With the rising fever of movies among the Indian youth, the big screen has made its way into the hearts and minds of all the movie buffs. Don’t we all glue our eyes to the television screen when our favourite actor steps in?
Well, this is not just the case with Bollywood but also it appears to me that even the Hollywood of the West captured our hearts. Let it be the actions of Arnold Schwarzenegger or the romantic flicks of Tom Cruise, we do not fail to revel in the content which these movies try to show.
As a viewer, I feel the blend of both Hollywood and Bollywood in India creates a trendsetter and pose as a challenge to the regional film industries. There is no denying the fact that the South Indian films have come out of the box by degrees and from the standpoint of a movie critic, these films are doing exceptionally well so much so that a few of the Bollywood movies have been inspired from the South Indian movies. One can take the case of Bengali films as well, where there is an overflow of creative heads and directors who serve the state as well as the country with some exceptionally astounding films along with awestruck performances. They have definitely made it big. But looking back at the Assamese film industry, I feel it has sunk down.
My mother always told me about the remarkable themes Assamese movies held back in those times, where one could find an essence of beauty along with stability and content that could touch the hearts of the audiences. But with the lapse of time, the quintessence has died down.
The creativity has faded somewhere, and so did the audience. It cramps my heart every time I see a new Assamese film hoarding on the streets promoting their movie with a positive spirit and perhaps wishing people to hit the theatres and enjoy the show but nobody bothers to even look up at it. But I could sense the adrenaline rush among people when Bollywood movies like Kick, Chennai Express or PK come up. No, I am not here to play the blame-game. I am rather trying hard to understand the reason behind it. Could it be because of the glamorous world of the Bollywood actors that attracts us to watch their movies?
Could it also be because we wish to watch Bollywood films since they portray our favourite actors and a cool lifestyle with magic and masala? Or could it be because of the poor quality of the Assamese films which has seeped in eventually? It saddens me to say that the Assamese film industry is on the verge of extinction with a descending TRP.
Personally, I feel one of the reasons definitely is its denigrated quality that repels people from watching it. Secondly, one cannot find stellar performances of the actors unlike the old times, which certainly keep people at bay. Another reason could be that because we are obsessed with the Bollywood and Hollywood dramas, we rarely find the interest to watch the Assamese films.
This generation can be seen busy using youtube and downloading series of How I Met Your Mother, Breaking Bad, The Big Bang Theory, etc or have a profound indulgence on the saas-bahu serials and the likes, and if one asks an Assamese guy if he knows who Jatin Borah is, he’d probably stay mum since he is completely oblivious to these regional actors.
What I find ironical is that we know who Rajnikanth is but we do not know who Jatin Borah is. I guess the glorification of the South in Bollywood movies has much to do with it. One can even see the manifestation of the Bengali culture or even Punjabi or Gujarati cultures but never had the Bollywood films sketched any part of Assam or North East for that matter. Is it then not pretty obvious for the Indians, especially those from Assam to shower their negligence toward Assamese films?
It’s okay to be a fan of Bollywood and equally okay to taste the waters of Hollywood but at the same time one should not completely pass over those movies that their state tries to feed. I can proudly say that I am from a state (Assam) where nature plays its musical notes and artists brush their creative strokes simultaneously but we fail to see deep within the art. There are many Assamese movies worth watching and the talent of the actors pours in conspicuously. All that’s a prerequisite is an interest so that even they get confidence to come up with more brilliant films in future.
