Lonely young men

Illustration/Uday Mohite

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that others are behind their times." said the dancer Martha Graham.

What were the times that Salim-Javed were part of, which made them as much as they made it? The new series on the iconic writing duo of Hindi cinema, will not leave you enlightened.

Angry Young Men frequently functions like a high-end 75th birthday tribute video featuring celebrity toasts. Because the world of Salim-Javed is also part of our own emotional universe we can participate with effortless affection in this celebration at first, but soon the endless montage of bitty banalities becomes enervating.

The second episode makes way for a quieter pace as we enter the emotional histories of the two subjects. The otherwise voluble Javed Akhtar becomes minimalis speaks of his youth, but we sense the pain of a young person abandoned and alone. The story of Salim Khan's mother, forced to isolate because of her tuberculosis, not recognizing her own growing child, pierces us. The director gets some space for an unstated storytelling and we get space for intimacy - an intuitive understanding of these two figures as people and the layers of their relationship and famed split. If you are two halves of one entity, you may someday want to know what you would be as a single whole.

Jaya Bacchan and Honey Irani flicker tantalizingly, burning moons eclipsed by an era of masculinity, pointing to a complex history and a richer narrative. But these bits are merely used for cred, not exploration. Critiques of women characters are brought in the only for the purposes of dismissing it, not to deepen our understanding.

An important cameo in Bollywood history is the figure of the chamcha:member of the star's entourage who propped them up, disconnecting them from reality, leading to their downfall. Power usually breeds sycophancy.

Popular cinema in some ways queered power. It is a collaborative and alchemical form - chemistry between different players, including audiences, and unpredictable choices makes it come alive. It was a democracy of desire where the makers and audience met in a private rendezvous. No matter what society allowed, it gave audiences a claim on the times, and part in the success of a film.

Works like Angry Young Men and The Romantics don't have much interest in this meeting ground. They are best seen as corporate documentaries. Through a form of sentimental storytelling without much context, they ‘acquire' an older artisanal cinema - and our relationship with it - as property, an asset to be showcased. There is a pretence of intimacy, but the audience is kept at a distance, more follower than interlocutor.

The brashness and originality of Salim Javed's spirit may be celebrated. But there is no curiosity about their craft. Vitality on screen comes only when they themselves or their films are on screen. It is as if they are straining to connect as people and artists - with flamboyance, poetry, wit, emotion, faith, ideas. But they are not met with an equal flamboyance and artistic vulnerability, aka an autonomous creativity unfettered by OTT imperatives. The two people for whom the party is thrown become responsible for giving the party life. Flattery diminishes the full personhood of the subjects and does not trust the audience to form a complicated relationship with them. That's a lonely thing - for subjects and viewers.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at paromita.vohra@mid-day.com