Commentaires de l'article: Kaala Patthar, Yash Chopra's Heart of Darkness

Commentaire de yves

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:55:02 +0200

Mmm..., I can just about guess how right you must be about Bollywood hagiography; good criticism in the West is not always so easy to find either, and then there's the opposite excess, that of critics who try to make a name for themselves by deciding who's in and who's out...
cheers

Commentaire de Ramsu

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:33:38 +0200

"Soppy and useless" describes DTPH to the T! But it came out at a time when glossy feel-good romances were hitting their peak in Bollywood. Its stars were either just hitting their peak of fame, or just past it (as in the case of Madhuri). I'd say it was an example of form triumphing over content.

I've wondered about Yash Chopra's choices myself. Haven't yet read any biography/autobiography that illuminates this though. Plus, a lot of these books often turn out to be hagiographic hack jobs, so I'm not too hopeful of finding useful answers there either.
~r

Commentaire de yves

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:01:00 +0200

Hi Ramsu,
Thanks for the comment: I'd be in fact quite interested in undestanding better Yash Chopra's choices as film-maker. Do you know of any good source of information about him? I too found Dil to pagal hai a soppy and useless melodrama. But many people liked it!
cheers

Commentaire de Ramsu

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:41:09 +0200

Interesting that you should mention Conrad, since the Amitabh character's flashback sequence is essentially adapted from parts of Lord Jim.

You're right - this is, in some sense, like Heart of Darkness. And it has so much to offer that it makes you wonder what made Yash Chopra abandon this kind of filmmaking in favour of glossy romances like Chandni and Dil to paagal hai.

~r