Bollywood is the ultimate escapism. Our movies are larger than life, melodramatic, and highly stylised. But this version of Bollywood, entertaining though it may be, is hardly relatable to the common man. This edition, Corporate Citizen brings you the best movies that relate to the common man in India and the issues faced by him
Director – Nagesh Kukunoor
Starring – Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag
Dor is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story about how two unique women from different parts of the world come together because of an incident that ties their destinies together. The movie touches upon the pitiful condition of widowed women at the hands of some orthodox sections of society in some pockets of rural India, right from forcing women to adopt a certain outfit of a certain colour, to giving up the even the basic luxuries, like sleeping on a bed. These women have zilch control over their lives and all colour is snatched from them, literally and figuratively. Some of these women are also ‘sold’ to powerful men. The movie makes the audience understand these are very ‘real’ problems and while we have progressed as a country, there are people who are being stripped of their basic rights, we are nowhere close to feeling accomplished.
Director – Anusha Rizvi
Starring – Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav
Our farmers are the most hardworking and yet the most neglected work force of our country. Peepli Live is an offbeat movie that puts another pressing problem right in the middle of the plot – farmer suicides, government policies, corruption and vote bank politics. The story is set in the village of Peepli, where Natha and Budhia face the threat of losing their land over an unpaid bank loan. Hoping for some respite, they approach a local politician who makes a mockery of them. He suggests they commit suicide since government policy grants monetary assistance to families of those farmers who commit suicide. Peepli life astutely portrays the apathy that the country feels for farmers and their problems.
Director – Sushil Rajpal
Starring – Raj Singh Chaudhary, Swati Sen
Antardwand is a film, which won the National Film Award for Best Film on social issues at the 2009 National Awards. It was only after the award that PVR pictures decided to distribute the movie commercially. The movie was based on groom kidnappings that take place in Bihar. Eligible bachelors are abducted by a bride’s family and forcefully married so that they can avoid paying dowry to the groom’s family. Groom kidnapping cases registered a surge after a period that marked in the exponential rise in cases of women being mistreated by her in-laws and husband because of their ever-growing hunger for monetary gifts from the bride’s family after marriage as well. Dowry is an unfortunate part of Indian weddings that has surprisingly carried on in this day and age. Even educated families indulge in this system, putting a price depending on the standing of the family; dowry is often masked as “gifts”.
Director – Shyam Benegal
Starring – Boman Irani,
Minissha Lamba
Well Done Abba! Won the National Award in ‘social cause’ category in the year 2009. Directed by the legendary Shyam Benegal, The movie is about a driver, Armaan Ali, who takes leave to go looking for a husband for his daughter. What follows is a series of events that turn his leave into a two-months long experience right from someone stealing his ‘well’ to being arrested. Wrapping in strong social messages, it is a socio-political satire about a common man’s fight for justice against an all-pervasive corrupt system. Corruption has plagued the entire pyramid of our system, the movie puts it across and how citizens have to jump hoops for what is rightfully theirs. The common man is always left at the mercy of individuals who want their palms greased.
by Neeraj Varty
