Thought I’d start this thread talk about Indian arthouse cinema, a.k.a. parallel films a.k.a. alternate movies… Although I’m open to suggestions about recent movies as well, I’m interested more in movies from the 80s’ - this was a time when quite a few movies starred the likes of Naseerudin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patel, Farroq Sheikh etc.
Yes – you got it… I’m not talking about the mindless song-dance dramas nor the socially-acceptable ‘The End’ of popular Indian films, but rather the intellectual, socio-political and communally committed body of films.
Some of the notable film-makers of the time included Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Gulzar, Sagar Sarhadi, and Saeed Mizra.
To start off, I’ll list my favourites here:
Ijaazat
Masoom
Bazaar
Lorie
Ghar
Aandhi
Avtaar
Some of the movies that are on my list to watch are the following… if you’ve seen any of these, please comment:
Yes..they are..
some of them that you might wana check out are :
Mandi ==> It is about prostitution in Bombay and lifes of Postitues.
Saleem Langre pe mat Ro ........
Drohkal ==> On terrorism
ArdhSatya
Saransh ==> Story of a old man struggling to get Dead body of his son(Who died abroad) from corrupt custom officers.
Terrosit ==> Story of a women LTTE suicide Bomber
Main Azaad Hoon ==> Sotry of common man who becomes icon of masses.Amitabh Bachchan's movie.
Manthan
Shwaas
Dombivli Fast
Mr and Mrs Iyer
Iqbal
Park Avenue
36 Chowringhee Lane
Anaahat
My Brother Nikhil
Devrai
Sparsh
Garam Hawa
Bhumika
Aakrosh
Vijeta
Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa
Umbartha (Subah)
Chandani Bar
Dombivli Fast revolves around the life of a middle class man - Madhav Apte (played by Sandeep Kulkarni) who is a pretty stubborn man and has a very ’’No compromising on my principles’’ attitude.
The starting of the movie depicts the redundancy of his everyday life with him doing the same things day after day after day …
Madhav Apte has never bribed anyone in his life and has never accepted any bribes himself. He is a very straight forward guy who has lived his life so far on his principles and is hell bent on continuing to do the same.
He sees the rampant corruption around him, the apathy of people and how everyone has the ’’chalta hai’’ attitude.
Everytime he tries to intervene or do something, he is stopped by one of his friends or colleagues who tell him to ’’forget it and move on’’.
Throughout his life, he is taunted by his wife, friends and neighbours on his uncompromising attitude, and how the ’’real’’ world does not work that way.
Finally, one day, he flips - the constant taunts and the drudgery of his everyday routine playing a major part in it.
What happens next when he flips, is what the movie is all about.
The movie depicts how every person should think, but also at the same time, sticks to the sad reality of how the outcome might turn up.