The Hinterland strikes back

Forget Switzerland or Mumbai, the aspirations of small town India, playing at a cinema near you, are suddenly the new cool. The aspirations and imagery of small town India are being played out on celluloid like never before.

When you close your eyes and think of celluloid romance, what do you imagine? Shah Rukh serenading Kajol in Punjab’s mustard fields and Switzerland’s peaks in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge? Or Manoj Bajpai ogling Reema Sen’s cleavage as she washes clothes at a hand-pump in Gangs of Wasseypur I? The latter could be far removed from our big-city reality, something Bollywood filmmakers have shied away from for a long time. Yet, as the new crop of films show, they’re no longer in the background of urban consciousness.

Director Kabeer Kaushik