Action sequences have become slick. And yet, there are some scenes that have stayed over the decades. Here are 10 trends that became part of everyone's favourites lists
Action sequences have become slick. And yet, there are some scenes that have stayed over the decades. Here are 10 trends that became part of everyone's favourites lists
They say actions speak louder than words. And we couldn't agree more. If you take Hindi films, action sequences have got bigger and better. From the time when building and train models were blown up and then amplified to depict on-screen destruction to now, when an action director can recreate fantastical sequences using modern gadgetry and post-production. So yes, action is ticking.
And yet, over the years, action in films has seen a trend a reoccurrence of certain landmarks or props that are used as the backdrop for an important scene, perhaps the climax of the movie. Here, we list 10 action trends that have stayed and yet evolved over the decades:
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Battle or war action
The film that still tops the chart in this genre is the battle sequence shot for Mughal-e-Azam (1960). The sequence was shot using 2,000 camels, 4,000 horses and 8,000 troops, many of them real soldiers on loan from the Jaipur regiment of the Indian Army. "Mughal-e-Azam had the best war scenes, and this was when there was no computer generated imagery (CGI) to fill up the frames. I also feel that Chetan Anand's Haqeeqat (1964) had some realistic battle scenes," says film critic and writer Deepa Gahlot. 
"In terms of the magnitude and the time when Mughal-e-Azam was shot, there is no better battle sequence till date. I worked on Mangal Pandey, so that's dear to me too," says action director Abbas Ali Moghul. His contemporary Tinu Verma, however, feels that the battle sequence in the forthcoming Salman Khan-starrer Veer, in which the actor has done most of the stunts, is a film to look forward to. Action director Sham Kaushal says the battle sequences in Asoka, which he shot for some 45 kms from Jaipur, was a toughie, as he had to use 300 horses, 4,000 locals and 200 stuntmen.
Use of horses
These majestic animals have remained a constant in many war and dacoit movies. The heart-warming banter of Basanti riding the horse carriage in Sholay and the horse game buzkashi in Khuda Gawah, shot in Afghanistan using mostly locals, flash by. "For me, Mughal-e-Azam scores again and some of the early dacoit movies like Moni Bhattacharjee-directed Mujhe Jeene Do (1963)," says Gahlot.u00a0
However, Tinu feels that one should wait for Salman Khan-starrer Veer for the horse sequence. "It's the introduction shot of Salman and it's spellbinding," emphasises Tinu. As for the other two recent films with horses, we prefer the fleeting horse scenes in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na to Drona.
Action on the train
While there are several movies with action on the train, the ensemble star cast Burning Train (1980) was entirely based in and on a train. While some of the scenes were brilliantly shot, some others were quite tacky. But it wasn't the CGI era then. And who can forget the 1975-released Sholay? Many films that came later followed Sholay's track.
"But I recall a few Fearless Nadia films, where they had fist and sword fights atop moving trains. Of course, Sholay was one of the memorable ones. More recently the climax in Gaddar and Dhoom 2 were also interesting," says Gahlot. 
Shooting atop a train has changed today with harnesses and wires. Like Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 and the Slumdog Millionaire sequence where the child artistes were shot hanging upside down.
However, Abbas feels that his own film, Ghulam, was no less in the train sequence. "Aamir Khan out-racing the train to reach the flag post was chilling," he insists. "The railways failed to provide us with an electric trolley for the camera. So 20-25 unit guys were manually pushing the trolley. A boy stumbled and fell on the path of the trolley's wheel. Luckily, he was pushed out of the way in time, else his head would have got crushed. This sequence was filmed in just one take with three cameras in different angles," recalls Abbas.
Blasts
One of the guys to master explosive scenes is Allan Amin. When Abbas-Mustan-directed Race released, Allan had some brilliant action sequences in the film. A car somersaulting in the air with Saif Ali Khan still inside to Bipasha Basu running away from a car that somersaults in the air and spins over her head, Allan used technology in a way to make it all believable. "When Saif is pushed off the 24th floor, he actually took the fall. 
And Bipasha actually ran while a car behind her exploded and somersaulted over her head," Allan remembers. His secrets lie in the flawless use of hydraulics and harnesses. "I use the rig, a platform with hydraulics, on which a car or a bike is set and then electrically controlled to spin or rotate when an explosion goes off. If you see Race, you actually see Saif's face in the shot while the car is somersaulting in mid-air. We set up two rigs, mounted a car on it with Saif inside and rotated it. The speed is much less while actually shooting it. We later sped it up in post-production," Allan says with a laugh.
Car chase
There are several films that come to mind when we mention car chases. Allan wants to know, "Can you compare the sequence of Race to any other film?" Talking about the shot, he says that he got two Australians who were experts in drifting cars. Explaining the process, he says, "When nitrogen is mixed with petrol, it makes the car go 40 to 140 kilometre per hour. But when you induce nitrogen, the wheels of the car go out of control, but these two guys knew how to control the car. That's how you see the spectacular car sequence in Race. For Saif and Akshay Khanna, we installed rigs to get their close-ups, when the car starts spinning around."
In another scene in Race, the car goes between two buses on two wheels. "This again was done by a specialist, and shot from a helicopter and four other cameras," says Allan, who has done stunts for Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt, and specialises in bikes, cycles, cars, fencing, horses and speedboats. Of course, there was Shah Rukh Khan's Don too.
Fist fights
Of course before CGI came in, the novelty of fights were all on the ground. So from mild pow-wows and slaps in the black-and-white era to the angry young man image of the '70s heroes like Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, to Mithun Chakraborty's karate chops and his Spiderman acts of scaling buildings, the fist-fight has assumed a CGI touch.
"Almost all the films in the 60s and 70s had fist fights, with the sound 'dishoom dishoom' actually mouthed! But the most memorable ones for me are the ones in Johnny Mera Naam, where Dev Anand and Pran fight and during the process realise they are long lost brothers. And then the one between Pran and Amitabh in Zanjeer, where the cop takes up the Pathan's challenge, they have an evenly matched fight and in the end they become friends and Pran gives up crime," says Gahlot.
Tinu Verma says, "I like Amar Akbar Anthony's basti fight between Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna. That was well shot. And in Sholay, when Sanjeev Kumar sends goons to size up Jai and Veeru inside the house. Manmohan Desai's Naseeb also had good action."
Realistic fights
From the dishoom dishoom mouthed sound, the film industry veered onto the realistic ground with Prahaar and later Satya, which had the audience cringing during fight sequences. Prahaar was Sham Kaushal's first film as an action director, where he used hand combats more than gimmicks. So did Ram Gopal Verma's Satya, which brought underworld rivalry to the fore the action sequences were more or less what a common man read in the newspapers, some had even seen it live on the Mumbai streets in the late 80s and early 90s. Aamir Khan's character as ACP Rathore in Sarfarosh (1999) again pushed the fight sequence more towards the real. Not to forget Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday or the recent Gulaal. But Deepa feels that there aren't too many memorable ones. "Fights in our films are essentially stylised," she says.
Godown fights
Usually the godown scene became a part of the filmmaking from 70s onwards. Many of the films' climaxes culminated in the dark, dingy, and filled-with-boxes-and-drums godown. But as Sham Kaushal puts it, "The trend started with Deewaar (1975) when Amitabh Bachchan locks the godown shutters and fights the goons. I guess after that many heroines were picked up by the villains and taken to a godown somewhere, for the hero to come and rescue her." It's Salim-Javed's dialogue mouthed by Amitabh that actually lent to the action sequence in Deewaar: 'Tum log mujhe dhoond rahe ho aur main tumhara yahan intezaar kar raha hoon.' The godown sequences are also seen in the super funny Andaz Apna Apna's climax, Sunday and Hungama.
Bandits attacking the village
"Another trend in action, made popular after Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), is the theme revolving around a village living under the shadows of dacoits," says Sham Kaushal. Not only was the super-hit Sholay, made four years later, set on this theme but many others followed suit in the 70s, including Mr Natwarlal. Later Bandit Queen, based on real life bandit Phoolan Devi, made waves for its boldness of theme and action.
Building jumps
"There was a scene in Yaadon Ki Baraat, that was copied a lot later, in which Dharmendra jumped from a bridge on to a moving train below," says Deepa. In those days the harness was not really known. A stuntman's jump was cushioned with cardboard boxes or nets. Remembers Abbas, "In Bobby Deol's Kranti, stuntman Kadar had to jump from a fifth floor building to a second floor building balcony. I had just one take, so I used five cameras to capture the shot. Kadar jumped and landed on the boxes safely. And I started crying. I don't think I will ever ask anyone to do it again." Talking about another film, Chor Machaaye Shor (2002), Abbas says two stuntmen had to jump from the 11th floor of a building. "I couldn't use air bags because there were two men jumping at the same time and chances of them getting hurt were more. So I had to protect them by placing 5,000 boxes.
They jumped and gave a perfect shot. That was scary too," he says with a sigh.
Allan claims the first one to use a harness was Amitabh Bachchan in Aks for a 300 feet jump into the waterfall. Recently, Imran Khan did some 'death-defying' building stunts in Hijack. In a forthcoming film, Prince, Vivek Oberoi will do a bike jump from one building to another.
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