Breaking ‘Black’

The Auteur and his themes

Revenge clearly has been Anurag’s most trusted weapon. For all the rage that resides within the confines of one's mind, revenge seems to be the most obvious and handy and justified option present in front of any oppressed. Revenge is a huge element of popular genre storytelling and in fact was one of the main subjects for the ‘western’ genre in Hollywood _[1]. Innumerable Bollywood formula films are based on revenge. But ‘revenge’ here may also be looked at with more depth besides being a popular formula to tell a story. Not to make a simplistic reading of personal life and its relationship to his films but Anurag has been the underdog and a lot of his films have this unrelenting spirit of revolt as a rebel, maybe even an involute revenge of sort. His films though, do not glorify revenge; but mostly rise above to question its very existence.
         The 1993 Bombay blasts shook the nation to its core. The battleground for religious conspiracies provided for the ugliest inhuman ma-cleansing the nation had seen since long. Black Friday explored the cause that went into the creation of the chaos. Here, Kashyap does not refrain from using the actual names of political parties and activist groups which were directly or indirectly involved in the case and were in the grill of the court. This was one of the major reasons why Black Friday couldn’t get a theatrical release for 7 years and meanwhile got leaked through piracy _[2]. When it was finally released in 2007, the world had already seen it. 

         Realism and social, political concerns take centre stage in this film and begins the career of this filmmaker but the concerns and issues raised in this film never really seems to leave him but only get reinvented on his journey. The film begins and ends with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi:

         Black Friday ends with Indian Ocean’s song ‘Bandeh’ which ends the film on a poetic note of lament but never a sly pessimistic push rather urging the audience to wake up.  It’s a film where there is anger and he wants the audience to acknowledge that justice is not done and wants the audience to question the state of justice in our country.

Gulaal presents another dimension to the revenge drama genealogy of the director. It begins with the text card:

The film is a work of fiction, dedicated to all
Those poets of per-independent India
Who wrote songs of freedom and had a vision of
Free India, which we could not put together.

         Take the case of Prithvi Bana. This John Lennon ‘Imagine’ fanatic uses poetry as his sword to attack the demonic imperial ways of Duggi Bana. Kashyap uses colour to trace the character arc of the protagonist.

See how in the first act Dilip the protagonist is draped in bright light while the manipulative Duggi Bana has red light all over his face. In the course of the film, Dilip is exposed to the viciousness of the system and pledges to seek revenge from the ones who caused his friend’s death, in the process also becoming one with the antagonist. Look how he is lit in the III act of the film.

Kashyap does not spare the viewer from this brutal truth nor does he dilute the reality with simple answers. Ruthlessness and retaliation are interwoven and become a significant part of this man's film grammar. And more importantly, the violence is not just visceral but also internal, latent and unheard of at times, especially in That Girl in Yellow Boots and No Smoking. Dev D also at one level is about revenge where Devdas is on a mission of self-destruction. Need I quote Gangs of Wasseypur too?