In an era of sheer uncertainty, films, music, arts remain constant throughout as means of an escape from reality. With the growing obsession with realism in films, that narrow escape seems to be closing down swiftly. While critiquing this ongoing trend, Naseeruddin Shah, one of the founding fathers of Parallel Cinema in India (or one of the avant-gardes of Indian cinema who brought realism on to the big screen), takes a dig at today’s desperate attempts at achieving realism in cinema. While cinema as a art form bears so much importance in our world, the film awards always attract quite a good number of eyeballs towards them. There used to be a time when people used to wait eagerly for the declaration of each year’s Academy or (Indian) National Film Awards winners to decide on what good stuff to watch next. But, since past few years, these once-remarkable awards seem to have lost all their charm. More or less, they all seem to be catering to only popular or politically polarising films rather than truly good cinema.
A few months back, the Academy declared its new guidelines of the “Inclusion Policy” whereby a film aspiring for a nomination must have members from the under-represented categories of society. Although this was heavily criticised by most, this is most likely to be the new norm for the rest of future. Criticising the move, many filmmakers argued that how could someone possibly know if a person associated with a project is homosexual while asking about anybody’s sexual orientation to that person is strictly illegal. This is an instance where logic and artistic criticism clearly take a back seat. This looks so similar to South Africa making it mandatory for their national cricket team to have a least number of coloured players at any cost. Or, in even simpler terms, the inclusion policy by the Academy looks not so different from the actual problems of reservation in many country’s education or job sector.
At the international level, in the cases of Academy and Golden Globes, the organisers usually side with the relatively safe baits in form of popular franchise films. I have no inherent hatred for franchise-based films, believe me. But the selection of pure nonsensical films getting selected for awards with heavy names on them really pains me. While franchise films such as Jurassic World, Fast and Furious and the Marvel films heavily rely on the nostalgia factor of their films without any real content whatsoever and try to milk money by bringing in actors associated with the respective franchises from across decades, their credibility as true cinema and as contenders for these awards once considered to be reliable and prestigious is laughable.
Coming back to the Indian state of affairs, the scenes are absolutely horrifying. Leave the Filmfare or the IIFA; for so long, the enthusiast population of the country used to wait for each year’s National Awards winners as they were believed to be the true winners in their respective categories. But since past few years, that faith in the state sponsored award has been fast deteriorating. And this year’s awards list is nothing but a mere testament to the fact that we should not be hopeful about any award in our country anymore. Earlier, it used to be just bad or mediocre films paving their ways into the list because of their mass appeal and commercial value. That stays a constant this year as well. In addition to that, this year’s many selections are not just bad films, but they are downright too problematic in nature. I don’t want to seem like making personal attacks on anybody, but I wonder how on earth could someone even stand in support of films like KGF and Pushpa! over “Jai Bhim” is simply astonishing. They are commercial hits, true. They appeal a large section of the population, true. But these aspects can never make these films’ immoral influence on the society go away, I am sure. Can you imagine a whole KGF-influenced generation that sees women as mere means of “entertainment”? Or a Pushpa-influenced generation that not only equally degrades women but also stays problematic at various levels? That’s horrifying, isn’t it? Yes, by bestowing such recognitions and awards on such films, that too by a state-run organisation, don’t we promote more such bizarre “films” (if we must) to rule the industry? At such a time, imagining these speculations to be too far fetched is nothing but foolishness.
I have had countless debates with my peers about one particular Hindi film this year: The Kashmir Files. Those have been healthy debates so far. But, not even going to those debates now, how on earth did The Kashmir Files “integrate” the nation? Be it right or wrong, if the film ever did just one thing right, then it was to dis-integrate the communities in the nation. It drew a clear line of difference between the religions. This time, this action by the authorities is not even ironical; it’s pure blasphemy and a mockery of the noble art form. Boasting about free speech, and at the same time, shutting a critic just for calling out the film at the International Film Festival of India held in Goa earlier this year was ironical, but not this, this time.
The wise organisers and jury members of these awards have to understand the fact that cinema is the most effective medium accessible by almost everybody to convey the desired messages to people. Unless treaded carefully, they can pose unimaginable threats to the whole of humanity and as people with authority in their hands, it is solely their responsibility to present the right films in front of people. Business, mass appeal, recall values based on the elements of nostalgia are definitely going to be there, and I’m all in for that kind of wild ride. But what my primary concern is their promotion by the once-thought-to-be-reliable agencies and organisations. It’s high time we put an end to this. Unless such selections based purely on their mass appeal and political offerings stop at the earliest, we are definitely going to see much darker times ahead. Before it’s too late, we have to understand that “inclusion” of the less represented does not assure the project to be a worthy one. And until then, the well-aware masses of the society need to keep their sanity intact and inflict it to others and wait together with the last drops of their hopes for better days ahead.
