How much more can the Hindi film industry fall?

There was a time when the Indian Cinema's silver screen was a battleground for some of the aces in the domains of acting, music and direction. The music, once composed by legendary music directors such as Khayyam Saab, S.D. Burman, O. P. Nayyar till R. D. Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and more recently A. R. Rehman still pulls us back into nostalgia.

Similar was the scenario with acting when prominent performers, for instance, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna (to name a few) dazzled the silver cinema of Hindi film industry. Worth mentioning, to add cherry on the cake, this all “filmy masala” was given a major fillip by the lyricists, cinematographers, directors and all the film production crew that toiled to give its audience, what may be called, a good cinema.

And then, the state of affairs changed. May be changed forever with the advancement of this new millennium. The evergreen music got replaced by ephemeral, peppy tunes (many of them sheer rip-off). The films became Friday to Friday talk-about news and, since then, this process is going on and on and on.

Since the time Dadasaheb Phalke commenced an activity, which went on to become multi-million dollar industry, everything has turned heels-over-head for Indian Cinema.
After a “still ok” period of 90’s where films struggled to have stupendous stories, mind blowing performances and legendary music, there has come a period where things are falling below par in terms of qualitative aura. Probably, it’s the “fast food” generation which is not allowing quality to gain an upper hand. Films, that post a sold-out banner in cinema halls, are still part of short-lived memories. Films are more about head banging music (backed up by the remixes of its original tracks), actors flexing their muscles and actresses who are no more that sugar pies shedding their clothes to please the “dripping tongue” audience.

In the period where Bipashas, Mallikas and many others are becoming juicy fantasies of almost every youngster, it is not unforeseen that the industry is going to a hit a new all time low in coming time. A journey stared by “The great showman”, with actresses in white sarees under waterfall, has taken a momentum which nobody imagined 20-25 years ago. The music has merely become a reason to shake the hips and the actors have taken the form of role models for this upcoming generation. Who is to blame? The makers of these films or the audience, which whistles at the “thumkas”? Now days, people like Sunny Leone and Veena Malik are becoming the news makers and are offered handsome pays for roles in the films.

The times have changed so fast… Once when female counterparts in the movie were robust performers such as Smita Patil; they are now getting gradually transformed into Rakhi Sawant and more recently into Sunny Leone.

How much more can the industry fall? Is it going to happen that the nostalgic melodies of legends such as Kishore Da, Rafi, Lata and Asha are going to be replaced “FOREVER” by Zandu Balms and Kolavari D’s?

-Alok