Parallel Cinema grew in Bollywood to a much wider extent during the 70s and the 80s, with directors like Shyam Benegal, Kumar Shahani, Mani Kaul, Gulzar, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Kantilal Rathod, Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Govind Nihalini. The period also saw the emergence of young artistically adroit actors like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Amol Palekar, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Pankaj Kapur, Deepti Naval and Farooq Sheikh. Notable parallel films of the time are ‘Uski Roti’ (1971), ‘Ashadh Ka Ek Din’ (1972), ‘Maya Darpan’ (1972), ‘Ankur’ (1974), ‘Bhumika’ (1977), ‘Aakrosh’ (1980), ‘Ardh Satya’ (1983), ‘Khayal Gatha’ (1989) and ‘Kasba’ (1990). By the early 1990s, parallel cinema encountered a setback and the decline was seen in such Hindi films too, given rising film production costs and consequent commercialisation, underworld financing, economic turmoil, television, piracy, lack of mainstream distribution and exhibition and eventual withdrawal of government patronage. But Parallel Cinema resurged in Bollywood and started to be referred as offbeat films. An emergence of a distinct genre known as "Mumbai noir", reflecting social and underworld problems in the urban city ofMumbai, introduced by Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Satya’ (1998), which is regarded a modern masterpiece and considered one of the best gangster films of all time. Modern art films of the 21st century produced in Bollywood include Mani Ratnam's ‘Yuva’ (2004), Nagesh Kukunoor's ‘3 Deewarein’ (2003) and ‘Dor’ (2006), Sudhir Mishra's ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ (2005), Jahnu Barua's ‘Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara’ (2005), Pan Nalin's ‘Valley of Flowers’ (2006), Anurag Kashyap's ‘Black Friday’ (2007) and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ (2012), Vikramaditya Motwane's ‘Udaan’ (2009), Kiran Rao's ‘Dhobi Ghat’ (2010) and Ritesh Batra’s ‘The Lunchbox’ (2013). Parallel Cinema actors in Bollywood today are the much acclaimed Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda and Huma Qureshi. |