapted from the original Salim-Javed screenplay, the hi-tech 2006 Don is more of a James Bond film.
Bond connoisseurs will easily relate to the gadgets, the Bond-like title track or the sky fight for the parachute. The film's inter-national look and slick action have been credited to the Hollywood experts who worked on it.
The questions to ask are, why is the action film suddenly back in the frontline and why a remake of Don? And what might this have to do with the question of a national cinema?
What Don really does is bridge the niches in the market for Bombay cinema created by the divergence between a more elite brand of multi-plex-oriented Hindi cinema and the prototypical action film, now largely a B genre. Conventionally, action cinema has been considered fare for the masses.
Even the Bachchan films had their strongest base in the small towns and among the lowbrow urban middle classes. Bachchan's angry young man persona was most closely associated with the lower middle and working classes, unlike Shah Rukh Khan, who is typically the urbane man next door.
The cross-referencing of these two star images and the inter-cutting of Khaike Pan Banaraswala's heartland appeal and the Hollywood style action effectively makes for a coup in Bollywood marketing. Don reinvents the B-action genre for an upmarket clientele and also has the potential to cut across the B market.
Don has resurrected the paradigm of a national cinema, where a Hindi film seemed to have something for everyone. Whether that's good or not for the growth of new kinds of cinema is another question altogether, but if Don works like Bachchan's films did, it might lead to a resurrection of action cinema in Bollywood.
Hi-tech action is one of the few genres that have the potential to grab a slice of every segment of the current Indian audience, at home and overseas. One might add few lines on the much-hyped Umrao Jaan remake. This glass palace version is for multiplexes and overseas.
This extravaganza of mythological proportions is another nation-building exercise altogether, showcasing an exotic, but Hollywood-style, Hindi cinema. This version is sure to be in the run for Oscar nominations, but the Dons to come will make the new superstars.
The writer is a PhD student at University of Chicago.

End of Article