I love love love Aamir Khan’s latest post on his blog (http://www.lagaandvd.com/blog.php). He talks about mainstream Hindi “masala” films and why he does them, and why he thinks they are as important as the more “highbrow” films he is famous for. Here is a small part of what he says (copied and pasted, all spelling etc. errors are his :-):
“I can see that some of you did not like FANAA, and I can understant why. Happily more of you loved it. Which is why it is among my biggest hits. I want you’ll to understand that when I am attempting to entertain such a LARGE and VARIED audience it will not always be possible for me to entertain EVERYONE at the same time. People have different tastes, different emotional keys, different perpectives. And there will be times when a certain section of my audience likes one of my films better and another section some other film. I personally think that this is very healthy. I dont want to do only one particular sensibility or taste of film. I want to give myself the freedom to do all kinds of cinema. I dont want to do just those kinds of films which make a social comment, or are very logical. Sometimes I too feel like doing something mushy, mad, crude, sentimental. RDB, LAGAAN, MANGAL PANDEY, DCH, SARFAROSH, JJWS etc are my kind of films, but that doesn’t mean that I dont enjoy doing FANAA, RAJA HINDUSTANI, ISHQ etc. which are not typically my kind of films.
Remember that scene from FANAA when I am badly injured, lost in a blizzard, stumbling along half dead, when I spot a house. I need to survive because I still need to complete my mission. So I go towards the house for shelter and help. I bang on the door in desperation. The door is opened and it is opened by …..!!!… the BLIND girl I fell in love with and then ditched 7 seven years ago!!! Only now she has eyes! And I know that, because that is the last thing I did for her before disappearing from her life! She looks at me and screems my name!!! No way!!!?? How can she recognise me?!!! She was blind when she knew me! She had never seen me! She has eyes now but how is it possible that she has recognised me???!!!!! Is all this really happening? Am I hallucinating? – I am processing all this as I am collapsing and passing out and then – from behind the door a 6 year old boy comes running…!!! So thats the Rehan who she was screeming for!!! Oh GOD… then… thats… probably… my… son!!!!!!!!!!! Swoosh… and I pass out.
Where else will I get a scene like this as an actor? Which kind of film will give me the chance to perform this kind of moment? It certainly cant be a film like RDB. Only a film like FANAA will have in it a moment like this. I love it.”
He goes on to say that movies are entertainment, and whatever else you might say, Hindi films have certainly stepped up to the plate when it comes to entertaining a lot of people. Good for him! I don’t understand why so many people either only like movies like “Rang De Basanti” or movies like “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”…I’ve always felt too that there is room for both. Sometimes I just want to sit and laugh or cry my eyes out; sometimes I want to see something more thoughtful. And I have to say that although Hollywood can and does (occasionally) make good, thoughtful movies, it doesn’t hold a candle to Hindi cinema when you want a good over-the-top rollercoaster ride that wrings you emotionally dry. There is no K-Jo in Hollywood. Steven Spielberg tries, but for me his movies come off as manipulative and essentially cynical — I don’t find him sincere; I can’t picture him directing on the sets and being moved himself by the tricks he uses. I also can’t imagine a Hollywood actor of the stature that Aamir has admitting that he loved playing that scene in Fanaa (which reduced me to a blubbering mess, by the way, and I thoroughly enjoyed it).
Yay Aamir!
MemsaabStory 