MUMBAI: If it were the Govind Nihalani’s and Shyam Benegal’s who were responsible for the parallel cinema in the 80s in India – films that were darker, bolder and grittier in themes, then amongst the present generation, it is Anurag Kashyap who rightfully falls in this category.
Anurag Kashyap has been unconventional, dark and at times brutal in his attempt to show the other side of human life. Be it his fancy with the drug-ecstasy, rock-n-roll culture in ‘Paanch’, which never saw the light of the day (but till date remains a cult favourite). Or his dark, realistic take on the 1993 Bomb Blasts conspiracy in ‘Black Friday’, which battled with the censor board for three years until it released.
But while these came later, it was the gritty, bloody-gory, violent ‘Satya’ with mentor Ram Gopal Varma that put Anurag Kashyap in the league of dark, realistic filmmakers including Ram Gopal Varma himself.
Since then, Anurag Kashyap went on to make several films like ‘That Girl In Yellow Boots’, ‘Gulaal’, the modern version of Devdas, ‘Dev D’, which was classy and contemporary and his most commercial venture till date, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ – a two part series on the coal mafia in Jharkhand.
Anurag Kashyap is probably among the few filmmakers that blends the parallel and offbeat, dark content with commercial cinema. Known to be as a common man’s filmmaker, Anurag’s films have been dark and not boasted of lavish grandeur.
Even when it meant doing ghost-writing for mainstream films like ‘Shakalaka Boom Boom’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Fool N Final’, ‘Yuva’ or the children’s flick ‘Return of Hanuman’, Anurag Kashyap didn’t fall in the trap of continuing his tryst and stuck to his biggest forte of being a dark-story teller!
Currently, he is directing Ranbir Kapoor and Karan Johar in the ambitious ‘Bombay Velvet’. Audiences are also gearing up for ‘Ugly’ and ‘Doga’.
Here’s a toast to the filmmaker who inspired the common man to make film the way he makes it and to the ideology that darkness is also a part of life!
Happy Birthday, Anurag Kashyap!
