Bhansali Prompted This Post!
While eagerly waiting for Saanwariya, Smriti Mudgal gets nostalgic and goes down memory lane looking back at Sanjya Leela Bhansali’s earlier films
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
I had taken the pains of finding about Sanjay Leela Bhansali after his first film Khamoshi. Never before that film did I ever got curious to find out who the director of the movie was.
Khamoshi indicated to me a new kind of film direction was in offing - he made all his actors look so beautiful, he even went to the extent of making Manisha Koirala pudgy hands look beautiful. He captured all his actors expressions on close ups and didn’t waste their work on long shots.
I don’t know how many remember, when Manisha records her first song in the studio, Bhansali takes a mid-shot of Salman in a black shirt looking at a 45 degree angle. He never looked more intense.
Bhansali gave us beautiful and believable sets, remember the house Manisha lived in with her family. The grandiose of the piano could be established only because of the otherwise humble settings of the house.
Then I saw Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam - a grand leap into stardom, opulent, loud, shreiking. A non-actor like Salman actually came across as a rather subtle actor in comparison to Aishwarya Rai who threw kites at villagers, vases at family, banged door on husband’s face. Ajay Devgan as a chauvanistic, sacrificing husband was glorified for not violating the wife’s virginity. Christ!
Devdas killed me! (I’ll write a seperate post on 3 Devdases)
Black won Amitabh a National Award. I don’t remember Amitabh outdoing himself in that film. He’s done this act so many times that he’s so perfected it that its effortless now. Why is Amitabh given national awards for his rather over the top performances always - Agnipath, Black? Black looked like an act of vengeance on part of Bhansali. When he was not established he gave you a set of parents who were deaf and dumb. Film did not work, so once he established himself he gave you the protagnist who was deaf, dumb and blind.
Black was beautiful. Bhansali understands drama. He knows which chord, strung where, will make, what sound. My issue is, his sets, his backdrops, his signature style is becoming larger than the story. His actors however futile or vain look so good in the films that it doesn’t matter whether they acted or not.
Bhansali places cameras so close that one eye movement, one twitch also looks like a choreographed move.
Saanwariya is looking beautiful in the promos but there is a strange sluggish feel to it. Because there are new faces, raw talent and not a very complicated issue in hand, hope Bhansali weaves magic with a good story.
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Hi Smriti,
First of all congratulations for writing such a superb post..really enjoyed reading it…and must admit that i share ur views on sets becoming larger than characters in bhansali’s films…however i did like ajay devgan’s character in hum dil de chuke sanam…in the kind of settings he was in…i think it was an act of chivalry not to sleep with his wife widout her consent..however all in all my tots are in perfect sync with urs;-) and ya despite all..can’t wait to watch sawariyan
Thanks Supriya. I am glad you enjoyed reading the article. I too hope Saanwariya does justice to our expectations.
Nice piece Smriti,
I never looked at the details the way you do. Nevertheless liked Devdas more than any other Bhansali movie so will be looking forward to your posts on that.
Good work. Keep it up.
sanjay leela bhansali has made saawariya.not saanwariya.you very correctly named it saanwariya.why this N is missing from the title.pl go through this article…
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post_24.html
Perfectly agree with you, but a little more beyond…I was so struck by Khamoshi, not to say touched…Not only was here a beautiful film, but also the first ever great musical that I had ever seen from India, which produces each of its films as a musical, ironically. In fact, as a musical, I only place “West Side Story” and Gene Kelly’s “An Invitation to Dance” in the same bracket.
Anyway, I thought, and this was so cruel to me, that Bhansali then lost it, and is continuing on the downward path. The opulence is getting the better of him everywhere - he has forgotten that film is a story, which is to be told to people - and it’s simply that, it’s foremost only that. Rest is all gas. Pity, that he has fallen prey to his own fancies, it seems. I did not like Black, except Ayesha Kapur in it. Rani Mukherjee was a serious miscast there, besides all that opulent setting of the Wildflower Hall in Simla.