Siddharth Kumar, Author at DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Sport and Its Legions of Fanatics

By Siddharth Kumar September 11, 2022

From India’s cricket team with their legions of fans across the country to Barcelona’s Cules, sports have long been known to bring together some of the largest die-hard communities around the globe. So what happens when this fanaticism is left unchecked?

It was a warm night on 4th of September, 2022 at the Dubai International Stadium as India took on fierce rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup. In the 18th over, Arshdeep Singh – a young and promising bowler who’d only made his India debut a couple of months ago – missed a vital catch. India was soon beaten by the neighbours and even though the 23 year old bowler’s final over was the reason the team still had a fighting chance at all, his fate was already sealed in the minds of most Indians across the country. In the days that followed, Arshdeep was subjected to a barrage of xenophobic comments all over social media dressed up as “criticism”. At one point, the bowler’s Wikipedia page was even edited to include references to Khalistan.

All this blind and raging hate to a young, bright star of the Indian national team for a dropped catch. This phenomenon isn’t new. Sporting events are incredibly huge and have some of the largest viewerships of any piece of entertainment in the world. With that kind of following, it is not strange to see that these communities attract all kinds of people – even the rotten apples. Where sports are seen as the peak of human ability, the communities they create often harbour the lowest cesspit of human morality.

The more alarming thing is the incredible scale and the normalisation of these regular campaigns of hate and character assassination. Arshdeep Singh is not the first and is likely not the last in a line of victims of sports fanaticism gone wrong. In 2021, Indian fast bowler, Mohammed Shami, was called a “traitor” and “Pakistani” following India’s defeat to Pakistan in a T20 match. In July 2021, some of England’s brightest young stars had racist abuses and bottles hurled at them after they missed the chance to score in a penalty shootout that could’ve won the country’s first trophy in 54 years. For most athletes, any faltered steps in their pursuits of perfection are an invitation for the bigoted cockroaches to come crawling out ready for a new day of insults, casual racism and death threats.

Quite possibly the most ironic part of this phenomenon is that sports thrive off of their ubiquity. They unite nations, states and even localities in their support for the best athletes that represent them competitively throughout history. Unfortunately, they just as easily unite the morally corrupt against an individual. Whether it’s the racist remarks hurled at opposition players in football leagues across Europe or the xenophobia hurled at their own team’s players for simple mistakes in India, it seems like stadiums are not temples dedicated to the game but instead, a safe space for bigotry and hate without consequences.

This fanaticism isn’t only an issue against athletes either. In 1985, during a final between Liverpool and Juventus, Liverpool fans started throwing projectiles at opposition fans who tried to climb the walls to escape the violence. The ensuing chaos couldn’t be handled by the ageing stadium and the stadium collapsed, killing 39 and injuring 600. More recently, in Turkey 2013, after a fierce derby was won by Fenerbahce over Galatasaray, a Fenerbahce fan was murdered by two Galatasaray fans as perceived “revenge”. India’s 2021 loss to Pakistan in a T20 tournament was followed by as many as 14 Kashmiri students beaten up across the country. It’s a tragedy that this incredible passion in the supporters can often hurt the supporters themselves.

Such violent events might lead one to wonder why anyone would want to be involved in such a violent (and sometimes, kind of stupid) phenomenon at all? The answer is, of course, community. Sports and their fan bases allow people to find like minded individuals. They create incredibly strong bonds over a competitive game and in a lot of instances, create a rivalry against other communities. As long as these rivalries stay within the rules of sportsmanship, they are incredible to be a part of. Fierce but friendly banter is exciting – it’s the subtle undertones of hate that tend to cause harm, especially in the hands of impassioned supporters.

One could argue that the reason behind such violent atmospheres surrounding sports and competition is that they are seen as an alternative to violence in the name of political, religious or communal agendas. India’s cricket matches against Pakistan are watched even by non cricket fans because of the significance and history of the rivalry between the two neighbours. In 1940s Spain, underdogs FC Barcelona were the symbol of a rising Catalonian rebellion against the draconian Franco dictatorship represented by Real Madrid. After all, you cannot legally hurt someone you don’t like or agree with, but you can definitely beat them on a grass pitch.

However, dear reader, a possibly even crazier phenomenon is that sports with its violent hatred and disregard for consequences is seen as the more respectable fandom to follow. Cosplaying as a Harry Potter character is weird or cringe, trying to act or dress like your favourite cricketer is totally normal – and in some instances, even cool. It is okay to be sad after your favourite club loses (And believe me, if you’re like me, that’s pretty regular) but stupid to be sad at the death of your favourite character. Perhaps it’s just blind ignorance to the preferences of others. Perhaps, it’s that sports are seen as a fan base that is made up of old uncles sharing a beer watching their matches on TV while books, movies and TV shows are seen as a fan base of teenage girls blogging on Tumblr. It is strange, this smear campaign against popular culture, when the more “respectable”, “acceptable” and normalised fanaticism is the one where stabbing someone or sending death threats is a perfectly acceptable reaction to loss.

In the end, though, sports will still garner their massive followings. PSG, a Paris based football club, reported revenues of 700 million euros last year. The BCCI has a net worth of 18000 crore rupees. The Dallas Cowboys in the NFL are worth 5.7 billion USD. These insane numbers are all due to their respective die-hard fan bases that are willing to do anything to showcase their support – in a mine-is-bigger way against the opposition. Why shouldn’t you support them? It’s good fun, great team building and an awesome feeling to cheer for your team against the opposition. Let’s just not go to war over it.

Sports and ECA Quota in DU: All You Need To Know

By Siddharth Kumar August 31, 2022

For the first time in two years, Delhi University has decided to revert back to its traditional methods of Sports and ECA quota admissions. Here’s the new (old) procedure.

Traditionally, Delhi University has always offered prospective students a chance to use their extracurricular skills to boost their chances of admission to one of the most sought after universities in the country. This procedure involved a panel that judged a combination of students’ merit certificates and trial performances to determine the grace marks that the student would receive during cutoff season.

Since the arrival of COVID-19 back in 2020, the varsity chose to rely solely on the judgement of merit certificates as the lockdown and social distancing measures made in person trials impossible. However, this year, the varsity has finally brought back offline trials as a way to judge students as well.

Seats will be offered on the basis of combined ECA merit, which will be calculated by taking 25% of the highest program-specific CUET percentage score of all the programmes in which the candidate has applied, and 75% of the highest ECA score obtained from all the categories in which the applicant has been considered,” – Haneet Gandhi, Dean of Admissions

Candidates who have represented the country on an international level, including the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or the World Cup are classified as Category A candidates. These candidates shall be granted admission without sports trials.

Any other candidates under the sports quota will be required to participate in sports trials conducted by the university. There are a total of 28 sports recognised for the supernumerary sports quota and you can find the full list here.

Procedure:

The procedure is straightforward and largely similar to the one for the admissions process through CUET.

Visit ugadmission.uod.ac.in and fill the application form.
Candidates can apply for a maximum of three sports.
Upload self-attested copies of upto a maximum of 3 Merit/Participation Sports Certificates of the preceding five years between 1st April 2017 to 30th June 2022.
Candidates are then required to upload the following necessary documents and review the submitted information.
Select the programs you wish to apply for. The university recommends that candidates choose the maximum number of programs that they fulfil the program-specific eligibility for.
Confirm program specific CUET merit score.
Select your program+college combination preferences. Once again, the university recommends that the candidates choose the maximum number of combinations.
Confirm preferences.

Not all colleges offer the same amount of seats for all sports. It is advised that candidates check if their preferred college makes reservations for their sports here.

75% of the weightage for admissions will be given to in person trial performances and 25% to a combination of merit certificates.

For full guidelines: see Section 21.2, page 43 of this document.

Siddharth Kumar

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In the Marathon of Higher Education, Delhi University Keeps Losing

By Siddharth Kumar August 11, 2022

The University of Delhi is the place to be for most non-pcm students in India. Why is it, then, that the varsity is not able to compete with higher education institutions abroad?

If I told you, dear reader, that I knew where to start when I first took on this topic, I would be blatantly lying. Should I start with the insane cutoffs that plagued the varsity until this year? Perhaps the lack of teachers for advanced subjects in various colleges? Maybe the Sisyphus level pointlessness of trying to cooperate with DU’s admins?

Or maybe where it all starts and ends: the education system. It is no secret that India’s education system has lagged behind for a long, long time. Ask the first student you see about what they think of the education system they are a part of and answers range from a frustrated and tired admission of defeat to a colourful and impressive string of swears (the latter is a lot more common in Delhi though).

It might just be that universities in India are seen as the natural extension of the schooling system instead of a place for learning and growth – quite unlike their high ranking counterparts in other parts of the world. The schooling system is geared towards gaining marks, memorising book knowledge to then ace exams and DU seems to be a very similar system but without the influences of a schedule or teachers. For example, students in higher education institutions abroad choose electives and minors in fields that support their major, are their interest or are beneficial to their overall development. However, you will find most students in the University of Delhi picking their electives and by extension, their minors, based on what’s scoring and what gets marks with the minimum amount of effort. Despite learning how to score in exams instead of true learning for the 15 years of school life, it seems that students will not or cannot make the choice to expand their knowledge in an environment with experts that can offer that knowledge to them.

However, can you really fault them? After all, it’s hard to gain knowledge and gain insightful learning from experts when your college doesn’t have any of them for your subject. Delhi University struggles with having enough professors for undergraduate subjects across different colleges. According to the data shared by the education ministry, as of April 1 2022, DU has 900 teaching positions vacant. As Hindustan Times found out in its piece, as of 2019, there were 4500 ad-hoc teachers – about 50% of the teaching posts available at the varsity.

Then there’s the issue of infrastructure. Colleges across the university seem to only remember to invest in infrastructure and facilities during inspections. The University of Delhi has a long history – most of its colleges were established in the 20th century. As its reputation as being one of the most sought after universities in the country has grown immensely, its infrastructure has barely followed at all in the decades that have followed. To give you perhaps the quickest summation of this issue that I can: in April of this year, a ceiling fan fell on a student in Lakshmibai College. Only colleges like SRCC and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies have centralised air conditioning, with most other colleges having only a few classrooms that have this amenity. Some colleges, on the other hand, barely have working fans let alone air conditioning. The lack of air conditioning in most colleges, thus, made the lack of summer holidays for the batch of 2024 an especially hellish condition during the Delhi summers this year.

Which brings us to the next issue: the University of Delhi’s admin. The university and its college’s administration is notoriously caught up in bureaucratic chains. Its almost impressive inability to address issues in an efficient manner led to the delay in admissions and the subsequent start of the first semester for the 2021 season. This delay in sorting out the admission process then led to a first and second year with barely any breaks in between semesters and thus the aforementioned lack of summer holidays. In fact, the batch of 2024 have been given the long, relaxing and peaceful vacation of exactly one night after their third semester exams. The Lakshmibai incident we mentioned earlier, needed the filing of an RTI to gain any sort of transparency on the state of infrastructure within the college due to the college’s repeated refusal and avoidance to answering any questions.

Delhi University ranks 521-530 in the QS Global University Rankings. The reasons behind such a low rank for a university that lakhs of students clamour to gain admission in are varied. There is the emphasis on studying for marks, an education system that teaches you how to work hard and worry about placements that net you a decent amount of annual packages instead of growing and developing a knowledge base that goes beyond the books. There is the lack of infrastructure except for when you’re getting graded on it (ironically, just like most students including yours truly’s tendency to study the night before exams). Quite infuriatingly as a student of this university, it’s also the typical bureaucratic government administration style.

Perhaps, these are all signs of an institution that knows there are lakhs of students fighting for a seat here anyway. Perhaps, Delhi University is simply an institution that prefers to rest on the laurels it won in days gone by instead of actively competing with the Harvards and Oxfords of the world. After all, when all is said and done – DU toh DU hai!

Siddharth Kumar

[email protected]

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School Nostalgia: Republic Day Edition

By Siddharth Kumar January 26, 2022

Remember those school days when you’d actually want to go to school on the 25th of January? Back when you took those special assemblies for granted, thinking there were always more to come. Join us as we take a trip down memory lane revisiting some fond memories of school celebrations for Republic Day.

My school was shaped a bit like a stadium. Only much, much smaller. The arena in the middle was called the ‘skating ring’( it was probably a rink but we happily butchered the name anyway), but really it was an all-purpose centre. Kids would play football there, we would have boring morning assemblies, play ice and water and much more. No one really paid much attention to what went on in that circle.

Except, for when it was Republic Day. Hoards of kids would cling like saran wrap to the cold, iron metal railing and loom over it to get a peek into the centre. Imagine being squeezed in between two eager toddlers. Now imagine three taller kids wearing stiff blazers pushing you forward. Yeah, that is what it was like trying to get a peek at what went on Republic Day. A teacher would have to yell at the younger ones and pull them back, just in case a tiny tot fell right in the midst of the ‘Jai Ho’ dance.

A common experience was begging the teachers to not teach you as it was Republic Day (technically the day before but you get the feeling), and sulk when she decided to teach you anyway, saying, “The celebration is after this period only, I won’t teach you then.” If you were one of the performing kids, you were lucky. You’d get to be dressed better than all the others in the same old uniform and you’d also get to skip class. The teacher in charge would smear a bright-red lipstick on all the kids and conduct a run-through so that you were prepared to rock the show.

All in all, it was a day worth remembering. Suddenly all the little kids were patriotic, dressed in oversized white kurtas and their mom’s colourful chunnis with cute tricolour face paint adorning their chubby cheeks, chanting ‘Vande Mataram’.

A few of the middle school kids would arrive at school wearing tricolour wristbands, they were the cool ones. Then you had the ones who would bring flags. Some would bring plastic ones which would blow up in the wind making our flag look just the tiniest bit obese. Others got the paper ones, which ran the risk of getting easily torn. The third type was of the artistic kids who would make their flags with the Faber Castell pastel crayons.

I don’t remember much, but I remember Republic Day used to be great fun, especially up till 6th class. There would be pretty decorations all over the school. We would have fun costume competitions, essay writing competitions, poster making competitions, patriotic song and dance competitions and much more.”

– Shreya, a third-year JMC student

An essential part of the Republic Day celebrations was the march past. Students would spend hours on end marching to ‘left, right, left!’, dragging their feet to the dull drum of their P.T teacher, but show up with big smiles and an upright posture when marching to the tune in front of the principal. There would always be a chief guest of very high stature present at the event. You would have no clue as to who they were, but you’d look at them from afar and think of them as ‘bade log’. Even the student anchor introducing them at the function would barely understand why exactly they were so great but would say it was ‘an honour to be graced with their esteemed presence.’

No one really paid attention to that poor kid who had to talk about the importance of Republic day, ironically. It was the songs and dance performances that mainly stole the show. The dances would be on those same select patriotic songs like ‘ Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ and comparatively modern ones like ‘Desh Rangila’, making me feel like the Republic Day school experience is somehow frozen in time in these familiar melodies. There would also sometimes be a Jugalbandi dance piece wherein different classical dancers would entwine choreographies into a classical music piece, enrapturing the audience.

Now, this is embarrassing to admit, but for me, the highlight wasn’t even these dance performances. It was something much more blissful and sweet, literally. We would get an Rs. 5 Dairy Milk Chocolate at the end of it all, the perfect end to a perfect day.

Republic day brings back very fond memories of all of us standing across the circular walls of our school with the energetic dances and drama happening in the centre of the circular rink. I miss those Republic days where the hands were chilly and the wind was freezing, yet the national anthem at the end provided all the warmth we needed.”

– Nandini, a first-year LSR student, in regard to the experience

Quite frankly I miss it too. It was always a little comical when the principal had to struggle with unfurling the mighty flag before everyone burst into the national anthem. Those were simpler times when you didn’t question the country you lived in. All you saw was through saffron, white and green lenses. Ignorance truly is bliss. Celebrations felt right, the thousand turmoils the country was facing didn’t echo within you. A childhood left behind means a certain innocence vanquished sadly. As doubts and worries about the country creep in this Republic Day, I hope you see the parade on the screen and think back to your school time celebrations, escaping the current reality, if only for a little while.

Featured Image Credits: Bharat Moms

The Republic Day parade debate: Is a parade really required to celebrate our republic?

Devanshi Panda

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#DUBeatReview – The Song of Achilles: A Modern Retelling of Immortal Love

By Siddharth Kumar June 9, 2021

A tale of love and loss set in the ages of Greek heroes, ‘The Song of Achilles’ is a mythological fiction novel penned by Madeleine Miller. The following piece is a review of this modern interpretation of ‘The Iliad’, examining the portrayal of queerness at its center through the author’s personal lens.

Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.

Homer, The Iliad

A story about love, war, and everything that unravels in between, ‘The Song of Achilles’ is Madeleine Miller’s reimagination of the historic Trojan War, albeit from the perspective of an unnarrated character. Set in the age of heroes, we glide through the story of Patroclus, a young prince exiled by his father to the kingdom of Phthia, where he meets Achilles and embarks on a journey that is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.

Awkward, and often inhibited, our main character Patroclus had always found himself not quite belonging anywhere in place or spirit. A sudden shift of events finds him in the Court of Peleus, Achilles’ home. Strong, handsome, and adored by everyone – Achilles is everything Patroclus was always expected to be. This marks the beginning of an ordinary friendship between the two that soon blossoms into something far more intense and enchanting, weaving us into a tale of love like no other. One can even go on to say that it’s the classic “socially awkward hero meets popular jock” trope, set in the time of legends.

An absolute page-turner and tear-jerker from the get-go, ‘The Song of Achilles’ is perhaps the most heartfelt and emotionally pungent book that I’ve read in a long time. The story from the start doesn’t stick to any traditional interpretation of ‘The Iliad’, exemplifying the great deeds of a conventional hero that one would probably treat as a fairy tale. Rather, through the eyes of Patroclus, Miller gives us the untold account of a character who was always veiled behind the shadows of great conquerors. It’s the extraordinary life story of an ordinary person. And in doing that, she gives birth to a tale that is so human and relatable in its essence, that it makes us shake to the core while bewitchingly asking for more.

As a person who identifies as Queer, reading ‘The Song of Achilles’ was like finding a mirror set amongst the landscapes of Greece. While being a story of love and loss, that is not all that the book encompasses. When I read about Patroclus describing his feelings on first realising that he was attracted to Achilles, I could echo the confusion that came with questioning his identity for the first time. His experiences of young love and the agony of not being good enough for someone else clearly spelled out the twisted emotions that I couldn’t find words to express before. It is then this tenderness and vulnerability of love portrayed by the author – so subtle in its narration, yet so powerful in its essence – that left me stung by a swarm of inexplicable emotions.

Perhaps the most redeeming factor of this book is that it doesn’t present itself as “a Queer love story”. Miller doesn’t place the protagonists’ Queerness as a distinction against prevailing heteronormativity – something that modern LGBTQIA+ centric romances are so fond of creating. We see no fetishization of the characters; they aren’t portrayed as alien species who’ve just discovered superhuman powers in the form of their sexuality, but just as two teenagers discovering the sweet reality of caring for each other. There is no need created for a grandiose “coming out” scene. And most of all, Achilles and Patroclus aren’t narrated to cater to the straight gaze. It is ironic that as a Queer individual, I could find more of myself between the lines of a mythological story than any modern Queer romances.

At its heart, the book is everything you want from a modern rendition of an age-old romance: raw, soft, melancholic. Reading lines like “He is half of my soul, as the poets say” and “our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other” filled me with the bittersweet hope that love always brings. Miller’s rhapsodic descriptions and poetic voice are distinctively a literary symphony in themselves. To put it into metaphor, the book feels like the gentle warmth of sunlight on your back after a raging stormy day.

The biggest take back from the book for me was that it reignited the belief that love is indeed the most powerful force of nature, whether it’s on the battlefields of Ancient Greece or in 21st-century urban relationships. A tapestry of love that reeks of possibility and pain, ‘The Song of Achilles’ will be my foremost recommendation to everyone I ever meet. To all readers I’d say, quit romanticizing ‘Call Me By Your Name’ as the pioneer of young Queer love narration and pick up ‘The Song of Achilles’. I’m sure Achilles would be glad to know that his love for Patroclus didn’t end up being remembered as his Achilles’ Heel, but as a force so powerful, it helped all of us Heal.

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Featured Image Credits: All Characters Wanted

Molina Singh

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Sex Amma: Into The World of Vulvodynia

By Siddharth Kumar March 26, 2021

A quotidian experience in the lives of numerous women, both young and aged; Amma is here to share her take to make sure it doesn’t hamper your sex life!

Dear Idlis,

A few of you, my cute macchis have been revealing to me about the sensation of pain around the opening of your vaginas on a regular basis or while trying to pleasure yourselves or when your handsome medu vada tries to touch it while cooking up the delicious meal of sambhar for my idli.

No need to worry my macchis as your Amma is here for you, always. A medical condition in nature, the experience of chronic pain around the opening of your vagina is termed as ‘vulvodynia’ and more than 1 million idlis per year suffer from this; with many of them, shying away to disclose the same to their doctors. The pain, irritation or burning sensation becomes unbearable when an idli sits at one place for a long period of time and sex seems like an impossible journey to travel.

My smart idlis do not shy away when you encounter symptoms such as burning, itching, sourness or stinginess around the vaginal opening coupled with painful intercourse with your cute dosa. The pain might be a temporary friend that only makes its entrance when my little idli is provoked while for some idlis, it has become their best friend that makes one feel his/her presence always even without any provocation.

In the same way, some macchis might feel the stinging sensation in their entire vaginal area while some bear the not-so-desirable feeling only around their vaginal opening. One can decipher a similar condition known as vestibulodynia where pain occurs only when pressure is applied for penetration around the entrance of the vagina.

Causes for the above medical condition has still not been deciphered by the doctors but they have delineated some of the factors why my macchis are going through the situation such as hormonal changes, injury to or irritation of the nerves surrounding your vulvar region, allergies or sensitivity skin, past vaginal infections and muscle spasm or weakness in the pelvic floor, which supports the uterus, bladder and bowel.

While vulvodynia can act as a barrier in your sex life, it can also be seen as the beholder of several emotional complications as well such as the birth of another medical condition known as vaginismus due to the bottling up of the fear of sex, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, sexual dysfunction, etcetera; thus making my little idli forlorn. But, don’t worry while Amma prepares for you the remedy curry!

First things first, Amma would advise you to immediately see a doctor or seek a referral for a gynaecologist for the same. Be frank to your gynaecologist about the area of pain, the intensity of pain and the history of your medical life if any; with the aftermath treatment following medications, counselling, physical therapies, etcetera.

My idlis on your part, avoid wearing tight undergarments. Choose cotton ones over any other cloth material. Whenever you wash your malar, make sure you do it with plain water without the usage of any soap or lubricant that will be harsh on your delicate skin. When you try to cook sambhar along with your dosa, use an unflavoured lubricant and also, don’t force yourself to do it just to maintain your relationship. If the pain persists, talk to your dosa and I am sure, my dosa will listen and understand you. Most importantly, make sure you get enough sleep and don’t take too much stress, my macchis!

So, Amma is done for the week on this important yet hidden topic that most of my macchis face daily. If you have any further sex-related doubts, just ping me up.

Wishing all of my macchis and idlis, a healthy genital well-being!

With love,

Sex Amma

[email protected]

Feature Image Credits: Uncomfortable Revolution

Write to me your sex-related queries at [email protected] and Amma will sort them for you!

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Indian Cinema: A Flashback in Retrospect

By Siddharth Kumar February 13, 2021

According to an estimate, approximately fourteen million Indians visit cinemas daily to watch films. In 2012 alone, Bollywood sold around 2.6 billion tickets as opposed to Hollywood’s 1.36 billion tickets. This article attempts to look into how Indian Cinema came into being and has evolved over the decades to become what we binge-watch on our screens every day now.

Cinema as an art and aesthetic has always been integral to Indian culture. More than that, some would even go on to call it a predilection which connects us Indians, in a rather transcendental manner. Most of us feel connected anywhere and everywhere because of these shared memories – then be it the uncountable times when Raj swept us off our feet or Amir’s Pehla Nasha, we all mutually yet exclusively share the sentiment. From artists to celebrities, big screens to web series, the stereotyped hero to the now not-so-conventional protagonists – Hindi cinema has infused distinct colors in all of our lives.

https://twitter.com/FilmHistoryPic/status/1357970141200449536

Let’s turn through the pages a little bit to set the tone for this inexplicable journey that we are going to look into, shall we?
The history of Indian Cinema goes back to the nineteenth century. In 1896, the very first films shot by the Lumiere Brothers were shown in Mumbai (then Bombay). It was not much later that Dada Saheb Phalke, a scholar of Indian languages and culture ventured India’s foremost full-length silent Marathi film, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913, and thereby laid the foundation of a regular feature film industry in India. India’s first talkie, ‘Alam Ara’, directed and released by Ardeshir Irani in 1931 was an instant hit and paved way for future successes.

Satyajit Ray’s classic film ‘Pather Panchali’ released in 1953 proved to be a major breakthrough for the Indian film industry in the global scene that won the reputed Cannes award in the best film category and led to several international and domestic honors and awards. Several films from that era, for e.g. Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’, Mehboob Khan’s ‘Mother India'(1957), Raj Kapoor’s ‘Shree 420’ (1955) and ‘Awaraa'(1951), Guru Dutt’s ‘Pyasa'(1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), set new records at the box office. These films highlighted social themes mainly dealing with the working class. Ever since the social realist film Neecha Nagar won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival, Hindi films were frequently in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film festival throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, with some of them winning major prizes at the festival.

The Golden Age

The late 1940s to early 1960s are what the film historians refer to as the Golden Age of Hindi Cinema. Parallel Cinema, an alternative to the mainstream Indian cinema, originated in Bengal in the 1950s. It is known for its serious content realism and naturalism. The social films of V. Shantaram, more than anything else, paved the way for an entire set of directors who took it upon themselves to interrogate not only the institutions of marriage, dowry, and widowhood, but the grave inequities created by caste and class distinctions. Some of the social problems received their most unequivocal interpretation and expression in Achhut Kanya (“Untouchable Girl”, 1936), a film directed by Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies. Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ (1953), which shows the influence of Italian neo-realism, explored the hard life of the rural peasantry under the harshest conditions.

https://twitter.com/FilmHistoryPic/status/1358419024934240259

In the meantime, the Hindi cinema had seen the rise of its first acknowledged genius, Guru Dutt, whose films critiqued the conventions of society and deplored the conditions which induce artists to relinquish their inspiration. From Barua’s Devdas (1935) to Guru Dutt’s ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam’ (1962), the motif of “predestined love” remained in the epicentre with a mawkish sentiment characterising even the best of the Hindi cinema before the arrival of the new or alternative Indian cinema in the 1970s.

The Masala Movies and Trendsetters

By mid-seventies, love stories gave way to the violent action themes about gangsters. Hindi Cinema, more or less came to be characterised by conventional and stereotypical storylines, item numbers, and verbose drama. Amitabh Bachchan is the iconic star known for his angry young man roles. He dominated the silver screen with other male leads like Mithun Chakraborty and Anil Kapoor and female actresses including Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha for several years. The 1970s, thus marked the upsurge of commercial movies with trendsetter films such as Sholay (1975). Some would even go on to call the seventies, the era of the advent of ‘masala movies’ in Bollywood. The prominent actor and director, Manmohan Desai became the father of such Masala movies –

“I want people to forget their misery. I want to take them into a dream world where there is no poverty, where there are no beggars, where fate is kind and god is busy looking after its flock.”

In the late eighties and early nineties, once again the trend changed in Indian cinema and there was a marked shift from gangster movies to romantic musicals. Family-oriented films such as Mr India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). A new breed of stars emerged from these films including Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla and Kajol. It was also the age of action and comedy cinema and film stars such as Govinda and Akshay Kumar and actresses like Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor often cast for the particular genre of the films.

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Return to Political Sensibility

The nineties was known for the launch of unique artists and independent filmmakers who also acquired commercial success with critical acclaim. Satya (1998), directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap was the best example of it which marked the beginning of a distinctive films category recognized as Mumbai noir, metropolitan flicks projecting societal issues in Mumbai city.

Ghatak went on to serve as Director of the Film and Television School at Pune, from where the first generation of a new breed of Indian film-makers and actors – Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, and Om Puri among the latter was to emerge. These film-makers, such as Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, and Saeed Mirza, exhibited a different aesthetic and political sensibility and were inclined to explore the caste and class contradictions of Indian society, the nature of oppression suffered by women, the dislocations created by industrialism and the migration from rural to urban areas, the problem of landlessness, the impotency of ordinary democratic and constitutional procedures of redress, and so on.

The 2000s: Our-Generation-Cinema

The decade of 2000s saw significant changes in terms of the cinematography, storylines, artists, and even the themes explored. Hindi Cinema witnessed a gradual digression back to the themes of exploring the day-to-day lives and challenges of the common man, so much so that the masculinist macho Raj Kapoor of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi became Balram, the drop-out from The White Tiger. The focus, then, became not turning it into the dreamy blockbuster but an artwork that can resonate with the working middle-class. The leading production houses in India including Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions experimented with innovative contemporary films such as Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Chak De India (2007), and My Name is Khan (2010). Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films and is considered to be a homage to Hindi commercial cinema.

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With the Hindi Cinema resonating with not only the people within Indian borders but also beyond, the picture has drastically shifted in contemporary times. Newer broadcast mediums such as Alt Balaji, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, Indian Cinema has something in store for each and every one of us – every genre, every sentiment. The advent of new pop culture terminologies such as “binge-watch” and “Netflix and chill” has made possible for both the filmmakers and the audience to explore and experiment with unconventional belief systems and artforms, paving way for new normatives. For instance, the recent Netflix buzzes The White Tiger and Sir explore an unconventional protagonist, alternative storylines and breaking out of the stereotypical taboo systems.

Perhaps, instead of calling it a new normative, it can also be looked at as returning to our roots instead. From Lagaan (2001) and Rang De Basanti (2006) to Tamasha (2015) and Thappad (2019) – all break free of the conventional set norm to venture into what really needs to be talked about, something that not only resonates with the common man but also leaves space for discursive ideas and advancement. Pink (2016), Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), Badhaai Ho (2018), Mardaani 2 (2019) and the list goes on.

From giving us romance goals like Raj Kapoor in the 40s to portraying six-pack abs as a must-have for the primary male protagonist like John Abrahams and Salman Khan to eventually venture back into the idea of exploring with unconventional storylines only to break out of the norm and create relatable binge-worthy content – Indian Cinema has come a long way. Now our lead can be just as lost as we are, trying to make sense of what life is like our Ved of ‘Tamasha’ or as ambitious as Balram of The White Tiger whose only intention is to rise up the social ladder and make a name for himself (pretty much all that we are trying to do here)! Even women characters have gradually stepped out of the confines of their kitchens and homes to venture into more humane powerful personas like Priya of Kya Kehna (2000) who is resilient at the face of “log kya kahenge”, Shashi of English Vinglish (2012) who steps out of her confines to regain her identity, Rani of Queen (2014) with roaring hopes and aspirations, Pink (2016) telling the nation that when a woman says ‘no’, it means ‘no’, and Amrita of ‘Thappad’ (2020) who steps out of her seemingly perfect life to ask uncomfortable questions.

Therefore, a considerable amount of credence for infusing Hindi Cinema with an altogether new life, sentiment and diaspora goes to the OTT and one can only wonder what else does this enormous abode of talent, art, and impressions has in store for us.

Image Credits – CitySpidey.com

Annanya Chaturvedi

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