Part 2.4 - Fantasy in Indian Cinema

[Full title: Folklore and Genres of Indian Cinema (4) Fantasy in Indian Cinema]

Fantasy is an integral feature of fairy tales. Indian cinema adopted the fantasy genre partly from its own reservoir of tales, from the Parsi Theatre and the Hollywood productions set in the exotic Orient. Set in magical and imaginary places, everything about fantasy cinema was full of spectacle—exotic costumes, rich music, overt stunts, archaic language and lavish sets. In India, the fantasy films have been mostly based on the rich oral traditions from the Arab world, like ‘1001 nights’ or ‘The Arabian Nights’, as well as Persian stories from ancient Iran like the Persian Shahnahmeh. Earliest films of this genre in India include The Thief of Baghdad (1924, Dir. Raoul Walsh) which has been termed as the most popular film of its decade and Bulbul-e-paristan (1926, Dir. Fatma Begum). Stories such as Alibaba and forty thieves and Hatim Tai have been remade several times. Indian cinema sometimes directly adapted folktales from other countries, like Parsi and Iranian legends. Films like Shirin and Farhad (1956, Dir. Aspi Irani) and Rustam Sohrab (1963, Dir. Vishram Bedekar) are such examples.

This genre thrived in Indian cinema, especially Bollywood. Films like Mr. India (1987, Dir. Shekhar Kapur) and Chamatkar (1992, Dir. Rajiv Mehra) had characters who could become invisible, which is an important feature of fantasies. Period dramas like Mohenjo Daro (2016, Dir. Ashutosh Gowariker) set in an ancient lost civilization, had a totally imagined storyline, clubbed with action and adventure.

There have been numerous fantasy-based films produced around the country with the bottomline of good wins over evil. The evil element has not necessarily been depicted only as a human, but sometimes even as a human nature. This is especially true of the film industry based in southern India. For example, Dasi Aparanji (1944, Tamil, Dir. B. N. Rao) was a historical fantasy film based on the antics of legendary king Vikramadithan or Vikramaditya, after his soul enters the body of a parrot, and manipulates a girl named Aparanji to leave all her wealth in charity. The story ends with Aparanji turning into a sanyasini, and holding a begging bowl. Since no print of the film is known to survive, therefore it is a lost film.

Films based upon fantastical lands with protagonists having superhuman powers and themes revolving around centuries old temples and dynasties, past lives haunting the present, magic and belief systems, imaginary forests and mountains have predominantly been made in south Indian film industries. The list would be too long to include here.

Big budget fantasies still make big money at the box office. Recently released sequel films Baahubali -the beginning (2015, Dir. S. S. Rajamouli) and Baahubali -the conclusion (2017, Dir. S. S. Rajamouli) are examples of folk stories weaved with epical narrative and presented to the audience with all the elements a fantasy movie should have. These two were made bilingual in Tamil and Telugu, with later dubbed versions in Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, Odia, Bhojpuri and several other regional languages. The story of Bahubali was a created fantasy, set in an imaginary place. Director S. S. Rajamouli’s fascination with mythology and tales of the Amar Chitra Katha fuelled his imagination to create this extremely big budget film. It received many accolades at the national level including the National Film Award for Best Special Effects and Best Feature Film (first Telugu feature film to win the award). Another important feature of the film is that a fictional language called Kiliki (also referred to as Kilikili) spoken by the Kalakeyas, a ferocious warrior tribe, was created for the film by Madhan Karky. Not only is this said to be the first fictional language to be created for an Indian film but this is also something very unique in the entire history of world cinema. On the occasion of International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2020, the director of Baahubali, Rajamouli launched the official website of Kiliki language, terming it as the ‘world’s youngest and easiest language’.

The Bengal school of cinema has been influenced by the fantasy genre to a great extent. Filmmakers have adopted fantasy and horror to present socio-political satire and these films have not only earned commercial success but also been critically acclaimed. The master storyteller Satyajit Ray was a big admirer of the fantasy narratives and he created some of the finest films in this genre. As a pioneer of this style, he made a trilogy of films called Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969), Hirak Rajar Deshe (1980), and Goopy Bagha Phire Elo (1992). The central characters in this trilogy of films were two friends

—Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer were created by Ray’s grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury for a children’s magazine called Sandesh. Blessed by a ghost king with three boons, Goopy and Bagha travel to different kingdoms, where they face a variety of situations in all the three films. The Ghost community, met by Goopy and Bagha, is tactfully divided into four classes, keeping the common people at the top and priests at the bottom, to place it in contrast to the social caste system. Tyranny of the rulers, corruption at all levels and people’s silence has been mocked in this trilogy. Lyrical dialogues, poetry and music, all influenced by folk songs and music, have been extensively used in all these films. Apart from the story and direction, the films earned many laurels for the musical part as well.

Bengali cinema has made exclusive use of the fantasy-horror genre throughout the decades. Moreover it has employed fantasy elements in making adventure films and continued the legacy even in recent years with productions like Mishawr Rawhoshyo (2013, Dir. Srijit Mukherji), Jawker Dhan (2017, Dir. Sayantan Ghosal), Alinagarer Golokdhadha (2018, Dir. Sayantan Ghosal), Durgeshgorer Guptodhon (2019, Dir. Dhrubo Banerjee). Moreover, keeping in tune with Ray’s films, later filmmakers of Bengal also continued to create social satires. For instance, Aschorjyo Prodeep (Bengali, 2013) is based on a short story by celebrated writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, directed by Anik Dutta, which deals with the unfulfilled aspirations of an everyday couple whose dreams never become reality and as they try hard to excel in life. Anilabha discovers a magic lamp from which a genie emerges just like in the folktale of Aladdin. The genie takes him to unseen heights with a life of extreme luxury and fortunes. Anilabha’s wife Jhumur also has her own take in regard to dreams and desires. How they adjust and cope with their new-found lives forms the rest of the story. This is a modern-day fantasy tale and deals with contemporary trends of consumerism.

Another brilliantly executed modern day socio-economic narrative in the format of a horror film by the same director is Bhuter Bhabissyot (2012), where a group of ghosts from different eras of time reside in an old mansion and unite to stop the demolition of the heritage house by a builder.

On the other hand, Goynar Baksho (2013) is a comedy horror film by celebrated filmmaker Aparna Sen, which portrays feminism through an ancestral box of jewellery or goynar baksho (Bengali). Jewellery, being intricately associated with the female psyche, has been used as a character in the film. It is one of those finest films that narrates the lives of three women, or more precisely two women and a ghost, from different generations, who stand against patriarchy and social mores. The film is based on a novel Goynar Baksho and a short story Rashmonir Sonadana, both written by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and published in the Desh magazine. The lead character is the matriarch of a Bengali Hindu family of landed gentry in East Bengal. As the film approaches the year 1971, when the Bangladesh Liberation War breaks out in East Pakistan, Bangladesh genocide becomes backdrop of the story. However, the nucleus of the film, which is the ancestral jewellery box and the surrounding material culture, gives it an enduring flavour of folklore.