BOLLYWOOD’S TRYST WITH FILM NOIR

Film Noir, a French term meaning “Black Film”, is a movie which is either shot in Black & White and/or thematically shows the dark and morally corrupt side of human nature. It’s an amalgamation of German & American style of film-making of the 1940’s. Film-Noir is not a genre but the mood, style and tone of a film marked visually by ominous shadows, skewed camera angles, circling cigarette smoke & low-key lighting (Eg.Psycho,Taxi Driver,Blade Runner,Batman Begins,The Departed etc.)

Even Bollywood had unconsciously made some path-breaking Noir-Films. Here is my list of top 5 Bollywood-Film-Noir films:

(1) CID (Director-Raj Khosla,Year-1956): This dark and atmospheric Dev Anand starrer is probably the 1^st Indian Noir film. It follows a police inspector investigating a murder case who himself becomes a suspect. It still remains one of the best films in any category.

(2) Who Kaun Thi (Director-Raj Khosla,Year-1964): The film’s distinct cinematographic style and its overall tone makes it a classic Mystery-Thriller-Noir where a doctor(played by Manoj Kumar) offers a ride to a ghostly woman. He later discovers his would-be bride is identical to the ghost. Weird yet brilliant.

(3) Parinda (Director-Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Year-1989): This almost forgotten film portrays the relationship between two brothers (masterfully played by Jackie Shroff & Anil Kapoor) who are caught on different sides of a gang-war. It’s unique treatment which is devoid of any clichés makes it’s an underrated gem of the decade. Gripping and powerful.

(4) Satya (Director-Ram Gopal Verma,Year-1999): RGV redefined the word “hard-hitting” when he made this film on the brutally-violent Mumbai underworld. Its dark,gritty &unsentimental treatment gave a new meaning & dimension to Bollywood gangster-films of that era.

(5) Johnny Gaddar (Director-Sriram Raghavan,Year-2007): Shot in a pre-dominant reddish tone which signals danger,suspence & thrill, the film is Noir in its full glory. It’s a film that delves deep into the heart of darkness & has everything it takes to become a cult-classic. Neil Nitin Mukesh effortlessly plays the part of the suave antagonist in his debut film.

Some other Noir films worth mentioning are- No Smoking(Anurag Kashyap),Being Cyrus(Homi Adjania),Manorama Six Feet Under(Navdeep Singh),Mithya(Rajat Kapoor)

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Movie Reviews by Pranshu Awasthi

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