The silent revolution

They say you can’t get commercial success if your film deals with socio political climate of the time. Your film will be tagged as ‘Parallel Film’ & will be out of the race of ‘Mainstream Film’. They say, to earn profit, make ‘popular film’ & if your film deals with a serious content you will get only ‘Awards’ instead of ‘moolah’! But today when I walked out of the New Empire cinema hall I realized why Ingmar Bergman said, ‘No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.’

Being a media student, I used to think why critics tagged films like ‘Pather panchali’ or ‘Ajantrik’ parallel film or art film. I could not understand the conflict between art & business. Why can’t we experiment with new ideas & earn profit as well? Why do we have to treat our audience as ‘dumb’ to win their heart? I couldn’t understand the conflict between entertainment & education (while being the most powerful mass medium, the primary function of Film is ‘to educate’).

Today I got my answer with 3 Idiots. Jam-packed Entertainment, stat value, splendid cinematography, exclusive treatment, wonderful plot, out-of-the-box concept and successful marketing- the film has it all. It won’t be a hyperbole statement if I say this film is a ‘path breaking film’ of our time. I can hardly remember any other film of a decade to earn as much box office success as 3 Idiots does while dealing with a social topic.

The film is perhaps answer to those cynics who burst into loud lamentation with films like Dostana or Dev D, who think modern films are the main reason of ‘youth dilapidation’. The film is perhaps answer to those directors who think people come to watch their film only to relax at AC halls, to have popcorn & cola & have their share of peek into heroines cleavage, so there is no point to bore them with nonsense intelligent films.

But Raju Hirani proved we can deliver the ‘message’ incorporated with wholesome entertainment to the masses without compromising on ‘business’. If the trend continues, it will not be wrong saying that the day is not so far when the whole Indian Film Industry might say ‘All Izz Well’!!!