Indian cinema hasn’t gotten rid of the trappings of the early talkie era: Gulzar | Bollywood

New Delhi, Urdu poet and lyricist Gulzar says Indian films continue to repeat the “same old cliches” of excessive dialogue, songs and fights and have not gotten rid of the trappings of the early talkie era. Ta.

Delivering the ‘Samvatsar Lecture’ at the 39th Sahitya Akademi Sahichotsav on Wednesday, the Jnanpith awardee said, “The sounds and words may have changed, but the essence of the story remains the same.”

“Unfortunately, Indian cinema has yet to get rid of the trappings of the early talkies. It still repeats the old clichés of excessive dialogue, songs, fights, chases, etc., like in ‘Alam Ara’ and ‘Hunter Wali.’ “There are,” the Marches said. ” said the director.

Gulzar said visuals have advanced with “rapid advances in technology,” and special effects, green screens and sound effects are still here.

“We can only hope that the new image of artificial intelligence shows no signs of deterioration,” Gulzar said.

The poet and lyricist was talking about writer Mohanlal Gopaldas Dave, who during the early decades of Indian cinema would submit scripts every month to meet film companies’ “unprecedented demand for writers.”

A jeweler by trade, Dave worked for the Kohinoor Film Company in the 1930s and 1940s.

“Promotional materials for Hollywood films seemed to arrive before they were released in India. He had a talent for Indianizing plots in a flashy style,” the 89-year-old recalled.

“To a large extent, aren’t we doing the same thing today?” he asked.

The celebrated poet started his songwriter career in the 1960s with films like ‘Kabuliwala’, ‘Bandini’, ‘Aashirwad’ and ‘Khamsi’. Gulzar has also written dialogues and screenplays for films during her seven-decade career.

Gulzar has also directed award-winning films like ‘Koshish’, ‘Parichay’, ‘Aandhi’, ‘Angoor’ and ‘Hu Tu Tu’.

The theme of Sanvatsal’s lecture was “Film and Literature.”

The Padma Bhushan awardee spoke about the two creative currents and how they have influenced and interacted since the advent of cinema.

Gulzar said that since the dawn of Indian cinema, the Indian film industry has been adapting literary works for the screen, such as Dadasaheb Phalke’s ‘Raja Harishchandra’, ‘Satiwan Savitri’ and ‘Lanka Dahan’. It pointed out.

“Suffice it to say that the original text underwent significant dramatic changes and improvisations. This was to make it more appealing and palatable to the audience. From that point on, the original text “Authenticity has ended even for the most sacred scriptures,” he said. he pointed out.

Citing Aparna Sen’s “36 Chowringhee Lane”, Neeraj Pandey’s “Wednesday”, Nandita Das’ “Firaak”, and Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s “Prime Minister Mere Pyaare”, Gulzar pointed to the emergence of “unadapted author-based films.” From any book, it’s more of an extension of literature. ”

“New cinema sometimes creates its own literature in its own visual language by simply writing out life experiences,” he says.

Gulzar, known for literary works such as ‘Raat Pashminey Ki’, ‘Raavi Paar’ and ‘Dhuan’, also warned against the trend of making biopics, saying, “It is very welcome, but there are statutory caveats.” . The story must not be distorted in the slightest. ”

Mr. Gulzar concluded his talk by quoting one of his favorite poets, Rabindranath Tagore.

“Around 1929, he said that ‘cinema does not become an art until it depends on words and the use of language. It creates its own literature with images in the form of,” he said.

“The producer must be the author of the film. This is called an author’s film.”

This article was generated from the Automata news agency feed without any modifications to the text.