The Hindu Business Line : Still crossing over?

There is more to Indian crossover films than their success with audiences abroad. Closer home, it's also a question of creating an acceptance of movies made in other parts of India in the Hindi heartland.

A still from the film Yuva.

Can South Indian directors make successful Hindi movies? After watching Yuva last week, I would say the answer depends on what you are looking for. Something different from the usual run-of-the-mill nonsense we are subjected to, week after week? Absolutely. A neat amalgam of story, sense and brilliance? Not really.

Mani Ratnam's latest, his second Hindi venture after Dil Se, comes from a director who is trying to graduate to a quieter, more contemplative style. Like all Mani Sir's movies, Yuva (Ayutha Ezhuthu in Tamil) has plenty that beguiles — the cinematography, like always, is wonderful; some of the characters have interesting quirks; the interaction between the men and the women has an adult charm. But, unlike his most successful films (Mouna Raagam, Nayakan and Bombay), his convoluted plot lets him down, the editing is not ruthless enough and the casting imperfect. And A.R. Rahman's music, which invariably adds to his movies, lacks zing.

Yuva tells the story of three young men, from different backgrounds, whose lives intersect one day, and changes them forever. Lallan is a North Indian migrant to Kolkata, and makes his living by indulging in small-time illegal tasks, like organising crowds for politicians, and by keeping their rivals at bay through the use of violence. His soft centre is his wife, whom he loves dearly even if his violent side erupts when he is with her.

Arjun is a middle-class, pleasure-seeking individual, whose sole aim is to get to the US and make pots of money, till a chance encounter with a bubbly college girl stops him momentarily in his tracks. Michael is a fiery student leader who wants to enter politics and change it from the inside; he also has a girl-friend whom he cuddles up to when he is not addressing rallies and encouraging villagers to fight for their rights.

Vivek Oberoi plays Arjun unexceptionally, Kareena Kapoor, as the girl he meets, comes up with a little gem of a performance, and Rani Mukherji as Lallan's wife, like always, gets completely in the skin of her character.

The problem is the two other men: as Lallan, Abhishek Bachchan, who has maximum screen time, is the most unconvincing of the lot. His natural refinement makes his uncouth lout an effort, despite some nice flourishes: Most of the time you can tell he's acting. And Ajay Devgan, always such a pleasure to watch, looks much too old and worn to play a `yuva' student leader.

Yuva flounders on too many counts: Its biggest sin is that it doesn't keep the audience emotionally engaged. It is a huge disappointment for those of us who believe that Mani Ratnam is a major director who can push Indian cinema (not just Tamil, or Hindi) into the global arena.

The last time we met at a New Delhi film festival do, conversation veered towards `crossover cinema'. The irony of his Alai Payuthe not being able to `cross over' from the South of the country, to the North, even as we animatedly discussed the prospects of Indian movies crossing over to the West, did not escape him.

It's not just a question of non-NRIs (read middle-class white Americans and Europeans, oriented only towards their kind of clichéd cinema) accepting movies from India as a serious art form, complete with songs-and-dances, and vaulting emotions that directors like Mira Nair and Shekhar Kapur have used so well in Monsoon Wedding and Elizabeth.

Closer home, it's also a question of creating an acceptance of movies made in other parts of India, in the Hindi heartland.

It's another matter that those movies have to be original, and well made. A couple of weeks ago, young Tamil director Jeeva's first Hindi film Run bit the dust. It came from a production house (owned by Boney Kapoor, who is, for the record, Sridevi's husband) well-known for its penchant to do South Indian remakes. The failure of some of their recent movies should have warned them about the fate of Run, with its stereotyped story and characters, which were grafted from Chennai onto New Delhi, without bothering about the authenticity of the transition.

Priyadarsan, almost the only South Indian director to have a consistently good innings in the North, with his remade-in-Hindi Malayalam comedies, and a crackling drama (another Boney Kapoor production Viraasat, in which brother Anil reprised Kamal Haasan's role with style), seems to have got a grip on what the North Indian audiences like. He tones down the volume, and allows his Bollywood stars to retain the characteristic flourishes which their fans want to see and pay for.

In Run, for example, the talented Vijay Raaz is made to do a comedy track, which may have worked for Tamil audiences, but left the North Indian audiences cold. Priyadarsan, on the other hand, gets his favourite stars Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty to be funny without being loud, and changes the Malayalam flavour of the gags into Hindi. Which is why, except for the odd movie, most of Priyan's films have done well in the North.

This awkwardness, which comes when jokes are transposed minus their cultural context into another region, and language, has been a problem with some of Kamal Haasan's Hindi movies, too. Indian comes to mind foremost for the exchanges between Kamal Haasan and Manisha Koirala's characters: they are giggling and laughing, and you know what they are saying should make you giggle and laugh as well. But the disconnect between the lips moving in Tamil dialogues, and what the Hindi dub is saying, makes the whole thing extremely trying.

Rajiv Menon, Mani Ratnam acolyte, discovered this after his Minsara Kanavu crashed as Sapnay in Hindi. First off, the lead trio — Arvind Swamy, Prabhu Deva and Kajol — just did not gel. And the jokes, which were clearly keeping Prabhu Deva in splits, did not travel well.

In his next film, Kandukondain Kandukondain, Menon kept away from distracting dubs, and used subtitles, which allows for better transfer of thought, because the translation doesn't get falsified by using another language and idiom.

Sure, by all means, let's do crossover cinema for the world. But let's begin by practising what we preach, by creating conditions that will allow free access to all the cinemas in the country, to all people.

Response can be sent to life@thehindu.co.in

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