I love to walk around Dhaka city. It’s not because sometimes there is no other way, due to miles of gridlock, but once someone is on the street, the pulse of the general people can easily be felt. And when someone walks, the walls of the city, adorned with posters, especially movie posters, are hard to ignore. Bangladeshi movies, no matter what we try to state assertively, have progressed very little in the last two decades or so.
As far as camera work is concerned, there has been phenomenal improvement, but cinema is not just about aesthetic shots – it’s about a consistent plot, about solid acting supported by a certain degree of credibility.
Now, the last point can be overlooked if someone is making a superhero film. Put the hero in a costume and then bestow him with all conceivable powers. But it becomes ridiculous when the hero is shown as a normal human being and who then performs amazing feats on-screen.
Yes, we have been taught since childhood: Never ask questions, just enjoy. The trouble is, when the celluloid arena, the world over, has moved away from incredulity for the fear of losing audience, here in Bangladesh, celluloid anachronism has been the staple for almost all productions. Enjoying is a little difficult. So, when we see blatant copies of Hindi film posters on the walls of our city, we are resigned to the fact that copying is embedded in our cine industry.
Now, I was a bit surprised when a group of so-called local film aficionados, supported by major actors, started protesting in front of certain city theatres to bring down the Hindi film Wanted, on the grounds that showing such films was a sign of disrespect to our culture.
Interestingly, some of the actors who were part of the protest have reportedly been slammed in the past for basing some of their films on the template of Tamil productions. And then, a few months ago, a report carried images of local movie posters mimicking, almost entirely, Hindi films.
So, are we to assume that culture is not distorted when we copy plots and poster ideas, but only when imported films are shown in theatres? Sorry, but this logic is lamentably lame.
In a globalised world, what our film gurus want is to confine the celluloid industry in a cocoon of ludicrous templates where film plots and dialogue appear as an affront to the intelligence of the audience.
Some local filmmakers have emphatically said time and again that if Hindi movies are shown in theatres, then people won’t watch local movies.
To be blunt: Why should they? First, a large number of films are based on plagiarised plots, usually from foreign films, with the current trend aiming for Tamil and Telegu movies because, unlike Hindi films, they are hard to trace as the language is not understood by the Bangladeshi audience.
Secondly, in our honest assessment of local films, we see that there have hardly been any reforms from the age-old trope in which the hero is expected to be the immaculate man with unimpeachable ethical standards.
Dialogues are trite, while female roles “copy” the item number craze (again, an imported element) with strategic body parts exposed. I hear the latest craze is the number: “Formalin mesha joubon amar” (my youth is laced with formalin).
Obviously, the lines about chastity and protection of modesty are always intact. Who can forget: “Jaan debo tobe ijjat debo na” (will sacrifice life but not honour).
Others have discarded these done-to-death lines …
Of course, no one expects the audience to juxtapose the recent arrest of an actress from a boudoir de plaisir in Dhaka to her morally righteous roles played to the letter on-screen. Anyway, I'm not going into that hypocrisy for the time being.
While the art of storytelling has metamorphosed everywhere, we insist on being stuck in a rut. I am not saying Hindi commercial films are totally rational; their main purpose is to entertain, but over the years, their celluloid presentation of razzmatazz has peaked, and the typical South Asian extravaganza has been refined to such an extent that Hollywood no longer deems it proper to look condescendingly at Bollywood.
In fact, Bollywood theatrics, long ridiculed by the West as absurd, was adapted, streamlined, and perfected by Danny Boyle in Slumdog Millionaire. Despite the dance and the candy-floss love, it got eight Oscars. So, movies do not have to be sombre stuff, just a bit sensible and with minimum inconsistencies.
The point is, banning better foreign productions is never a way to invigorate one’s own industry. We've been protectionists for so long and look where it has brought us.
A few months ago, someone suggested I go and watch Hero: The Superstar, supposed to be the top grossing film of the time. Honestly speaking, I could not sit through the movie halfway – the plot demanded I turn into an imbecile. Commercial films are not supposed to be cerebral, but there is a limit to idiocy and madness.
Since allegations of culture-destruction plus the damaging impact on local movies have been made, I want to point to the West Bengal movie industry (Tollywood) which, until 2007, was languishing in stagnation when compared to the big budget, well-crafted Hindi films. Tolly movies were austere, drab, and solemnly socialist.
Competition threatened extinction which forced West Bengal to re-think, and more importantly, act.
Today, Tollywood actors are no less glamorous, and their films are equally, if not more, flamboyant.
They had one road open to them – either live up to the challenge or perish.
The protesters here also raised concern about the closing down of theatres faced with financial difficulty, but the reason for this is because no one wants to go to a hall to watch a cheap copy of a foreign movie.
Give them visually stimulating, flashy productions with a tight plot and stop worrying about Hindi films on screen.
Cinema hall owners also need to survive and they will run flicks that bring people and sell tickets.
I remember a filmmaker from the 80s, whose afternoon lunch was in front of two TV sets plugged to two separate VCRs. He watched two movies at a time while eating and pinched the best bits from them to add to his latest project.
Hence, the roots of such copying go back a long way. So stop speaking rubbish about cultural invasion and take up the challenge like Tollywood did.
Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.