Amitabh Bachchan & Manoj Bajpayee in Aks

Every time a film has managed to swim against the tide and proved to be a milestone, the trade pundits have predicted a change in the trend at the box-office. And astute filmmakers have quickly altered scripts to absorb the audience’s shifting mood. The audience has, temporarily at least, dictated content to movie makers. This has happened time and again, and, every time, the signals are equally contradictory. The cycle of expectations and disappointments, film after film, follow a rapid and predictable rhythm of high and low, of conquest and insecurity.

After the thundering response to recent releases, Gadar--Ek Prem Katha and Lagaan, the signal imparted was that the audience was perhaps saturated with love stories and ready for socio-political dramas. The test came a fortnight later. Goldie Behl’s Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai though programmed for commercial success, was packaged with multiple social and moral issues: small town complexes, vernacular language, student immolation, hostel ragging, exam pressures and suicide, undeserving idols, media manipulation, dangerous ambitions and compromising with conscience. Logically, the youthful audience should have identified with this young man’s story presented by another young man. Instead, the amalgamation of concerns and lack of focus in the narration left them cold, with nothing to take home. Experts blamed the film posters for misleading the audience to believe that it was a love story, when in fact it wasn’t.

No such complaint against Rakesh Mehra’s Aks. The promos, the music and the film hoardings prepare you for a psychological thriller. Dark, intriguing and mysterious, the film challenges the stubborn cinegoers’ request for versatility. Here is a film far from the trodden path. Devoid of cliched festival and wedding sequences or traditional romantic song and dance. The story of good vs evil even if borrowed from Hollywood, is the first of its kind to be made back home. And the complex protagonist without a parallel on the Indian screen. The film has its flaws: script, length and repetition. Still the effort to attempt something novel has to be appreciated.

Debutant Rakesh Mehra has the courage and the confidence to explore alien horizons. In departments of camera work, sound and choreography, one has not seen such work in a long, long time. One may not agree with the content or the sinister message of the film. This is the first instance in the history of Hindi films where evil triumphs over good. But then, it’s time we got realistic for this often happens in real life too.

Culture Crossover

Nobody had envisaged that a time would come when Gujarati cinema would revive its lost glory and re-invent formula films. Virtually stagnating in the same old village sets and oft-repeated rural issues, the audience was restless for something new. Like other regional films Gujarati cinema also tentatively survived on a synthetic influence from the mainstream, but predictably failed in its execution. Until six years ago when Des Re Joya Pardes Re Joya, a social drama that for the first time was released with 43 prints within eight months, pumped fresh blood into an industry virtually on the verge of folding up.

This year another debutant, 35-year-old Jaswant Gangani, is recreating history with his bonanza project, Mahiyar Ma Manadu Nathi Lagtu. Inspired by Hum Aap Ke Hain Koun...!, the film has many firsts to its credit. It’s the first Gujarati film to be shot in Dolby, to have exotic sets, elaborate costumes, appealing camerawork and choreography, in short, to boast of a Rs 1.5 crore budget. One does feel a little let down that both Govind Patel and Jaswant Gangani despite exploring with every other department, didn’t think of a more original subject. But if Sanjay Leela Bhansali can be heralded for successfully transferring the grandeur of Gujarat into Hindi films, what’s wrong with Gangani imbibing Hindi film memories into his own milieu. It’s time, I guess, for culture cross-overs.

Dark intriguing and mysterious, Aks challenges the stubborn cinegoers’ request for versatility. Here is a film far from the trodden path. The story even if borrowed from Hollywood, is the first of its kind to be made back home. And the complex protagonist without a parallel on the Indian screen.

bhawanasomaaya@express2.indexp.co.in