Naseeruddin Shah’s critical view on Indian Cinema

5 Comments
  1. dwnpiyush 12 years ago

    Just love his interviews- there is always a lot of anguish and pain in whatever he says. How I would love to watch those 35 films. He didn’t really bash Houseful2 actually- he was making a different point.

    • Author
      sputnik 12 years ago

      Yes he did not bash but his point on Housefull 2 is a very valid one.

      I think he genuinely believed in the movies that he starred in the early 80s and feels disillusioned. I had posted that VVC festival video where Shabana was talking about how Naseer and Vinod Chopra would fight over everything and her mother had commented that only one would be alive by the end of the movie.

  2. John Galt 12 years ago

    “I think he genuinely believed in the movies that he starred in the early 80s and feels disillusioned.”

    I agree. Somewhere, somehow it has hurt him that people (most people) did not realize the power of cinema, the way he did.

    • dwnpiyush 12 years ago

      “I think he genuinely believed in the movies that he starred in the early 80s and feels disillusioned.”

      Did he really?

      He comes across as a person who was never satisfied. From whatever I have seen of him in his interviews (and also inferring from his choice of films)- he wanted to be a big star- working in art-house films might have been his strength- but he wanted more- that reflects in his choice of films- even in the 80s- he was prolific even in the commercial space- even did many B grade movies- the monetary thing could also have been a factor- leading him to accept roles such as the one he got in JP Dutta’s Ghulami. Even in the 90s he did all kinds of films- and the industry never recognized him the way it recognized an Amitabh Bachchan. I don’t know about how the media treated him then- but now we only remember his good roles and films like Aakrosh, Ijaazat, Mirch Masala, Sparsh, Masoom etc- and never really talk about his misadventures.

      One great point he made in a recent interview of his- which was most admirable- “We Indians tend to patronize very quickly. We accept mediocrity. We believe that anything without stars is great”- Something on these lines- it again said a lot.

  3. John Galt 12 years ago

    He has always maintained that the commercial cinema has always fascinated him and he wanted to venture out and try that too. Probably he did realize in time that he wasn’t the commercial cinema material barring a few successes. By the Power of cinema , I mean his vision of the effectiveness and accomplishments cinema can provide. Art forms-like theater, plays played a crucial role in India’s independence struggle. Also the renaissance was predominantly related to arts and music’s upcoming. Cinema did a lot of Europe in its infancy period itself.

    P.S. these could be just my views and not Naseer’s himself.

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