Bollywood's new Noir

I have been very impressed with a lot of Bollywood movies from the last five odd years that have been make use of several elements of the film noir style. Some of the most impressive ones that I have seen include Manorama Six Feet Under, Ek Hasina Thi, Being Cyrus, Mithya, and Ek Chalis Ki Last Local (If you see any significant omission here, it's more likely because I haven't seen the movie, than that I didn't deem it worthy of this list:)

I'd be happy to recommend most of these movies to any audience, irrespective of their familiarity with Bollywood movies. In that way, these movies are made for a wider audience. However, if you look at their popularity within the Indian market, most of them fail to make themselves huge commercial successes. As this post on naachgana.com points out, the key to success for many of these movies is keeping costs down.

It's refreshing to see that some actors and directors like Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Abhay Deol, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor and others investing a lot of their career into this genre and to making great movies.

It's surprising that most of these films haven't gotten their due from the Government. For instance, India's Oscar picks continue to disappoint (with rare exceptions). Recognition at that scale could potentially prompt some of the good films that are being made to up their budget, and do an even better job (which's not to say that more money will necessarily lead to better films being made).

I'd love to hear from you on any noir movies you'd recommend from Hollywood, Bollywood of your neck of the woods:)

Save to Del.Icio.us Digg This Submit to Reddit Stumble this