MovieChat Forums > Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) Discussion > Are there good directors in india?

Are there good directors in india?

posted 19 years ago by chipjenkins
24 replies | jump to latest

Now, after seeing Mangal Pandey and some other movies I can see that there are great cinematographers but the direction in mangal pandey is so generic and feels like it's trying too hard to be like a Hollywood movie.
The presentation and editing is great compared to usual indian movies, and the sets are wonderful. But the storytelling is still behind and the camera movements a bit meh.

I mean where are the Martin Scorsese, Steven Speilberg, and Stanley Kubrick of india? I could understand before there were bugdet restrictions but now I think they have enough to actually challenge some of the biggest hollywood movies.

It's a step up from usual indian romantic-action-musicals but still really far behind compared to even hollywood movies from 50 years ago. Watch Spartacus, Paths of Glory, Patoon.

It's really sad when you think you could have done better than those professionals . It seems like nowaday all they try to do is pass for generic historic hollywood movies like Troy, Alexandar, instead of really making them original entertaining yet true to it's source.

[–] Lucifer_nib_666 19 years ago

***
I mean where are the Martin Scorsese, Steven Speilberg, and Stanley Kubrick of india
***

Steven Spielberg is overrated tripe. Kubrick is a director that comes once in many generations, you cannot expect either Hollywood or the Indian film industry to produce a legend like him ever again.

If you want to know whether india has ever produced great directors?........... Ever heard of Satyajeet Ray?? Or Raj Kapoor or Guru Dutt or Ritwik Ghatak.
Are there good directors in India now???

Duh!!!

There are a few who i consider to be brilliant,

Farhan Akhtar - The youngest and perhaps the most talented
Maniratnam - Check out his political trilogy Roja,Bombay and Dil Se
Ashutosh Gowariker - Swades and Lagaan
Sanjay Leela Bansali - Lot of people like him, i consider him to be above average at best
Ram Gopal Verma - Satya, Company ,Sarkar .......will beat the living crap out of most hollywood mob movies < Godfather and Goodfellas not included>

There are few that hollywood considers good directors -

Mina Nair
Shekhar Kappor

Both of em are ok in my books.

Nobody Dies a Virgin, Life screws Everyone

[–] andy-895 19 years ago

I loved this line -

" Ram Gopal Verma - Satya, Company ,Sarkar .......will beat the living crap out of most hollywood mob movies < Godfather and Goodfellas not included> "

Its actaully True. He excells in the Mob movies & his movies are comparable with the world's best mob movies. But at the same time he excels in horror & thrillers. Giving a few of his best movies -

Company - The most stylish yet true-to-life mob movie ever made.

Satya & Shiva - The story of a man going up the ladder in the mob both were forced into it. Shiva was story of a college student getting involved in politics while Satya was the story of unemployed (if you take his stint as the waiter) youth.

Sarkar - Although the director calls this his take on The Godfather - the only resemblance is the unrelectant 2nd generation getting into the world of crime. Passionately made, enacted & gripping from start till the end.

Raat, Kaun & Bhoot - All three great Horror / Thriller movies - I think KAUN is a lil under-rated - using only 3 characters the director builds the whole situation to its boiling point - done well.

A mention for Rangeela ( the movie that gave Aamir a new style & hit when he was lying low), Jungle (which resurrected Fardeen's career) & MAST (this is also under-rated), all were entertaining movies.

Ya, I know I've not mentioned DAUD - but only coz thats unmentionable here (though I enjoyed a few scenes from it). Daud is 1 movie - where RGV messed up. Oooops - Missed Naach - ok - twice :)

[–] mikham 19 years ago

there are good directors:

Santosh Sivan
Mani Ratnam
Ram Gopal verma
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Ashutosh Gowariker
Farhan Akhtar
Raj Kumar Santoshi
Madhur Bhandarkar
Shyam Benegal

And theres the older ones:
- Satyajit Ray
- Guru Dutt
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee

There are alot of directors who have only done one film so far and showed some spark fo talent

My name is sanity

[–] Egon_Spengler 19 years ago

Bhansali is overated.
HDDCS was okay type except for Salman's histrionics. Devdas and Black were both craps. Haven't seen Khamoshi.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time

[–] mikham 19 years ago

I am not a fan of his films either in terms of substance, but he is widely acclaimed and very popular. And his films are always visually stunning.

My name is sanity

[–] chipjenkins 19 years ago

Speilberg is overrated? Yea, Hitchcock was considered average at best when he was still alive, now it's a different story.

E.T.
Indiana Jones
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Jurrasic Park
Minority Report
War Of the Worlds
Catch me If you Can.

Yea, overrated indeed.

All I'm saying is they have to come out of their, little home, musical, comedies with over acting from scene from scene with mediocre dialouge. There aren't alot of indain movies that take themselves seriously. And I agree about Stanley Kubrick.

[–] Egon_Spengler 19 years ago

I agree that Speilberg is tad overrated.

ET : Not seen
Indiana Jones: Have seen Temple of Doom : 1/10
Schindler's List : 8/10 (people have soft corner for holocaust movies)
Saving Private Ryan : Overrated 5/10
Jurrasic Park : Nothing special except for special effects. 4/10
Minority Report: Not seen
War of the Worlds: Crap 1/10
Catch me If you can: Not seen

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time

[–] chipjenkins 19 years ago

HAHAHAHAHA. Oh my god. I wonder what you give Indian movies. very very funny.

[–] Egon_Spengler 19 years ago

What's so funny?

I wonder what you give Indian movies.
From 0/10 to 10/10..depending upon the movie. Don't just typecast all Indian movies into a single class.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time

[–] Ali_Asgar 19 years ago

I can't resist saying here that Speilberg is a man with an agenda. He plays straight into zionists and compromises his artistic neutrality for loyalty towards his Jew community. He wants the world to feel guilty for the death of every single jew while remaining indifferent towards atrocities on "other" communities. Apart from making holocaust movies where he portrays all Nazis as cold blooded homicidal robots, he has recently taken up a project called "munich". This is about the massacre of 7 Israeli athletes in the Munich (Germany)olympics of 1972 by hezbullah militants. I wonder if he would ever turn his eyes towards the atrocities on so many Palestinians by the Israeli forces on an illegally occupied land, killing of Iraqi civilians by US forces, the Cambodia genocide by Pol Pot, massacre of thousands of Hutus and Tutsis in Uganda/Burundi, Gujrat riots etc.

PS: Sumeet prad, I liked ur quote.

[–] andy-895 19 years ago

I like speilberg a lot - u missed "encounters of the Third Kind" which i liked more than E.T. - I used to think of him as overrated but watching Saving Private Ryan & AI I had to accept his above average skills. He's no genius like Kubrick but he works within his limitations & take full advantage of his skills.

My vote -
E.T. - 6/10
Indiana Jones - 7-8/10
Schindler's List - 8/10
Saving Private Ryan - 10/10
Jurrasic Park - 6/10
Minority Report - 6/10
War Of the Worlds - 5/10
Catch me If you Can. - 7/10
AI - 8/10

[–] Lucifer_nib_666 19 years ago

***
peilberg is overrated? Yea, Hitchcock was considered average at best when he was still alive, now it's a different story.

E.T.
Indiana Jones
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Jurrasic Park
Minority Report
War Of the Worlds
Catch me If you Can.
***

ET - Utter crap and totally ripped off Satyajeets Ray's Alien.

Indiana Jones TOD - Ive already made my feelings clear about this movie in the TOD movie thread. Basically its offensive garbage.

Schindlers List - Pretty good.

Saving Private Ryan - Awesome!!

Jurassic park - Enjoyable but not a classic < The Book is way way better >

Minority Report - Typical Hollywood blockbuster, enjoyable but again not great.

War of the Worlds - CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP And oh did i mention?? CRAP.

Catch me if u can - Enjoyable

CLose encounters of a Third kind - Nice sountrack but not that great.

Jaws - Possibly the most overrated movie of All time.

AI - Boring

So thats one Classic and one good film, that makes him the best director of all time??? Excuse me while i puke.

Nobody Dies a Virgin, Life screws Everyone

[–] dinkarthesun 19 years ago

Speilberg is not overrated. He is a genius. He is 'Hollywood' for the world!

[–] jagdish-verma-1 19 years ago

dont forget vidhu vinod chopra. he made munnabhai mbbs and is making munnbhai mmg. I loved the movie (5 times in 1 day)

[–] mikham 19 years ago

VVC is more producer then director nowadays. The Munnabhai director is Rajkumar Hirani.

My name is sanity

[–] mesmarturnot 19 years ago

Ok first of all if you're not Indian you wouldn't know why the Indian film-makers make the movies they do, and why they make them the way they do. You've probably seen a few popular films and gotten the idea that all Indian films are like this. Well just so you know, popular Indian films? They're the worst kind. People in India DON'T GIVE A *beep* ABOUT DIRECTION, STORY-TELLING, OR CINEMATOGRAPHY. The ones they do like are the ones you seem to find pointless because Indians like all the masala(as we call it), the flavor, that is put into it. They only want entertainment and to them entertainment is everything in one. That's why these become popular and everyone knows about them so when a non-Indian person decides to check something out, this is all that is available to them. It's not like good films don't exist. These days people just don't care about them. Anything good that comes out doesn't do so well at the box office. And if you're trying to say the Indian movies coming out these days are worse than movies in Hollywood made years ago, go rent an old Indian movie and see the difference. My personal favorites are Mughal-E-Azam and Shor. So don't think you have it all figured it out. It has nothing to do with quality of directors, just the people who instead of watching just a good drama, want to watch a drama with action, romance, and comedy all in once. It's just not that easy to understand in America. Bollywood has it's own flavor, they're not competing for Oscars are they? Most of the movies are just pure entertainment for Indians.

[–] chipjenkins 19 years ago

I've been watching indian movies since i was born. And I understand what you'e saying, but most indian movies offend my intelligence. Some movies are good like that, my personal fav is Herra Perri. But I am not just into artistic movies, I love goofy Hollywood, Anchorman, Dogdeball, but I think india needs more serious movies and more attention to storytelling, cenimatography, everything to make a peice of art and not just temporary entertainment for it's times.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] praveensankaran-1 19 years ago

why do you limit Indian movies to just Hindi? I think some of the regional language movies are much better if one is to consider the aspects you mentioned. e.g. Herra Pheri is a remake of an old Malayalam movie.
And if you like movies like Dodgeball, I would add one more Indian director to the above lists: "Priyadarshan".
And if you like serious movies, why dont you see movies by Shaji N Karun, the late Aravindan or Adoor? More recently there is Murali Nair, Shyma Prasad and Jayaraj.
If you want to form an opinion of best Indian cinema, you should first try to see movies of Mohanlal, Kamala Haasan (Between them, they have won around 7 national awards).

[–] lvsrivathsan 19 years ago

i completely agree with you praveensankaran!
a lot of the regional language movies are way better than most of the hindi films. these movie have a certain soul that hindi movies, most of the time, lack.
i'm not saying that all regional language movies are awesome. some movies made in the south are totally unbearable to watch for even a single instant. but some movies are outstanding. 'nayagan' for example, is a excellent movie. kamal haasan at his best. and in malayalam, watch 'manichitratazhu'. one heck of a movie, with shobana in a 'once in a life' performance. a lot more movies are good. but these are what come to my mind immediately.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] rohonnag 19 years ago

i think one of the BEST directors of all time comes from india
that is satyajit ray, he was kubrick, speilberg and korusawa all rolled into one
sadly he didnt get the chance at global media the way it is possible now
he made quite sensative movies, historical, and thrillers
heck he had the basic idea for ET, which he narrated to spielberg, since he couldnt do such a film here at that time

rakesh roshan another underrated but good director has done an ET for india
liked his version better than spielbergs ET for one reason only , the alien here was cuter! anyways

other great directors

ram gopal varma, a director comparable to scorsece and de palma
shaker kapur, no need to intorduce him
priyadarshan, some hits and misses but a genius in his own rite
farhan aktar and ashutosh gowarikar, new age directors with a unique style

the key here is india does have great talent
but HOLLYWOOD is global , indian cenima isnt yet
but we are getting there, i am proud of INDIAN FILM industry and the way we are slowly but surely getting into the global scene
but hollywood is still hollywood and the fact that our film industry is compared to it internationally with the name Bollywood, shows that we are doing something right
look at the past couple of releases

sarkar
black
lagaan
swadesh
laksh

these movie show that we r no longer in the copying and song/dance routine anymore

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] Prathyush 19 years ago

Shankar is the best director in india