Dil chahta hai ki Luck by chance ho jaaye

After Satya and Chandni Bar in the late 1990s, the neo-wave cinema gave way to the new-age films, the ruling factor in the new millennium celluloid. Ram Gopal Varma, Madhur Bhandarkar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj are the present crop of gifted directors, who are making socially relevant and significant films with realistic touches. What is this new-age cinema?

The new-age cinema has seen some brilliant films being made like Satya, Chandni Bar, Maqbool and Dil Chahta Hai. But in all honesty these are in no comparison to Ankur, Akrosh or Albert Pinto` of the 1985's. Dev D, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Luck By Chance and Jail are good examples of the new-age cinema. Most of these films have bold themes and subjects that were not experimented with earlier. Technically, too, much has changed with special effects also adding to film’s appeal.

But does one remember a single new-age film after coming out of the auditorium except for a Chandni Bar or a Black Friday? They pale into oblivion soon and have no repeat value. Even a Lagaan or a Taare Zameen Par does not command that sort of respect and following which Garam Hawa, Ankur or Ardh Satya once did.Madhur Bhandarkar, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Anurag Kashyap have, undoubtedly, created their own audience but not in the manner Benegal, Nihalani and Mirza did in the late 1970s and 1980s.

 The new-age cinema may be the talk of the day but it is certainly not what the neo-wave cinema was once, a cult cinema. New directors should understand that form and technical wizardry do not create directors of substance. The Apu trilogy, Komal Gandhar and Bhuvan Shome, the earliest stances of neo-wave cinema, have stood the test of time as they are timeless in theme, treatment and message. After all, cinema is the greatest medium of art that needs the touch of the soul, which the new-age cinema has not yet provided to the fullest extent. Atleast that is what I think!