Hundredth year of the national capital and a trip down the memory lane with Hindi Cinema
Monday, December 19, 2011 4:49:22 PM (IST)
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Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade Editorial
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RANBIR KAPOOR and NARGIS FAKHRI in ROCKSTAR
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This month the national capital of our country, Delhi or New Delhi celebrated its 100 year of coming into being. Delhi as a shooting destination used to pop up off and on within the Panavision of the film makers, but it rarely was a regular choice, though it is studded with amazing historicity. The picture started changing when the new generation of film makers, i.e. those who had grown up around Delhi used it as their reference point to shoot their films. Delhi, in particular during the last two three years has been a regular fixation of the filmmakers of the country. On the eve of this occasion it indeed is a perfect occasion to take a trip down memory lane with these films.
TERE GHAR KE SAAMNE: There still is nobody having wizardry to choose locations as Dev Anand showed it in TERE GHAR KE SAAMNE where he shot the song, ‘Dil Ka Bhawar Kare Pukar’ in historic Qutub Minar. Songs may have been shot in its vicinity but this is in all probability the first and last song to be shot inside the monument. It was a monumental effort, as this writer has scaled those stairs of Qutub Minar before it was closed for general public.
CHANDNI: Delhi was used as a location intermittently as the support system was not up to the mark, but Yash Chopra chose to shoot CHANDNI and in the modern times that is during the last two decades CHANDNI was a major film that was woven around major landmarks of Delhi and it created quite a buzz about the city.
NEW DELHI TIMES: It was a hard hitting film bringing into the public realm the manner in which power brokering operates in Delhi and how they feed on to each other to the detriment of the nation. It was one of the high points in Shashi Kapoor’s career.
RANG DE BASANTI: Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra the Delhi boy decided to use the landscape of Delhi in a predominant manner through his epochal movie RDB and it was in all probability the first film which was shot through and through around Delhi and its surroundings. RDB’s association with historicity also stemmed from the fact that it was in RDB that the idea of candle march around India Gate was generated and it has become a platform for protests against the system of governance.
DELHI-6: With the success of RDB in his platter, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra decided to use the old Delhi as his subject in this film. While Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra had the nostalgia of DELHI-6, i.e. the area of Chandni Chowk where he grew up, public outside Delhi could not identify with it. Indeed, it is an apparent paradox why public could not identify with Chandni Chowk, though there are films which are shot in by-lanes of Mumbai, but people lap them up. DELHI-6 was also the first film where Delhi Metro was used on a much wider canvas.
FANAA: Yash Chopra again returned to Delhi with FANAA and it was shot extensively around historical monuments, in particular the legendary Humayun Tomb and it was a major success for Aamir Khan. As a matter of fact with RDB and FANAA Aamir continues to return to Delhi as a destination to situate his films as he did with DELHI BELLY.
BAND BAAJA BAARAT: If one has to study how the average middle class operates in Delhi then this Yash Chopra film indeed could be the perfect entry point to understand it. It presented to the Indian cinema viewing public the perfect recipe of the processes and nuances of Delhi, where power is the ultimate elixir.
LOVE AAJ KAL: Imtiaz Ali having grown up in Delhi he used the backdrop of Delhi, in particular, Delhi University and Dilli Haat with great élan. As a matter of fact this film was an important film which opened up for the viewers vital nuances of the city, more so for the youth to come and experience Delhi.
KHOSLA KA GHOSLA and OYE LUCKY! LUCKY OYE!: While BAND BAAJA BARAAT had explored one of the favorite jobs in Delhi, the business of marriage; KHOSLA KA GHOSLA exposed to the world one of the biggest employers in Delhi, the business of property dealing, and explored the underbelly of corruption, the leit motif of the profession. OYE LUCKY! LUCKY OYE! took it to another end by underlining the under hand dealings in the national capital.
DELHI BELLY: It was another look at the manner in which the systems operate in Delhi and it could touch a raw nerve, it was a major hit.
ROCKSTAR: ROCKSTAR was the film that used the campus of Delhi University, Connaught Place and even the bye-lanes of Pitam Pura to shoot the films, it again being an Imtiaz Ali film; he used the landscapes of the city in an imaginative manner.
Now with Airport City Express giving permission for shooting films, and it having one of the best locations in its route, it should form a part of climax for a film in the near future, as Airport City Express is one of the finest and luxurious public transport rides in the country.
Tags : Tere Ghar ke Saamne, Dev Anand, Rang De basanti, Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, R.Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Delhi 6, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Rockstar, Ranbir kapoor, Imtiaz Ali, A.R.Rahman, Chandni, Rishi Kapoor, Sridevi, Delhi Belly, Imran Khan, Shenaz Treasury, Vir Das, Kunal Roy Kapur, Fanaa, Kajol, Band Baaja Baaraat, Ladies vs Ricky bahl, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Delhi, New Delhi
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