Wake up call to Bollywood

Over the weekend, I watched the newly released Hindi movie Rajneeti (Politics) by the veteran director Prakash Jha. The film is a re-interpretation of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, with a liberal sprinkling of Mario Puzo's Godfather and references to current Indian politics thrown in for good measure. Jha makes no bones about it being a re-interpretation of the epic. While in TV interviews he tries to underplay the story adaptation, there are a number of subtle and not-so-subtle references to the characters in the epic that would let anyone who is familiar with the epic make the connection.

However, what I felt interesting was not the storyline, actors, or the direction, but the way in which the epic has been adapted to modern times and more importantly, how relevant the story still is in current times. Re-interpreting an older story is not something new. It has happened over the years and even Mahabharata has been re-created at least once (Mani Ratnam's Dhalapati) along with several others (Mani Ratnam's yet-to-be-released Raavan is another example, which is based on the other Indian epic, the Ramayana). Many other attempts have also been made in re-creating the stories as-is (historical epics) without any modification, although they have typically been successful only in parts.

As any grandmother in India will tell you, Indian mythology is stuffed with stories, either due to the long heritage dating back to thousands of years, or because the wise sages in the past understood the power of stories. Unfortunately, even with such a treasure trove of stories to pick from, the Indian film industry has always confined itself to a number of formulas that somehow is considered to be what the audience needs. This sad state of affairs has extended even to the TV soaps and serials that either fall into the slapstick or sob-story categories, that is, if they are not reality shows.

The argument that is typically made is that the stories of the past are not relevant anymore. When I was a kid, I used to be an avid reader of the kid magazine Chandamama and Amar Chitra Katha, both of which typically used to contain stories from past Indian texts. Recently, I read an article where the director of Chandamama was attempting to revamp the magazine to be more relevant. When asked why the magazine has declined in sales over the years, he said that the kids of recent times, especially engulfed in all the Disney and Nick cartoons, cannot relate to the characters of the past. They prefer Miley Cyrus over Yagnavalkya. He is right.

What tends to get lost in translation is that while the context in which the stories were created (kings and kingdoms) may not be relevant today, the stories themselves are immortal, as Jha's re-interpretation of Mahabharata shows. If only the directors and producers of the mass media today take time to re-read the stories of the past and analyze the crux of the stories than take them at face value, they will realize that they have a never-ending spring of stories that will last for centuries that can potentially make them rich along the way, while providing a wide variety to the audience than the narrow formulas that are spewed out today.

Beyond the selfish goal of making money, they would also do a favour to the masses by exposing them to the morals and values such stories embed in them, either knowingly or unknowingly.