Dear Members!
This is Romuz. I would like tos hare this article with you people. This article written by Mithunda’s fan, from Russia. I hope you will rate and comments.
Dada’s politics in filmmaking :
Friends, I’d like to propose the subject for discussing. A month ago there was interview with Dada in connection with his new project ELAAN launching (I’m almost sure that the majority of you read it) published both in newspapers and Net. The journalist’s very first questions were concentrated only on Dada’s recent past and his so-called “low-grade” movies. So I’d like to express my point of view on the situation and suggest you to continue: agree or disagree etc.
During the latest few years it becomes some sort of duty for everyone expressing their thoughts on Hindi cinema to blame Dada for his recent commercial releases or at least to wonder what’s going on with MRIGAAYA National Award winner. Yeah, from the point of view of more or less reasonable person his modus operandi is absolutely absurd – what’s the purpose of doing endless quickies on one and the same subject?! To be honest we must accept the fact that he NEVER shoots films on his own money. In other words there are so many people who want to make at least some money on him that he doesn’t need to look for them! On the contrary they are begging him to make one more “outrageous” movie. Above all Dada’s activities are too vast to waste his precious time on something useless. The conclusion: he considers this endless row of typical movies to be really important for him!
And now comes the question for WHAT sake goes everything he is doing. Fame? No way! Money? To some extend, yes. But not for himself. Rather for his not less endless charity projects. So his Ooty based sagas is pure charity that has NOTHING in common with his boundless acting abilities. At the same time even among those movies we could find real jewels of his enormous talent. I think it would be quite enough to name just ZAHREELA and MERI PYAARI BAHANIYA BANEGI DULHANIYA. Both are based on low budgets and are far from generally accepted meaning of “A-grade”. But Dada’s acting was absolutely GENIUS! And now I’d like to ask you. What do you think, is it really better for Dada to participate in such Bollywood hits like AKS, K3G, YADDEIN or something of that kind? I’m sure that Bollywood is NOT suitable place for Dada though I’m glad that he is going to take part in couple of Bollywood’s projects! His abilities are FAR above all Bollywood’s most outstanding achievements! For many years he had to deal with the Industry that NEVER gave him what he deserved! The reason: at that time he wasn’t free in his decisions… But the most funny thing about all this is as follows. It simply wasn’t possible for him to be accepted as one of Bollywood significant figures. The point is that Industry and Dada are absolutely different! Unlike all the rest this great actor is able to express EVERYTHING and this “everything” is no way near Bollywood typical traits! Eventually his behavior became like that of Sisyphus, an “absurd hero”. If you read “The Sisyphus essay” by French philosopher existentialist Albert Camus you’ll understand what I mean.
Another side of Dada’s approach to filmmaking is art movies such as MRIGAAYA, GUDIA, SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, TAHADER KATHA, TITLI and so on. Are there not enough to clarify the situation regarding his gift? So I don’t agree at all with statements like “he is gradually killing a fascinating actor”. Everything is on the contrary: the more recent movie – the more impressive performance (I mean “parallel” cinema or even sometimes commercial). To be honest from the point of view of my priorities in world cinema I must confess that I don’t like commercial films (including Hindi). I appreciate art world cinema. If speaking about Indian I’d like to name first of all Ritwik Gathak, Satyajit Ray, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Mrinal Sen, Gautam Ghose, Rituparno Ghosh etc. Also I’m deeply interested in films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Louis Bunuel, Sergei Paradjanov, Vittorio De Sica, Derek Jarmen, Akira Kurosawa, Takeshi Ketano, Inghmar Bergman, Mohsen Makhmalfab. It’s for you could judge about my interests.
To make some sort of the conclusion it’s necessary to point out the follows. I was so talkative trying to explain the reasons of Dada’s approach in filmmaking nevertheless I think that it’s no need to explain anything in this connection. Such person as Dada has the right for doing what’s reasonable from his point of view. His total inner freedom (unlike most of his colleagues) allows him to go his OWN way without any explanation. I just wanted to express my opinion and invite all of you to discussion.