GAME CHANGING CINEMA - Masaan

The word 'Masaan' means the land of burning the dead. It is just a slightly twisted version of the Sanskrit word 'Shamshaan', which means the same- crematorium. The 2015 film did not only mark the debut of Vicky Kaushal as an actor but was also the directorial debut of Neeraj Ghaywan, both artists who had previously assisted in Anurag Kashyap's 'Gangs of Wasseypur'.

Apart from receiving numerous awards, the film was also screened at the Cannes film festival. A non-commercial film like Masaan still has difficulty to bag a silver screen release in the fast-paced industry. The film was released only on 300 screens across India. Even so, it was extremely well received by the audience and critically acclaimed. The characters of the film are entwined in the class struggle, gender inequality, and morality issues in contemporary India, trying to break through and make their way out. Devi (Richa Chadda) and Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) lead two different strands of the narrative and bring it to rest along the banks of the Ganges.

It is a story of love and loss. Of life and death. All in all, the film is a beautiful work of art. It has a soul of its own.

It is unreal how important a role colours play in a film. From depicting the emotion of the scene to the time, place, mood, personality as well as genre of the film, colours broadly cover everything by it. Masaan follows a warm ColorPalette throughout the film which fits appropriately not only to each scene but also to the dialogues, the name of the film, as well as the music of the movie.

I chose to write this article after I came across an interview with the makers of this beautiful film who talked about attending a mainstream award function in Bollywood. He talked about how anyone apart from the glamorous established celebrities are called before the event, handed their awards, and asked to leave, to make space for the bigger names.

Today, the growing popularity of web content provides a great opportunity for new talent to rise. OTT platforms are providing the much-needed spaces for this new talent to seep in that have been lacking in mainstream Bollywood. It also has given a platform for the fresh faces to reach the screens as prominent characters and not just as supporting artists.

This wave is breaking the monopoly of mainstream Bollywood and big stars that have been dominating the industry and bringing a necessary change in the industry. And the lockdown has played an important role in the same.

Today, the audience is waking and thus demands quality content and not just pieces for entertainment. They critic each work thoroughly.

When Masaan was released a number of such non-commercial and slightly away from mainstream films were released which gained the spotlight in the later years; the reason may be the rise of online platforms.

Another absolutely beautiful film is “Ankhon Dekhi”. Directed by Rajat Kapoor and made on a very small budget, the film didn’t perform too well on the big screens, but in the later years, the popularity of the same has been ever-growing. Ankhon Dekhi is a story of any Indian middle-class household with little everyday problems but more than that, the film also deals with breaking the superstition behind “andha vishwas”, meaning, believing something blindly, without even having witnessed it by your own eyes. While being a perfect entertainer, these films also hold that “Timeless” feel to them and are also bringing a huge change in the Indian audience and their demands from films.

The two films have a very similar vibe, even though the stories may be completely different. Lives in small towns, little dreams, and aspirations, and family. They also follow a very similar colour pallette. The warm colours chosen by both films not give a very realistic feel to the films but also makes you feel the films, carrying a very earthy and homely feel to them.

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