The
earlier filmmakers used to make movies, set in villages, where
people were shown facing complex problems. Stalwarts like
Mehboob Khan, K. Asif, Bimal Roy and Shyam Benegal always kept
the rural milieu alive and the urban India interested in what
was happening on the other side. Their films showing women
drawing water from a well or walking with pots on their heads or
men doing kushti or playing kabaddi may or may not
qualify as epics but these were landmark movies because of their
story and the treatment of subject. In some of the films, the
wide gulf between the rural poverty and the urban opulence was
depicted in a telling manner.
During the recent years,
filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowarikar, Aamir Khan, Sohail Tatari
etc have focussed on the trials and tribulations of the agrarian
society. In his latest production, Khap — A Story of Honour
Killing, director Ajay Sinha talks about the controversial
issue of honour killing besieging the states of Haryana,
Rajasthan, Punjab and Utter Pradesh, where a large number of
couples in love have been killed by their own kith and kin
because they wanted to marry each other and both belonged to the
same gotra.
In Ajay Sinha, the Bollywood has found a
new voice and vision.
Khap — A Story of Honour Killing by
director Ajay Sinha is the first movie dedicated to the honour
killing that debunks the age-old custom, which mandates that if
the boys and girls of the same gotra marry each other,
this will ruin their community. Om Puri plays sarpanch of
the khap panchayat, who initially believes in the
tradition of the khap, but when he learns of its ill
effects on the society, he revolts against the dictatorial
attitude of the panchayat. He takes up cudgels against
the khap, when he learns that the hero (Sarrtaj) and the
heroine (Yuvika) are to be burnt alive by the villagers because
they have decide to marry each other but they can not do so
because they belong to the same gotra. Khap is a movie
that will act as benchmark for the filmmakers, who want to
experiment with offbeat themes.
Peepli Live is a small
town satire set in a village called Peepli situated in the heart
of rural India. The story revolves around a farmer Natha, his
brother Budhia and their family. The national elections are just
round the corner and the farmers are on the brink of losing
their land over an unpaid loan taken from the government. To get
out of the loan-trap, they seek the help of a local politician,
who makes a ridiculous suggestion that the farmers could commit
suicide and their families benefit from a government programme
that aids the families of indebted deceased farmers. Budhia
urges Natha to commit suicide in order to save his land and
family. What might have been an insignificant incident in the
normal circumstances gets blown out of proportions by the frenzy
media and turns into a "cause celebre."
Journalist-turned-director Anusha Rizvi does not spare anyone
in her scathing satire. She takes on the conniving politicians,
heartless bureaucrats and mediapersons, especially from the
broadcast section.
Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Swades raised
the questions that while our cities enjoy the benefits of urban
development, technological leaps and the software boom, our
villagers still struggle even for their basic needs such as
education, electricity and piped drinking water. The filmmaker,
through Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) made an attempt to
ignite a sense of social conscience of the people to participate
in social and developmental issues relating to our rural areas.
At the end of the film, one finds a self-centred NRI turning
into a caring and emphatic human being, who decides to transform
the dark village of Charanpur into an enlightened place,
literally and figuratively.
Shyam Benegal is known for
his path-breaking socio-realistic films. So an unexpected comedy
by him, Welcome To Sajjanpur, was a huge relief in these
days of crass, crude comedies. Benegal used humour as a tool to
point out that urban India may be booming but its rural cousin
has a lot of catching up to do. The film, set in a one-hick
village called Sajjanpur, shows that cell phones and electricity
may have reached there but there is no literacy. There is only
one graduate in the whole village, Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade),
who wanted to be a novelist but ends up writing and reading
letters for the illiterate villagers for a living. Mahadev vents
his literary frustrations through these letters to a great
effect. Benegal’s films generally make people think but this
one makes them laugh, too, due to Mahadev’s antics and
letters.
Of the new breed of filmmakers, Sohail Tatari’s Summer-2007
was the story of five doctors played by Sikander Kher, Gul
Panag, Uvika, Arjan and Alekh, who, like many of their
generation, are unaware of the ills afflicting rural India.
Their month-long training in a village turns into a
soul-searching journey. They confront their own fears and
complexes along with the circumstances of the village. In the
process, they undergo a metamorphosis and realise that there is
much more to do.
Mehboob Khan’s Mother India was a
beautiful depiction of rural India. Right from the first shot of
a bullock-cart caravan carrying a bridegroom and his family to
the bride’s house, the film realistically and meticulously
captured rural India in all its splendour. The film is a tribute
to a peasant woman, who braves the calamities of nature and
humiliation at the hands of ruthless moneylender but still
sustains the values sacred to her. She does not hesitate in
killing her son when he tries to molest the moneylender’s
daughter. She is a true Mother India, who would rather kill her
son than allow him to do ignoble acts even if they were to
avenge her honour.
