Telugu cinema had a parallel evolution NT Rama Rao (NTR) taking the role of MGR.
Age of the Superstars and Gangsters:
By the 1970s, a critical point in Indian cinema was reached. The arrival of better technology, such as color pictures and a hippie, rebel culture in the West inspired a new era. The glossy film magazines demanded more energetic celluloid characters. The heroes of this new era neither were the moral superior like in the epic era, nor were the social revolutionaries of the golden era.
These new age heroes were young, restless youth with ambiguous morality and without the need to be social revolutionaries. They were gangsters, disco dancers, guitar players and college Romeos. For the young, post-independence generation these Superstars were mesmerizing.
Rajesh Khanna heralded the trend with the 1969 Bollywood classic Aradhana, that was then followed by Dharmendra's 1975 blockbuster Sholay. These two actors created conditions ripe for the biggest of them all - Amitabh Bachchan - to take South Asia by a storm. Amitabh often played the role of the Don - the king of the Bombay underworld. The heroes dressed in shiny bell-bottoms, oversized sunglasses and long sideburns, paired with skimpily dressed hot favorites like Zeenath Amman and Parveen Babi.
With film financing increasingly dependent on the underworld, it is likely that the underworld had a big role in making these gangster films with highly sympathetic and romantic portrayals of the ganglords.
Some of the most cliched plotlines at the start of this chapter come for this period. The missing brothers plotline was inspired by various internal migrations due to economic reasons that made families lose track of each other. The vagaries of the new city life brought a whole range of issues like exploitation of women and getting pushed into crimes.
Inspired by the "Big B" [Bachchan] and often remaking his movies came the southern superstars - Rajinikanth [Tamil], Rajkumar [Kannada,] and Chiranjeevi [Telugu]. Rajnikanth brought a unique style and was an instant hit among the audience. Chiranjeevi has become a political force in Andhra Pradesh following the mold of NTR.
In Tamil, actors Rajnikanth [screen name of the actor Sivaji Rao] and Kamal Haasan made career defining roles playing Tamil ganglords fighting the anti-Tamil riots of Mumbai. These massive hit movies - Badhshah and Nayakan inspired a wide range of other Tamil actors to don the same role [actor Vijay recently tried this familiar trope in the Tamil movie Thalaiva].
Age of Melodrama and Chocolate Boys:
The opening up of the Indian economy in the early 1990s brought a new era. The audience was able to watch foreign channels like HBO and Star TV and thus demanded more out of their heroes.
In the north, three khans completely took over the industry in the early 1990s. Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan were good-looking heroes and gave a rich trove of romantic flicks like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Apke Hain Kaun, and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. While the length of the movie names grew significantly, the quality did not. The Hindi movie industry looked to begin a long season of rot.
The decline in the Hindi movie industry was lapped by new age southern directors like Mani Ratnam and Shankar. Manirathnam brought the social movies back with a string of explosive classics like Thalapathi (1991) and the "terrorism trilogy" - Roja (1992), Bombay, (1995) and Dil Se (1998) - giving the audience a peek into the growing Hindu-Muslim violence without the slow pace of the art cinema. He also made Iruvar (a critical history of Tamil politics), Kannathil Muthamital (a 2002 movie on Sri Lankan Tamil tragedy), and Yuva (a 2004 movie on youth revolution). Shankar gave his own social classics like Indian (1996), Mudhalvan (1999) and Anniyan (2005). However, unlike Mani Ratnam, Shankar was not able to get significant traction in the rest of India.
Present Age (2000 - )
The Hindi movie industry has gotten back some of its mojo with Ashutosh Gowariker's 2001 classic Lagaan starring Aamir Khan that gave a fictionalized account of India's freedom struggle. Gowariker followed that with other classics like Swades (2004) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008). This inspired other filmmakers to take more serious topics in movies such as Rang de Basanti (2006), Chak de India (2007), and Taare Zameen Par (2007). As the movie audience matures, the market is also trying to cater to different niche segments instead of making the middle-of-the-fare movies that is addressed to all audience.
The Comedy Men
The masala movie tradition requires the audience to be entertained through different means. A Comedy track is often a critical element in the masala. These tracks can often go independent of the main story plot. Other times, it is often woven with the main plot. Vadivelu, Kaunda Mani, Johny Lever, Nagesh, Brahmanandam, Vivek, Jagathy Sreekumar, and Paresh Rawal all add colors to Indian cinema and help lighten up the audience before the hero makes a major fight or a romantic move.
The Music Men
The story of Indian Cinema would be incomplete without the music directors who bring the movies to life. Film music fills the radios of every corners of India and films are the predominant vehicle for musicians to deliver their original compositions. Whether it is the dusty roads of Rampur or the gleaming offices of Bangalore, you will always find Indians humming to popular film tunes.
One of the musical greats is RD Burman who composed classical works paired with singers like Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar. He was the core element in making the superstars like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan reach all corners of India. The southern counterpart of Burman, Ilayaraja was equally good and blended modern Western music with traditional Indian music.
Since the mid-1990s, the Madras Maestro AR Rahman has completely dominated the Indian film music. In 10 of the last 20 years, Rahman has won the annual Filmfare Award for the Best Music Director (the highest one in Indian film industry). Groomed by Mani Ratnam, Rahman has now become the only Indian music director who is known in the international stage.
* * *
Chapter 16: Score Kya Hai? - The Story of Indian Sport
"What is the national sport of India?"
The quiz master gave me a full toss. I was about 12 then and leading my house - Vyasa - in a school Quiz tournament. We were already winning. I was happy that I answered the questions on nuclear test ban treaties, Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and the evolving Asian financial crisis. I smugly looked at this final question. Such an easy one.
"C.R.I.C..." before I could finish, the kid next to me shouted "hockey". I was furious.
"What the ****." I gave him an angry look as he might have just costed us the competition. He was two years younger than me and was smiling at me sheepishly. I should not have picked that kid as a teammate.
The Quiz Master announced with a touch of drama, "The Vyasa team won". I was confused. How come Cricket is not the national sport of India? [In truth, it was recently found that there is no officially designated national sport of India, although Field Hockey was popularly assumed as the national sport].
26th May 1999
We were vacationing in the Andaman islands and Kolkata. One of the few perks my dad got out of working for a government bank was this all paid annual vacation. The train was approaching Calcutta's main railway station at Howrah. I was playing the game of "Book Cricket" with a random stranger in the train.
It was one of the dozens of nonsense Cricket-centric games Indian students invent to pass the boring times while sitting in a classroom. At that time we had no mobile phones to fiddle with nor Angry Birds to stay addicted to. Thus we had to be quite creative. The game of "Book Cricket" is one of those.
You just quickly open a random page in a book and the last digit of the page number is your score. If the last digit is "0" you are out. You quickly keep opening the pages and keep adding up the scores until you get out. The guy with the highest score wins.
The ingenuity of this game lies in the fact that you look like a studious boy from a distance. An innocent bystander (or a teacher) would assume that you are quickly referring to various concepts that you stumble across. Of course, to make this game more interes
ting we would add various rules and strategies. If I'm playing "an away game" the opponent would bring his book and he might have strategically folded a few pages ending with 0. If I find that out, I will call foul and we repeat the game.
The smartness lies in adding a touch of fold without a physical appearance of a foul. We also became masters at opening the book. A kid in the next class could open 2,000 pages in one hour and I could open and play even while running. We played hundreds of games and had our own minor leagues.
* * *
National Language and Religion of India
"Toss laga hua hoga. Abhi match dekhte hain," the other kid said. It was the important World Cup game between India and Sri Lanka. We had to track it right from the toss - that will determine who gets to bat first. Time to close the book cricket. I pulled out my Sony Walkman (one of my few valuable possessions) and tuned to the Cricket commentary.
Indian trains are among the most eclectic things you would see. Around us, there was a Punjabi soldier, a Bihari trader, and a Bengali government worker all speaking mutually unintelligible languages. Each of them had different dreams, different ambitions. Some were returning home from the battlefield for vacation. Some visiting relatives. Some attending a funeral. Some in a vain search for a job in the city. Indian Railways are the soul of India.
The soldier seemed too preoccupied with some thought. It was the day when the Indian Air Force started fighting back Pakistan's intruders in India's state of Jammu & Kashmir. In the next few weeks, India and Pakistan would engage in a full-scale border war named after the location of the first operation - Kargil. Maybe the Jawan was worried about getting called back for the battle?
The Bengali government worker seemed more perturbed by the massive changes in the names of India's major cities. In those few years, Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, Calcutta became Kolkata and much later Bangalore became Bengaluru. As a traveler in a government job, it was hard to keep track of all the random name changes.
The Bihari trader was commenting on the falling state of the Indian economy. Stock market and real estate market were at their nadir. The new government under BJP promised to do a lot more as they now have a majority. But, the trader was not so optimistic. He had seen enough of promises, especially from his state Chief Minister, the colorful Lalu Prasad Yadav.
"Sri Lanka won the toss. But, they decided to field. India is batting," I shouted at my friend. Immediately, the whole group's attention was on me. It was Chai time and everyone just bought the Rs. 2 tea from the railway vendor.
India might speak 1,600 languages and follow 12 different religions, but Cricket is the bond. Who cares if Cricket is not the national game, it qualifies to be a national religion and probably even a national language [if languages are supposed to aid in communication].
We might hate the British for the atrocities committed during colonialism, but we are deeply thankful of the triumvirate they left us - Chai, Cricket, and the Indian Railways.
Now, we were in the midst of all the three. Let the war, economy and linguistic chauvinism wait.
The opening batsman, Sadagopan Ramesh, was the cousin of a close friend of mine. He started with a boundary. Before we could finish clapping, he was out the next ball.
"Indha thayir sadham, indha vattiyum sodhapitan," an aunty from Madras can be heard muttering in Tamil [much more serious and profane insults in other languages have been redacted here].
"Sala, wicket close rakhna tha," people around me were passing their expert comments as we were interpreting the things the commentators were saying. The Hindi commentator was aghast that the Sri Lankan bowler Vaas could so easily clean up ballebaaz Sadagoppan’s stumps.
Dravid and Ganguly - Fire and Ice
Now, two young icons were in the middle of things - Sourav Ganguly, the flamboyant batsman from Calcutta and Rahul Dravid, the calm boy from the south. If Sourav was the film star, who garners all the attention, Rahul was the scientist, who builds all the critical stuff and moves away from the public's attention.
Like various other Indian icons, these two were discovered in India's tour of England in the summer of ‘96. [I was at that point on a train to Mumbai - one of the other annual vacations.] India might have won freedom from England in 1947, but we recognize our icons only after they conquer the Lords Cricket ground in London.
This time they were playing 100 miles away from London in Somerset County. I was a diehard fanatic of Ganguly and I was impatient to watch his action on TV. I was pushing my dad to get us a quick taxi from the station to the apartment we were renting for the vacation. I couldn’t afford to miss any of Ganguly's shots. Traffic jams were pretty bad in India's most crowded city. I knew I would miss out on Ganguly's innings by the time we got to the apartment.
But, we were in Calcutta [hometown of Sourav] of all places and the Bengal Tiger [Sourav's nickname] was in action.
People pulled the TVs from their homes and shops and brought it out to the pavement. And crowds gathered around each TV. Strangers would randomly look you in the eyes and talk as though we were buddies for a long time.
When Sourav was in form, it was Diwali time in Calcutta.
Every time Dravid was on strike, people would shout "take a single and walk away". While our political leaders often sloganed "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan" [Long live soldiers, farmers, and scientists], the common people were only fixated on the celebrities. Add Dravid to the list of soldiers, farmers, and scientists. Poor guy, he was not a celebrity, even after he scored so much.
As Sourav made the record score with his heavy sixes, Sri Lankans were out of the game and India got a chance to move to the next round. We celebrated with random strangers on the street.
How come this game of Cricket played by colonials in white, got the attention of eclectic India and acquired a pseudo-religion status? To answer that question, we have to move to another part of England - June 25, 1983 at Lords Cricket Ground in London.
* * *
Indian Sporting History
It is not clear how important outdoor sporting activity was to ancient Indian culture. While martial arts, wrestling, and related games like Kabbadi have always been popular, it is the board games like Chess, Ludo, and Snake & Ladders where Indians had traditionally spent a lot of their time on. Thus, the modern history of organized outdoor Indian sport really starts from the British rule.
In 1900, India was first represented in the Olympics by an Indian-born Englishman named Norman Pritchard. He won two silver medals in athletics and it still remains the only two athlete from India to win multiple medals in the same Olympics.
In 1928, hockey was reintroduced in the Olympics and India got a team. On March 28, 1928, a break group of men left the Indian shores for Amsterdam, aboard the ship Kaiser-i-Hind. Merely three people came to send off the Indian team on its greatest voyage.
The team had very low expectations ahead of its first game against Austria. And a miracle came in the form of the Allahabad lad, Dhyan Chand. He scored an incredible three goals in the opening match. But, that is just the start. In the five-match tournament, he scored a record 14 goals. Next highest in the table were two other Indians with five goals each and an odd German. Chand was a sensation beyond words.
Here is how India’s scorecards read:
17th May: Won Austria: 6-0
18th May: Won Belgium: 9-0
20th May: Won Denmark: 5-0
22nd May: Won Switzerland: 6-0
26th May (Final): Won Netherlands (home team): 3-0
India scored a record 29 goals with not a single goal scored against them. The goalkeeper, Richard Allen, didn't have to do a lot of work as the ball hardly came near him. Chand kept complete control over the ball at all times.
The Indian team got a hero’s welcome and hockey suddenly became a sensational sport for India.
In the following Olympics in Los Angeles (1932), India scored a record 24 goals in its finals against the home team, United States. Dhyan Chand and
his brother Roop Chand scored 25 of the 35 goals India scored in the tournament.
In the 1936 Olympics, India scored a record 38 goals in the tournament, and just one goal was scored against them in the finals by Germany. Chand was practically invincible in a global sport for over 20 years. The world missed his action in 1940 and '44 as the Olympics were cancelled due to war. The Indian hockey team resumed play in the 1948 Olympics and kept on its record path for 12 more years.
It was in the 1960 Olympics final where India would finally slip as its archrival Pakistan would sneak a goal past its defence in the 11th minute. India came home disappointed with the silver, but got its revenge in the 1964 Olympics, winning the gold against Pakistan.
India’s key strength in hockey relied on its stick work and wizardry. However, the introduction of artificial turfs in the 1970s pushed the game more towards strength and stamina, than mere art work. Indian hockey was unable to raise to the challenge and since the 1970s was able to win the Olympic gold only once - in 1980 when the Western world completely boycotted the Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Other Indian Sports
Although India invented Chess and the strategy game is a favorite pastime of a score of Indians, India never really dominated Chess until the arrival of Vishy “world master” Anand. Just a year after India lost a place at the Olympics finals for the first ever time (1968 Mexico City), an icon was born in the Cauvery delta town of Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu.
At the age of just 18, Anand became India’s first Grandmaster and won his first World Chess Championship in 2000. Since 2006, he has won the World Championship four times and also in the process climbed to no. 1 in the world rankings. Many reviewers rank Anand to be the all-time greatest Chess player.
From Tryst to Tendulkar: The History of Independent India Page 24