Celebrity Column: Long live real Hindi cinema! writes Sajid Khan

I do motivational speaking. Most of the time, it is mixed with stand-up comedy and humour, but I also talk about my life and how cinema has affected it. Ever since I can remember, I have only watched films. I have laughed at them, cried with them, loved them, loathed them… But it has always been consistent. My life is cinema, cinema is my life.

A few days ago, during one of my motivational talks, I was speaking to a very young bunch of college students, who were interested in filmmaking. Some of them wanted to go to foreign universities like New York University to do specialised courses, while the rest wanted to join various institutions of filmmaking here. Chalo, not bad. It’s always good to see the tribe increasing. 

I asked them a couple of questions pertaining to Hindi cinema. I was aghast with their reactions when I asked them which was the most popular film of Manmohan Desai. They had never heard of him! I asked them who was Bimal Roy, and one of them said he was the guy who made Guide. Kaash uss waqt dharti phat gayi hoti aur inko nigal gayi hoti! When I asked who was Mehboob Khan, they didn’t know him, but one of them did ask me if he was the manager of Mehboob Studio in Bandra! They knew Raj Kapoor as Ranbir Kapoor’s grandfather, but not much of his movies. And they knew nothing of the cinema of Prakash Mehra, Feroz Khan, K Asif, Vijay Anand, Guru Dutt and a few more great filmmakers of our times. 

I know you guys must be thinking ki Sajid Khan jhooth bol raha hai. I promise you, this is exactly how it went down. Today’s young people between the age of 17 to 20 don’t seem to know much about our heritage of cinema.

Having said that, I thought I was being kind of harsh to them, and I felt perhaps these guys must have not seen many  of these old Hindi films. Fair enough. But I was sure they had heard of Sholay, the greatest Hindi film ever made. So I asked them who was Sholay’s director. Their expression was blank, till one of them said, “It was some Sippy guy, right?” 

Phir se chalo theek hai. Perhaps they are more exposed to cinema of the West. Let’s discuss Hollywood. “What is Francis Ford Coppola best known for?” I asked. One of them enthusiastically said, “I know, I know, I know. Isn’t he the director who made Lost In Translation?” The title of that film was very apt for the situation I found myself in! 

Lost In Translation was actually directed by his daughter Sophia Coppola, but none of these young kids knew of the original Coppola, and the greatest American film ever made, The Godfather! 

I asked them the reasons behind them not watching old movies. They felt that these films, like old songs, were boring, tacky and unreal. Okay, then! I asked them what, in their opinion, was the greatest criterion to judge good cinema. Somebody said it was getting five-star reviews, somebody else felt if the film goes to the Oscars, it was good cinema, another person said that the film must have enough special effects to make the West jealous. None of them used the word “storytelling”. And that is precisely what all the above great filmmakers believed in. Storytelling. I agree that this generation is fast, furious and ruthless. But to leap into the future, the present must be aware of its past. 

While I was concluding, one of them even gave it back to me. “YOU are a walking encyclopedia of films,” he said, “And if you know so much about films, why do you make ones which are unreal and don’t get good reviews?” My reply was simple, straightforward and honest. “I’m very fortunate to have become a filmmaker, but my mentality is always that of a public servant. I don’t think I can ever make a film that the audience needs to see. But I would always strive to keep making films which, I think, the audience wants to see.” 

The day ended well because most of the young kids pledged that they would start watching movies made by the great masters of Indian cinema. Because truth be told, sajavat kitni bhi achchhi ho, agar khana swadisht nahin hua, toh koi khayega nahin.

Long live real Hindi cinema!