3 Review(s)

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR — Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age, authored by the Hindi film and music critic, Manek Premchand, is an entertaining and educative study of the work and lives of most of the notable film directors from Hindi cinema, ranging from people who created films from the silent era in the early 20th century, running down the golden age of the ‘50s and ‘60s, and ending in 1980. The thoughtful, serious, flippant, romantic, thrilling films of this period have a class that is not only unparalleled, but they also provide film critics and connoisseurs valuable material for examination. Giants such as Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan, Sohrab Modi, B R Chopra, etc., occupied very high director’s chairs, which even till now remain theirs and theirs alone.Without diminishing the role of the other members of a film’s cast and crew, it can be said that the director’s role is far more important than anyone else’s. Everything comes under his gaze, and in the final analysis, the film is his baby. He certainly has a vast canvas to paint, unlike the others of a unit, whose roles are restricted. It is the director who is the boss of the film, just as the music director is the boss of the film’s songs.As for the numbers, India has for decades been the top filmmaking country in the world, in quantity even if not in dollar terms. The paucity of good cinema is evident, with glitz and glamour often overtaking real content and class. For all that, today’s filmmakers are fortunate to have new technology like computer graphics to help them along. Fifty years ago and before that, such help didn’t exist. Yet many of our directors created valuable, impactful cinema, often propelled by exceptional music. Hundreds of creative giants belong to this period, some more outstanding, some less so, but most trying to be inspirational and original. Manek Premchand holds them in high esteem, and this study, running into a few years of labour, is a must-have for all who believe films of our past are timeless.