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TV offers hope for avant-garde filmmakers
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service 

Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS) Where is Hindi cinema heading? The movement towards good cinema seems to have petered out into various genres classified as niche filmmaking, leaving the actual harbingers of art-meets-kitsch cinema panting for breath.

While various new-age filmmakers like Nagesh Kukunoor ("Iqbal") and Sujoy Ghosh ("Jhankar Beats", "Home Delivery") have benefited from the niche multiplex filmmaking culture, many of the older generation avant-garde filmmakers like Basu Chatterjee, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and Shakti Samanta, who bridged the gap between masala and art cinema, seem to have lost their way. 

The four above-mentioned once prolific directors haven't directed a film in years. In their times their feel-good middleclass romances were known as the middle-of-the-road movies. 

"Now the middle-of-the-road movies are stranded in the middle of nowhere. Basuda, who made such lovely films as "Chit Chor" and "Rajnigandha" in the early 1970s, seems to be struggling to make his next film," says Anant Mahadevan, who recently tried to do a Basu Chatterjee (a breezy cleaned-out musical romance) in "Dil Vil Pyar Vyar" -- and failed.

But there's hope. 

Zee TV's new telefilm slot called Film Club, which goes on air soon, will feature the works of gifted directors like Kundan Shah, Sourabh Shukla and Anant Mahadevan. 

These are full-fledged feature films made in the 35 mm format. 

Says Anant Mahadevan, "It could be a new beginning for aesthetic cinema. When Shyam Benegal made "Ankur" and "Manthhan" we thought a movement died. Today when Shyam Benegal makes "Zubeida" or Govind Nihalani makes "Dev", they seem to be out of their depth. 

"They should've stuck to making the films they believe in. You can't make a film with a message and then make it a star-studded mass product."

It looks like the veterans who ushered in a change are in for a change themselves. It's back to television for the avant-garde filmmakers. 

Some years ago STAR Plus had attempted another similar experiment in a slot called Star Bestseller. 

Though the telefilm as a concept has so far been a non-success, STAR Bestsellers and Zee's earlier telefilm slot Gubbare, did give us such talented directors as Hansal Mehta, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Ishaan Trivedi and Vivek Agnihotri. 

The last-named has made his big-screen directorial debut in "Chocolate". Earlier, the talented TV directors have all failed to make an impact in cinema. Will Agnihotri prove the exception?

More importantly, will the telefilm finally make an impact, thereby providing work opportunities to all those gifted filmmakers who made a big-screen impact at a time when television was in its infancy, and now find themselves jobless when multiplex theatres have opened up a whole new world for the adventurous filmmakers?