Fisticuffs fight back to prominence
The old paves way for the new. The new, in turn, keeps reminding of the agelessness of the old, of the indelibility of the memories of yore.
The old paves way for the new. The new, in turn, keeps reminding of the agelessness of the old, of the indelibility of the memories of yore. Opinion on actor Salman Khan’s emotive powers may be split, but his recent flick Wanted did what most films churned out from the Bollywood factory scarcely do nowadays: it took you back in time to the 1970s and the ‘80s, when action films with superheroes ruled popular imagination.
Those were the times when violence wasn’t glorified, when raw brutality wasn’t etched in blood and gore under the garb of ‘realistic’ cinema. Simply put, ‘action’ then meant pure family entertainment, when stunts were designed to stunt logic, when fisticuffs, despite the lack of technical finesse, was contrived to wow the young and old alike.
clean ‘action sequences’
Rewind to the days of the all-powerful hero, some sort of a superman, who could leap up, freeze in mid-air, jump down from mountains, throw a punch that could send five people flying in the air, break through doors and glass panes, drive fast cars through busy streets, ride horses and navigate an aircraft as if playing a video game.
Remember those slow-motion shoot-out sequences reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah Westerns, those fist fights where the hero flattened 20 men and ended up with just a fetching cut on his lip or forehead?
Action in Hindi films dates back to 1935 when Fearless Nadia created a superwoman with Hunterwali, followed by Hunterwali Ki Beti. The horse-riding, whip-lashing protagonist in tight pants and high heels set the stage for the more refined superhero to step in.
Talking of the ‘70s, three films marked the turning points which established action as a bankable genre — Zanjeer in 1973, Sholay in 1975 and Deewar again in 1975. Not that they had too much of physical brawls per se, as the films have a strong emotional undercurrent, but they did establish the persona of the angry young man who could pound a handful of goons to pulp, single-handedly.
Era of musclemen
Shoulder-to-shoulder with Amitabh Bachchan rode macho man, Dharmendra, who first showed his muscle-flexing flair with OP Ralhan’s Phool Aur Patthar, went on to build on the image with Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Seeta Aur Geeta and eventually sealed it with Sholay. Time saw the ‘action’ mantle being put on by versatile actors like Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra and Mithun ‘Gunmaster G-9’ Chakraborty, probably the last action czar of the ‘80s. Auteur extraordinaire Satyajit Roy, as we know, greatly respected Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. One of his favourite films, he said, was the action-packed The seven samurai and he loved bang-bang westerns as well. The maestro divulged in one of his interviews that he had thought of filming a part of Mahabharat which would have had loads of action.
Seeking meatier roles
Sometimes a director’s wand could do magic. Chocolate hero of the ‘60s, Biswajit was never considered a testosterone-charged hero, but Manmohan Desai tried a change of image with his musical thriller Kismet in 1968. The film had Biswajit try his fist power for the first time to thumping success. Biswajit tried it again with his own film Kahte Hain Mujhko Raja in 1975, but failed. Dev Anand had director Pramod Chakraborty give him a tough image with Warrant. The film’s success could not be followed up for Devsaab by director Vijay Anand in Bullet and Lootmaar in 1982 with the actor donning the director’s cap himself.
Bloodsport in full form
As the ‘80s readied to take a bend to the ‘90s, the face of action changed. Innocent action soon became passe, raw violence was in. Action became a tool to decimate societal ills. With Rahul Rawail and Sunny Deol’s Arjun in 1987 and Ram Gopal Verma and Nagarjuna’s Shiva in 1989, flames of anger in the youth against an unjust system burst on celluloid. Action, while delineating the anger, gradually became raw and violent, often bordering on the gory. Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Ajay Devgn were only to take the bloodfare further ahead. Here’s where Wanted rekindles hope. Are we looking at a revival of the more delectable action genre of the years long past? Only time will tell.
Those were the times when violence wasn’t glorified, when raw brutality wasn’t etched in blood and gore under the garb of ‘realistic’ cinema. Simply put, ‘action’ then meant pure family entertainment, when stunts were designed to stunt logic, when fisticuffs, despite the lack of technical finesse, was contrived to wow the young and old alike.
clean ‘action sequences’
Rewind to the days of the all-powerful hero, some sort of a superman, who could leap up, freeze in mid-air, jump down from mountains, throw a punch that could send five people flying in the air, break through doors and glass panes, drive fast cars through busy streets, ride horses and navigate an aircraft as if playing a video game.
Remember those slow-motion shoot-out sequences reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah Westerns, those fist fights where the hero flattened 20 men and ended up with just a fetching cut on his lip or forehead?
Action in Hindi films dates back to 1935 when Fearless Nadia created a superwoman with Hunterwali, followed by Hunterwali Ki Beti. The horse-riding, whip-lashing protagonist in tight pants and high heels set the stage for the more refined superhero to step in.
Talking of the ‘70s, three films marked the turning points which established action as a bankable genre — Zanjeer in 1973, Sholay in 1975 and Deewar again in 1975. Not that they had too much of physical brawls per se, as the films have a strong emotional undercurrent, but they did establish the persona of the angry young man who could pound a handful of goons to pulp, single-handedly.
Era of musclemen
Shoulder-to-shoulder with Amitabh Bachchan rode macho man, Dharmendra, who first showed his muscle-flexing flair with OP Ralhan’s Phool Aur Patthar, went on to build on the image with Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Seeta Aur Geeta and eventually sealed it with Sholay. Time saw the ‘action’ mantle being put on by versatile actors like Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra and Mithun ‘Gunmaster G-9’ Chakraborty, probably the last action czar of the ‘80s. Auteur extraordinaire Satyajit Roy, as we know, greatly respected Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. One of his favourite films, he said, was the action-packed The seven samurai and he loved bang-bang westerns as well. The maestro divulged in one of his interviews that he had thought of filming a part of Mahabharat which would have had loads of action.
Seeking meatier roles
Sometimes a director’s wand could do magic. Chocolate hero of the ‘60s, Biswajit was never considered a testosterone-charged hero, but Manmohan Desai tried a change of image with his musical thriller Kismet in 1968. The film had Biswajit try his fist power for the first time to thumping success. Biswajit tried it again with his own film Kahte Hain Mujhko Raja in 1975, but failed. Dev Anand had director Pramod Chakraborty give him a tough image with Warrant. The film’s success could not be followed up for Devsaab by director Vijay Anand in Bullet and Lootmaar in 1982 with the actor donning the director’s cap himself.
Bloodsport in full form
As the ‘80s readied to take a bend to the ‘90s, the face of action changed. Innocent action soon became passe, raw violence was in. Action became a tool to decimate societal ills. With Rahul Rawail and Sunny Deol’s Arjun in 1987 and Ram Gopal Verma and Nagarjuna’s Shiva in 1989, flames of anger in the youth against an unjust system burst on celluloid. Action, while delineating the anger, gradually became raw and violent, often bordering on the gory. Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Ajay Devgn were only to take the bloodfare further ahead. Here’s where Wanted rekindles hope. Are we looking at a revival of the more delectable action genre of the years long past? Only time will tell.