CINEMA BHOJPURI , livre ebook

Cruel landlords, crafty moneylenders, corrupt politicians, righteous heroes and uninhibited dancing girls—just some of the characters of a Bhojpuri film.
Considered garish and crude by some sections of the urban elite, Bhojpuri cinema’s astounding box office success can only be explained by its overwhelming popularity among the other half of new India. What is it that makes Bhojpuri cinema tick? Does its audience simply want to view rural India? What is the logic of its aesthetic? And most importantly, how did these regional language films become such a profitable industry?
Cinema Bhojpuri answers these questions and probes the history and themes of this genre that is dismissed all too often as Bollywood’s poor cousin. Basing his research on extensive personal interviews and analyses of film journals from the 1960s onwards, Avijit Ghosh’s fascinating study sheds light on Bhojpuri cinema’s trajectory. From the making of the first Bhojpuri film, Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo , to the breathlessly paced masala entertainers of Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, this is the definitive study of the vibrant genre of films that everyone is talking about.
Cover design by Mugdha Sadhwani
PENGUIN BOOKS
Cinema Bhojpuri
Avijit Ghosh graduated in history from St Xavier’s College, Ranchi, and completed his Masters and M.Phil degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Born in Agartala, Tripura, he grew up in the small towns of Bihar and Jharkhand—Dumka, Giridih, Arrah and Ranchi. He has been a journalist since 1991 and has worked with the Press Trust of India, Pioneer and Telegraph , and is now with the Times of India.
Ghosh writes regularly on cinema and sports, and is the author of the novel Bandicoots in the Moonlight , published by Penguin Books India. He lives in New Delhi with his mother, wife, and two naughty children, Abhishek and Diya.
Cinema Bhojpuri
Avijit Ghosh
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Books India 2010
Copyright © Avijit Ghosh 2010
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-01-4310-378-3
The views and opinions expressed in this e-book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
This digital edition published in 2011.
e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-256-4
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For the cinema halls of Arrah—Rupam, Mohan, Sapna and Moti Mahal—where I fell in love with the movies.
Contents
Copyright
Preface
Introduction
THE STORY OF BHOJPURI CINEMA
1. Jai Ganga Maiya
2. High Noon
3. Life after Death
4. The Third Wave
5. Widening Horizons
6. The Diaspora Within
7. Deciphering Bhojpuri Cinema
PEOPLE AND PLACES
8. Twinkle Twinkle Little Superstars
9. New Heroes: The Three Aces in the Pack
10. The Directors
11. The Heroines
12. People and Places
THE EVOLUTION OF BHOJPURI FILM MUSIC
13. Melody to Rhythm
14. The New Kings and Queens of Music
Epilogue
Endnotes
Filmography
Sources
Preface
I spent most of my teenage years in Arrah, a small town in Bihar’s Bhojpur district. In the 1970s, the price of a balcony ticket never exceeded Rs 3.70 in any of the theatres. But we preferred to watch Hindi films in the cheaper rear stalls, or, even the special student class that used to cost just Rs 1.05.
My first Bhojpuri movie was Balam Pardesia (1979). I enjoyed the family drama though I was addicted to the action films of Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Feroze Khan and Dara Singh. That’s because I already knew the movie’s songs by heart. A neighbourhood grocer owned a record player and used to play them over a loudspeaker throughout the day. Thanks to the grocer, I had developed a fondness for Bhojpuri film songs by the time we left Arrah.
The idea of writing this book first came to me in 2005 after I saw Sasura Bada Paisewala and Panditji Bataeen Na Biyah Kab Hoee. I started working on the book in fits and starts in 2006. The work gathered momentum in 2008 after I finished writing my first novel, Bandicoots in the Moonlight , which incidentally is located in Ganeshnagar, a fictional Bhojpuri-speaking town.
This book tells the story of Bhojpuri cinema since its inception in 1962. I have spoken to many people associated with the industry, including those who worked in the industry in the 1960s. Their narratives have hopefully given the book an up, close and personal view of the times. I have also referred to regional newspapers of the 1960s and 1980s. This will provide some insight into how Bhojpuri films impacted the intelligentsia in cities like Benares, especially in the 1960s.
With the help of my esteemed colleague Vinay Pandey, I have offered English translations of every Bhojpuri film named in the book, either in the filmography or in the text. This wasn’t easy because the nuances, located in a particular cultural context, are often lost in translation. In some places, we have offered a flavour of the text rather than a literal translation. The responsibility of any error is, of course, only mine.
I sincerely hope that the book will be enjoyed both by Bhojpuri film buffs as well as anybody who enjoys cinema.
Many people have contributed to the shaping of this book. I am indebted to Munnu Prasad Pandey, veteran journalist who owns and edits Rambha , for letting me look at the old issues of this Benares-based weekly film newspaper. I am also grateful to Harmandir Singh ‘Hamraaz’, the famous collector of melodies, for helping me with the filmography. I will always be indebted to Ramesh Kumar Singh ( Pioneer ) for his generous help during my Benares visit in May 2008 and to Sushil Mishra for being my friend and guide on the same trip. I will never forget the motorbike ride on a searing summer afternoon to the qasbah cinema halls about twenty kilometres from Benares.
I am equally grateful to Subodh Verma, Manoj Mitta, Peggy Mohan, Vanaja Thekkat and S.P. Pachauri for their support.
I wish to record my appreciation for Kunal Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Ashok Bhatia, Sanjay Sharma, Anil Grover, Firoze Rangoonwalla, Shiv Viswanathan, Susmita Dasgupta, Imtiaz Ahmed, Bipan Chandra, Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee, Chandra Bhan Prasad, D. Shyam Babu, Ananth Srinivas and Jagdish Yadav.
I believe this is also a suitable occasion to say thanks to some friends and colleagues: Shishir Prashant, Deepika Sahu, Sidharth Gautam, Chitra Padmanabhan, Anuradha Raman, Namrata Joshi, Samita Bhatia, Amita Shah, Monobina Gupta, Anirban Das Mahapatra, Pradeep Thakur, Dhananjay Mahapatra, Syed Saud Akhtar, Shashi Prasad, Malini Sen, Asha Ramachandran, Renu Pachauri, Novy Kapadia, Diwakar, Nandita Sengupta, Meenakshi Sinha, Shreya Roy Chowdhury, Deepak Manki, Geetashree, Rakesh Batabyal, S. Anand, Shankar Raghuraman, Amit Bhattacharya, Nirmal Sharma, Neeraj Paul, Vijay Lokpalli, Yeshi Seli and Atul Tiwari.
I would also like to thank Udayan Mitra and Anupama Ramakrishnan at Penguin who edited the manuscript and hammered it into shape.
I must express my gratitude to my mother Anjali, sister Bani and my Jamai babu. And last, but not the least, this book wouldn’t have been completed but for the support and help offered by my wife and first reader-editor, Rachna. My gratitude cannot be expressed in words.
PS: Abhishek and Diya, if you want to know more about Bhojpuri films after watching one of those VCDs kept in the study, you know what to do.
Introduction
E verybody knows of Rani Mukherjee. But few have heard of Rani Chatterjee. Just as Ms Mukherjee has reigned over Bollywood, Ms Chatterjee is a star in her own right in Bhojpuri films. Yet an overwhelming majority of the cosmopolitan multiplex audience is unaware of her existence. 1 Why? This book strives to answer that question by narrating the story of Cinema Bhojpuri.
In less than two years, Bhojpuri cinema will celebrate its golden jubilee. It has been a remarkable journey, involving men and women who may not have made it to the covers of glossy Bollywood film magazines, but who have contributed enormously to the making and shaping of this genre. It is a journey marked by highs and lows, a journey that encapsulates as well as maps the evolving social and political trajectories of the region in the larger context of a changing India.
For instance, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the