The Yash Raj banner, despite getting the numbers right, still needs to give us one genuine, universal hit.
I want to watch New York. Not because it’s a Yash Raj film, but because it’s a Kabir Khan film,” says scriptwriter Honey Trehan.
Raj K Gupta, the director of Aamir, a film made on a budget of less than Rs 2 crore last year, which became a surprise hit of 2008, for his part, says, “I want to see John Abraham and Katrina Kaif.” Komal Nahata, one of the leading film trade experts in the country, narrates what he told Abraham when he met the actor recently: “The actor on crutches will save the Hindi film industry which has lately been on crutches.”
These are three different reactions to New York, a film everyone is eager to watch. But there’s a catch. Somehow, no one wants to watch a Yash Raj film any more. Go down memory lane and think back to the times when films like Silsila, Kabhie Kabhie, Chandni, Lamhe and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge were released. All of them were iconic and are still remembered as nothing more or less than Yash Raj films. That some of these films were declared flops didn’t prevent them from being declared as exemplars of a cinema which was far ahead of its times. Lamhe, though it flopped miserably, still tops the list of favourites for many Hindi film aficionados. From capturing Sridevi’s innocent charm and emotional struggles as a woman in love in films like Chandni and Lamhe, the banner later depicted Kajol’s transition from a young girl to a woman unabashedly in love. The Yash Raj banner, it can be argued, gave us fascinating visual imagery of romance that reached the snowcapped heights of the Alps and visited with equal ease the lush green-and-yellow mustard fields of Punjab. From mesmerising us with Kabhi Kabhie to tugging at our hearts with — despite its inconsequential climax — Silsila, the banner gave us reason to celebrate, to watch and admire commercial Hindi cinema.
Most of the aforementioned films were produced and directed by Yash Raj himself, which is why the craftsmanship, one can argue, was largely unblemished, subtle and even exquisite. The newer films from the Yash Raj factory, however, finish much before the popcorn in our hands.
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While Nahata calls Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge “iconic”, and says he enjoyed director Aditya Chopra’s last outing, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, he admits that given a choice he would prefer to watch Ghajini again. Why? He doesn’t answer, but agrees instead that “Rab Ne… wasn’t an iconic film.” However, he quickly adds: “Iconic films only come once in 10 years.” Though the film did phenomenally well at the box office (“A fact you cannot negate,” points out Nahata), it got a mixed response from the audiences. A well-known filmmaker who makes independent films on small budgets and who wishes to remain anonymous says Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was one of the worst films that he’d watched last year. Director Anurag Kashyap, interviewed on a different occasion recently, was candid in his views: the “Yash Raj banner,” he said, “are arguing with multiplexes on the issue of revenue sharing. How can they, if they offer Tashan to audiences?”
Tashan, easily one of the worst films in the history of Hindi cinema, had the glamour and glitz quotient firmly in place. “It didn’t have a story,” says Trehan with a shrug. In fact, Nahata agrees that 2008 was one of the worst years for the Yash Raj banner, a year in which it lost Rs 25 crore. “It’s blasphemous to say that the banner has lost the plot. It didn’t have a good year, but it’ll be back on track. It’s not such a worrisome situation.”
In fact, Anurag Basu, in an earlier interview with this newspaper, said that audiences felt cheated with Kunal Kohli’s Fanaa which, despite garnering the numbers at the box office, was a hopeless story. Later, added Basu, Ta Ra Rum Pum, despite a star cast, was a boring film, too. Films like Aaja Nachle, Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic, Laga Chunari Mein Daag... to name some, failed miserably. Despite the success of Bachna Ae Haseeno and Rab Ne... at the box office last year, many feel that the recall value of the films — a given in earlier Yash Raj films of yesteryear — isn’t there.
Indian cinema’s biggest production company might be back with New York and has other interesting films lined up for 2009, including Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, Pyaar Impossible and Dil Bole Hadippa. But will it be a Yash Raj film in the studio’s best tradition? That’s the key question.
