Ah-ha! Finally, there’s Global Acceptance of the Great Indian Masala Movie
Here are slow claps for all the high-brow, pseudo-intellectual, film cognoscenti who used to look down their noses at Indian masala movies. Why the loud singing, they ask? Why the equally loud and rambunctious, slightly sexually-enticing dancing? Why the over-the-top song-and-dance sequences that render every movie a glitzy musical?
There’s no answer now from these out-of-touch-with-the-pulse-of-the-people critics as the Telugu film, RRR, wins Best Original Song for Naatu Naatu at the highest and most globally recognised movie award show in the world, yes, you got it, the Oscars.
Rambunctious, over-the-top yet crazily fun, and entertaining, Naatu Naatu, is a tour de force of Indian cinema. Or is it?
Isn’t it a silly, common, run-of-the-mill masala movie song from India?
So, what? — roars a Western and global audience. We like it!
India, which is a jolly, fun, colourful, bright, and all-pervading force of energy has successfully torn down the depressive, freakish, twisted Western agenda of monochrome and pseudo-intellectuality with childish fun and playful carelessness. We have finally been accepted. Our chatpata masala movies have finally received love.
So this is what it feels like to be noticed by the cool kids at school…!
We believe that finally there’s acceptance, and global acceptance at that, for the India we were brought up to be, dare we say it, ashamed of.
We were used to the sniggers and laughs as our Bollywood ladies danced to the latest song from a cheap-thrills movie, as the West defined our storytelling.
Yet, Naatu Naatu made even our Western counterparts, famous for slow genteel dances, really get their groove on. They danced wildly; unabashedly; singing a testament to the navarasas.
The degree of Naatu Naatu’s wildness would hardly have been palatable to pre-COVID Western audiences.
But here we are.
Post a global pandemic, with filmgoers in search of a fun fix and RRR providing them with just that.
Hollywood has always been a place of cool. From humorous Westerns to feel-good musicals, the cinema produced from this stable has captured the imagination of minds all over the world. The art films, the Disney films, the loud action films, Hollywood has a wide repertoire.
However, it was no secret that these cool kids were slow to embrace outsiders, and slower still to warm up to the earthiness of Indian movies.
And it’s not just India that has always sought the seal of Hollywood’s approval. Members of the black community have long wanted a movie just for their own and got that acceptance with Black Panther.
For India, diverse and a macrocosm in itself, Naatu Naatu and the movie RRR could just be the Black Panther they have always craved.
Source: TheHindu
With the wins of Naatu Naatu and The Elephant Whisperers, Indian storytelling is finally receiving its due. What was once viewed as grandiose fantasy storytelling is now gaining acceptance from all quarters of the world.
RRR and The Elephant Whisperers are poles apart on the storytelling spectrum. One is a fun, action-packed re-imagination of two Telugu freedom fighters, while the other is a simple tale of a family that has adopted two elephants. Remember RRR is not even India’s official entry to the Academy Awards, yet this movie and the song in particular have helped to bring everyone close to the concept of an Indian masala movie.
So, what is this masala movie you ask?
It’s a movie that has all the genres blended into one, for example, comedy, tragedy, action, dance, and romance. This type of story used to have few takers previously as it was not thought serious or memorable enough. Yet the tide has turned and so has the pulse of the people.
People want hope. They want joy and exuberance. They want to dance again and feel happy from within. Naatu Naatu gave them the rhythm they so desperately craved.
With Indian storytelling coming before global audiences and being accepted, the craft of creating masala movies is finally being appreciated as something beautiful and soulful.
No longer is this brand of cinema being viewed as the wanton wild child birthed by an intoxicated or overheated Indian mind.
It’s now art.
Fun art.
So, what does the future hold for Indian masala movies and masala songs? It’s bright. Brighter than the sparkle in SS Rajamouli’s eyes, no doubt.
Be Indian. Be unabashedly Indian, in storytelling and in life. There’s something in it that defies all logic and yet comes up on top as a winner.
This is our win. This is a win for Indian-ness and it’s a win for the masala movie genre that was viewed with disdain by the film intelligentsia.
Jai Hind.