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Anurag Kashyap ruffled many feathers with his edgy interpretation of the Devdas story. When Dev D opened in India’s urban multiplexes in 2009, old-timers weaned on more sedate and conventional takes on the Sarat Chandra classic were taken aback by the fierce rawness of the film. Profanities flew thick and fast between Abhay Deol’s Dev and Mahie Gill’s Paro: the cuss words they employed reflected a reality that could no longer be ignored. Hindi cinema, which had, for long, thrived on a heavily sanitised version of how people speak in real life, had broken free and inched closer to the language of the street. The question is: has this change had a salutary effect on Hindi cinema, in general. The jury is still out. But as Gulzar says, in the context of some of the lyrics that he has penned in the recent times for underworld thrillers like Satya, Omkara and Kaminey, "crime lords and members of their gangs cannot be expected to sing like poets at a mushaira". They don’t. In Ishqiya (2010), directed by first-timer Abhishek Chaubey, the character played by Vidya Balan sports backless cholis, sings semi-classical numbers and performs household chores with complete devotion. But she can also wield a gun and use cuss words with abandon.
Times have changed. In Mausam (1975), a Gulzar film for which Sharmila Tagore won a best actress National Award, she uttered the word ‘bharwa’ (pimp) in a line of dialogue. Despite the fact that character she played was a sex-worker, many found the word too strong. The filmmaker was hard-pressed to explain the context. Today, expletives and imprecations of a far stronger nature are routinely used in Hindi films, particularly those that are cast in the realistic mould. Even Aamir Khan, who is usually conservative when it comes to the kind of films he lends his name to, shocked his fans with Delhi Belly in 2011. A black comedy produced by Aamir Khan, written by Akshat Verma and directed by Abhinay Deo, the film was criticised by certain orthodox quarters for its coarse language. A grain of realism was, however, deeply embedded in the narrative and the story of three struggling friends in Delhi used the kind of no-holds-barred language that college boys speak in a big city. Swear words have also been heard in many other recent Hindi releases that are not set in urban pockets but viewers have not been half as shocked as they were by the unfettered lingo of the Delhi Belly boys. Omkara, Vishal Bhardwaj’s reworking of the Shakespearean tragedy Othello, had the character of Langda Tyagi, played by Saif Ali Khan, referring to various parts of the human anatomy in the course of his conversations, when he wasn’t downright abusive. Bhardwaj’s latest film, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, continues in much the same vein. This time, it is the venerable Pankaj Kapur, who mouths the choicest Haryanvi swear words when he loses his cool, and even when he doesn’t. It is all done so matter-of-factly that words that would otherwise have sounded offensive do not stick out like a red rag to a bull — they only accentuate the nature of the backdrop. The increasing use of cuss words on the screen is a reflection of a growing naturalism in Hindi films and a marked degree of relaxation of norms on part of the Central Board of Film Certification. But that surely does not mean that every realistic film resorts to foul language. Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, written by Sanjay Chouhan, is a case in point. The story of a champion athlete who turns into a dacoit in central India was ripe for the use of colourful four-letter words, but the makers refrained from going down that path. On the other hand, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, in which Dhulia played the role of the principal bad guy, earthy expletives were a part of the violent landscape. Both the coarse language and graphic violence in the film were commented upon by movie critics but there was no way those elements could be separated from the socio-political and cultural context in which the film was set. Gangs of Wasseypur was in the tradition of Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994), set in the lawless ravines of Chambal. The film was stark and hard-hitting — many of its characters had no regard for the niceties of the Hindi language when they gave vent to their anger. So the debate rages. Recent films like Jannat 2 and Murder 2, both from the Bhatt camp, have certainly tended to go overboard with gratuitous cuss words, and even paid the price for the excess. In fact, Emraan Hashmi, lead actor of both films, has been quoted as saying that Jannat 2 lost substantial business because of the foul language that its soundtrack was littered with. That kept family audiences away as the young people the film was targeted at could not watch it with their elders. But a collective rethink on the part of Mumbai filmmakers seems unlikely.
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THERE’S MAGIC ON
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