A car speeding down a lonely road on a dark, rainy night. Vividh Bharati music playing. The driver in black rain jacket parks by the roadside and gets out for a pee. Screen shows driver’s silhouette facing away from the camera…a gun slowly creeps up into the frame and a shot gets fired…driver slumps to the ground. Cut to titles with retro Bollywood background song. Welcome to modern day Bollywood noir, a genre that shows its delightful presence every so often to an increasingly appreciative audience. The fast paced scripts, edge of seat suspense, plot twists often interspersed with laugh out loud situations…and not to forget, the funky background scores. It is paisa vasool entertainment at its best, when done right.
The definition of film noir is arguable. By my own simplistic standards, it is a type of crime fiction that involves characters with some combination of negative traits (cruelty, mistrust, guilt, greed, lust etc.), suspenseful storylines shot in stylized camera angles, low key lighting, and a haunting musical score. While this genre was popularized by Hollywood in the 1940s, several memorable Bollywood movies in the 1950s fit this mold. Images of a suave Dev Anand in a Baazi or CID, an enchanting Madhubala singing ‘Aye Meherbaan’ in Howrah Bridge, KN Singh with his dapper suit and raised eyebrow come to mind.
In the 60s, the genre evolved. Substance trumped style with mystery classics like Wo Kaun Thi and Bees Saal Baad. Vijay Anand was the master of suspense in the 1960s and 1970s, and he rightfully earned this title with gems like Teesri Manzil, Johnny Mera Naam and the best of them all — Jewel Thief.
And then came the seething 70s, when noir started taking a backseat to the bell bottomed vigilante, dream girls, and technicolor melodramas.
It was not until the early 2000s when neo-noir made a come back. And here is where my ode to modern noir converges with an ode to director Sriram Raghavan. I am of the belief that Sriram Raghavan has single handled redefined this genre in modern day Bollywood. His writing slowly peels apart the many layers of the main characters through explosive plot twists and turns. The situational humor is well integrated into the plot. Retro music scores, and throwbacks to old Hindi films is a common thread in most of his films. Ek Hasina Thi was his initial foray — the portrayal of Urmila Matondkar’s character as she transforms from a simple girl next door to a ruthless avenger makes for a great watch. But his signature style was revealed in full glory in the fabulous Johnny Gaddar. With an upfront tribute to Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase, Sriram makes it clear as to what his influences are.
Right from Neil’s alias (Johnny) which is a take off from ‘Johnny Mera Naam’ (scenes of which are sprinkled throughout the movie), to the core plot premise which is a throwback to Amitabh’s ‘Parwaana’, the pallet of the film is set in a style that evokes nostalgia. The level of detailing in all the characters in the film is impressive. Aside from the main protagonists, note the gradually revealed complexity of Rimi Sen’s character or the absolutely delightful Ashwini Kalsekar’s character. The moral ambiguity of Neil alias Johnny, the storyline twists, the pacing of the film, all combine to make this riveting entertainment.
Like an old wine, Sriram’s style further refined in Badlapur, and then in Andhadhun. These movies had even more evolved plot twists, but his maturity as a writer/director is evident in the ease with which startling humor is interjected in the most unexpected moments — note the scenes in Andhadhun where a ‘blind’ Ayushmaan Khurana goes into the bathroom in Tabu’s house or the scene where Tabu wears a grotesque mask to check if he is really blind. Or in Badlapur, where even a brutal murder scene of Radhika Apte and Vijay Pathak’s character is conceived in a manner that is perversely amusing.
Stepping aside from Sriram Raghavan’s films, there were other neo noir films of note in the last couple of decades. Reema Kaagti’s Talaash, for example, does a wonderful job of blending suspense and the supernatural. Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani is a brilliant plot with a terrific reveal. Nawazuddin’s Raat Akeli Hai is another decent thriller from the pandemic times.
So what is next? Thankfully, there is a new generation of film-makers on the horizon that are showing immense promise. Vasan Bala’s ‘Monica, O My Darling’ has all the elements of a wickedly enjoyable indulgence, including the clever throwback in the movie title. Vasan, a self professed Sriram Raghavan fan himself, has obviously been a good student of the craft. The movie’s overall look, the gradual character reveals, the humor, and the funky background music seem to be in the shadows of a Johnny Gaddar, but yet stands fresh on the strength of its own content.
Upcoming directors like this, combined with an increasingly sophisticated audience makes me think this genre is here to stay in some form. I, for one, am definitely ready for more.