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The capitalist made of clay
Bollywood has always mirrored the business ethics of society

By Namrata Joshi

 

Bollywood's Corporate Landmarks

*              '50s The industrialist villain, greedy and exploitative Shree 420 (1955), Naya Daur (1957), Anari (1959)

*              '60s - '70s The blackmarketeer, smuggler, possessor of tainted money Kala Bazaar (1960), Upkar (1967), Apna Desh (1972), Deewar (1975)

*              '80s Critiques of family businesses, corporate malpractices Kalyug (1981), Tarang (1984)

*              2000s Celebrating hard-nosed enterprise Corporate (2006), Guru (2007)

We are in Sri Ram College, Muzaffarnagar, discussing the impact of Bollywood on small towns. "Guru shows how it's okay to bribe if it helps to get your work done", affirms a rather forthright Reshu, a student of management studies who goes on to explain how the Mani Ratnam film fired up his entrepreneurial ambitions. For this small-town boy with big dreams, the intuitive craftiness of the film's protagonist, Gurukant Desai, was a more assured way to success than, perhaps, the business theories outlined in textbooks.

Actually, this supposed biopic of business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani was the first significant, and, perhaps, the only sweeping celebration of hard-nosed private enterprise-a village boy who rises up in the corporate world by breaking every rule and subverting the system-in the otherwise idealistic, socialistic frame of Hindi cinema.

However, in the '50s, a morally dubious and ruthless 'hero' like Guru would have been the villain of the piece. The kind of guy who would modernise the timber mill and render workers redundant and jobless, like Jeevan in Naya Daur (1957). Or Seth Sonachand Dharmanand of Shree 420 (1955) who would mislead our innocent tramp of a hero into a deceptive world of scams. There was Motilal in Anari (1959), a pharmaceutical manufacturer who valued profits more than human lives, and the rich publisher Rehman of Pyaasa (1957) who had no space for a sensitive poet in his crassly commercial world.

The '50s cinema reflected the uneasy relationship of the Indian middle class with money, their scepticism regarding industrialisation, urbanisation and generation of wealth. Back then, money was seen more as a corrupter than a facilitator or a necessity. So we had perennially exploitative villains like the zamindar and the moneylender, be it in Do Beegha Zameen (1953) or Mother India (1957). This figure later morphed into smugglers, black-marketeers and businessmen making merry with their ill-gotten riches in films like Kala Bazaar (1960), Upkar (1967), Apna Desh (1972) and Deewar (1975), right down to the crooked builder duo of Tarneja and Ahuja in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983).

The middle-class mindset is changing now and reflecting a bit in our contemporary cinema as well. Post liberalisation and globalisation, wealth and consumption are no longer looked down upon. "The anxiety about wealth has given way to legitimacy. It is not something to argue with or justify," says adman and social commentator Santosh Desai. An MBA is the prized degree, B-schools are places to aspire for. Instead of stashing away savings in bank accounts, people are playing the stockmarket. "Ten years ago, Guru may not have had as much impact; it is in tune with today's times," says filmmaker Shyam Benegal.

But Guru is still an exception. In Bollywood there have been just a handful of films on the corporate world. That's quite unlike Hollywood that has periodically come up with a Wall Street, Erin Brokovich, The Insider or Silkwood. "There are major gaps in Bollywood in comprehending the corporate codes. We have either had films like those of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee where you have people working in business offices or the Kader Khan-Govinda films where business is about a feudal maalik-naukar (boss-servant) kind of a mindset," says Desai.

The earliest businesswoman would be found in Andaz (1949) with Nargis and Dilip Kumar essaying the roles. However, the theme was a love triangle, business was incidental. Trishul (1978) may have been set in the world of business but was more a revenge drama about an illegitimate son out to destroy his father's empire. Likewise, Namak Haram (1973) was a tale of friendship gone sour with Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna pitched on either side of the divide-the capitalist against the working class. These films were not about the ideology, politics or ethics of business as much as family values and emotions.

This extends to some more recent movies: Aamir Khan wore business suits and held a briefcase to pass off for a businessman in Dil Chahta Hai (2002). And does one even remember that he is actually a corporate honcho in the bloodfest Ghajini (2008)? So too in Jab We Met (2007), Shahid Kapur's businessman-hero doesn't quite care for his business till the woman in his life inspires him.

Benegal's Kalyug (1981), which transposed the Mahabharata to the world of business, is perhaps the one genuinely "corporate" film we have produced. Benegal says he made it at a time when family businesses in India were beginning to turn into corporate enterprises. "It was a transitional phase in the business landscape of the '70s and '80s," he says. The feud between the Puranchand-Khubchand family became an archetype which was replicated in TV soaps and serials, most notably in Shridhar Kshirsagar's Khandaan. Kumar Shahani's Tarang (1984) was another intelligent critique of the corporate machinery.

In recent times, Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate (2006) exposed business rivalries, the wheeling-dealing, boardroom wars and truces. Bhandarkar made liberal usage of business jargon and created a seeming realism by talking of ill PSUs, divestment, privatisation, MNCs and cola wars. But he didn't quite go for the jugular. "I wanted the common man to understand the intriguing world so I filtered the story with emotions," says Bhandarkar.

Ultimately, it's a game of audience acceptance and, in turn, the box office returns. Subjects, no doubt, are in abundance. "Vedanta, Singur, Nandigram could well be the themes of tomorrow's films," says Benegal. Of course, only if they make good business sense.

- Courtesy Outlook India