How 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' changed Bollywood
Last week Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (QSQT) turned 30, the film was released on April 29, 1988, and as it slipped into the bona fide "classic" category, it also presented an opportunity where films that otherwise would not have been considered worthy of cinematic studies be re-looked at.
Although on the face of it, QSQT, which incidentally was also the first time when a Hindi film was referred to by its acronym, might appear to be a typical Hindi film replete songs, dance, drama and such, it transcended the trappings of popular Hindi cinema without making a great fuss.
In the last 30 years since the film came out, the world of Hindi cinema has transformed to a degree where most from back then would find it almost unrecognisable, and to a great extent, it was QSQT that laid the foundation of this change.
Artistic uniqueness
In addition to aging well, one of the important factors for considering a seemingly regular film to be a classic or path-breaking also has to do with it being a historical institution of sorts. The artistic uniqueness of the film notwithstanding it also somehow needs to be a milestone in encompassing what was happening both in front of the camera and outside in the real world.
It is this reason why the selection of a song from say a film such as Satte Pe Satta (1982), which otherwise would not rank in the top five or even top 10 RD Burman albums, as a "classic" on radio shows dedicated to the evergreens in the mid-2000s was not totally unwarranted.
The song in a way represents the zeitgeist of the era when it was created, thanks to instruments such as the analog synthesizers that had become integral while arranging Hindi film music and was still pleasing to the ears.
The period when QSQT was conceived was one filled with turbulence both as far as Hindi films and the nation were concerned. We had celebrated the 40th year of our independence but many promises remained unfulfilled and there was a general dissonance amongst the youth, which felt that it was not being understood.
The film unknowingly ushered in a new era for film audiences thanks to a new kind of narrative made more organic than its potential due to the manner in which a young cast and crew imbibed the reality around them and presented it almost verbatim on the big screen.
Perhaps it was the real characters, situations such as the relationship between a father and son, or a father and daughter, and the resolution, which although highly cinematic managed to resonate with the viewers, even within the confines of a standard Hindi film format that made it stand apart.
Is it stretching the argument a bit too much by considering a song from Satte Pe Satta, or a film such as QSQT in the same vein as a golden oldies from the 1950s till the mid-1970s, which is the go-to period for the term "classic" in the context of Hindi film music or a Sholay (1975), a Guide (1965), a Pyaasa (1957) and a Mother India (1957) that are the standards to measure the greatness of Hindi cinema?
Craft and impact
It might take a little bit of realigning but truth be told 25-30 years is the right time to revisit certain films and filmmakers in order to reassess their craft and the impact that it has had on the medium. The manner in which a Pyaasa and Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics for the song Jinhe naaz hai hind par are now considered a treatise on the letdown that the freedom from the British appeared to be in the first decade after Independence, QSQT, too, can be seen as a study of the young in the 1980s who seemed to be stuck in between the aspirations of their elders and the dreams that they would have to sacrifice.
Citizen Kane
It is the same period of time that Nasreen Munni Kabir’s writings in the late 1980s saw Guru Dutt, who died in 1964, recast in our minds as the auteur we never knew him to be; it was also roughly the same number of years that saw a revival of Citizen Kane (1941) in our conscious minds and the reversal of the reputation of director Orson Welles’ as one of the all-time greats.
Today, it is practically impossible to believe that Citizen Kane was universally panned at the time of its release and pushed out circulation for nearly two decades up until the mid-1960s where it was hailed as a classic.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)