Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/favourite-films-of-a-decade/baradwaj-rangan-80s-top-films/
One of the aspects of pop-culture that really, I mean really, gets to me is how unshakeable an opinion becomes. I call it the Curse of Perceived Wisdom. Here’s an example. Mahesh Bhatt once said, in some magazine, that the most erotic scene in Indian cinema is the one where Dilip Kumar strokes Madhubala’s face with a feather in Mughal-e-Azam. Ever since, every article on “erotic moments” lists this scene at No. 1. And I’m like: Really? I don’t doubt for a second that Mahesh Bhatt considers this the most erotic scene, but surely there are others with other tastes! Surely, someone prefers, say, the moment in Utsav where Rekha pretends (to Shekhar Suman) that she doesn’t know how to remove the jewellery draping her body like vines on a trellis.
One of the most problematic instances of perceived wisdom is that Hindi cinema in the 1980s sucked, that it was the equivalent of Amitabh Bachchan in the Laawaris (1981) clip above: “gandi naali ka woh keeda jo na jeeta hai na marta hai.” A bastard child, apparently orphaned by directors who weren’t married to the “higher sensibilities” of the earlier decades. The way I see it, if you don’t get this decade, you don’t get Hindi cinema at all – for it’s the melting-pot decade that took in the influences of the earlier years and paved the way for today’s Hindi cinema.
Foremost among these “straddler” filmmakers were JP Dutta and Rahul Rawail. (I’d also include N Chandra, but Tezaab appears towards the end of the 1980s.) From earlier decades (i.e. pre-liberalisation India), these directors took the melodrama, the mother figure, the politics, the social unrest (and the ensuing violence), and, of course, the romance. And the films they made (Arjun, Dacait, Ghulami, Yateem, Batwara) twisted these must-haves around in ways that would reflect in the more cinephilic future, when directors turned more tech-savvy. Similar themes would echo in, say, the gangland sagas of Ram Gopal Varma. Look at Mahesh Bhatt’s work (Arth, Naam, Thikaana), and you are seeing far more incendiary cinema in the mainstream than what we’d get in future decades. Today, Bhatt-like angst (I’m considering films like Udaan or even Kapoor & Sons) is considered more multiplex, more… niche.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
An Jo
February 12, 2019
Please delete this comment if you think it’s unacceptable here: Not intending to blog-whore here – Since you mention the ’80s with a pic of Bachchan, here’s Bachchan in 2018 – Enjoy MANK and ANU…
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MANK
February 12, 2019
Anybody would have picked the 70’s , but 80’s has its own pleasures.No decade that had the best of J.P.Dutta , Rahul Rawail, Mahesh Bhatt and N Chandra can be so bad.More than south cinema , it is Bachchan’s decline along with that of others like Salim Javed, manmohan desai, prakash mehra etc that give 80’s the bad rap
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MANK
February 12, 2019
An Jo , Bachchan saab looks in great form. actually this is his 50 th year in movies. Saath hindusthani came out in 1969. Man he still rocks at the age of 76 and that voice , phew,the magic of that voice continues..
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Anu Warrier
February 12, 2019
BR, I don’t think it was as much ‘looking down on that type of cinema’ as the fact that the 80s had a few gems here and there but were – for the most haul – pretty doleful. Amitabh’s and Salim-Javed’s best work was in the 70s. The middle cinema was pretty much the saving grace, and we were so starved of really good masala that some of the films you mentioned were elevated to that status.
As for the South- remakes, I didn’t mind the emotional pitch. What bothered me, even then, and I’m a child of the 80s, was the very regressive story-lines, the characters, their actions and the complete negation of any female agency. You talk of Main Chup Rahoongi – yes, a tear-fest, but man, way above the 80s films that were Sridevi-Jeetendra-Jayaprada vehicles. Of course, there were bad films in every decade, but the vulgarity that crept in during the 80s with the innuendo and the ‘dance’ moves was appalling.
I love masala films. I cut my eye-teeth on AB, after all. So I take grave exception to your saying that if I don’t ‘get’ the 80s, I don’t get Hindi films at all. 🙂
An Jo, thanks, man. 🙂 Made my day.
That half smile on AB’s face – he’s having the time of his life, surely. And Taapsee is an actress I will watch any day. Looking forward to this one.
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Madan
February 12, 2019
I remember reading Farah Khan saying the 80s was a horrible decade and cringed, thinking of the many fine films of the decade like Maasoom, Ardh Satya, JBDY, Arth, New Delhi Times. That said, I also agree with Anu Warrier’s comment above. There was no middle ground in the 80s. The parallel cinema hit its peak, at least in terms of content (in terms of ‘cinema’ alone, I would rank Satya above any of those above films). But some of the masala stuff was really dire. I do like Arjun a lot but I cannot abide by Namak Halal and don’t even get me started about Naseeb. Where the 70s AB films still had some artistic integrity and strong script writing, the 80s saw the exploitation of AB’s potential as a star and it was almost as if the content was not relevant as long as he starred in it. The music too was mostly terrible, at least beyond a few last gasps of brilliance from RD and the Khaiyyam-art films. On average, even the 90s was a better decade than the 80s, though the parallel cinema no longer reached those heights.
So while I am in the camp that says don’t blindly write off the 80s because there are many great films in that decade too, it’s by no means my favourite decade of Bollywood.
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Saket
February 13, 2019
BR, you forgot Ardh Satya. It makes me immensely sad to note that almost the entire cast of the film has passed away! Om Puri, Smita Patil, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Amrish Puri.
Amongst Bachchan films, I loved Shehenshah. I must have watched it 4 times, at least. I forgot to mention this earlier – Ranveer’s character arc in Simmba is very similar to Amitabh’s character arc in Shehenshah. In the latter film, Bachchan also plays a corrupt cop who gets reformed after his mother (who else?) berates him for taking bribes. Yes, there’s the whole vigilante angle to the film as well, but the Police Inspector part is quite similar to Simmba’s. The extra-judicial, quasi-fascist system of justice imparted, is also common to both films.
In fact, even Ardh Satya follows the same pattern of justice in its climax. That being said, the film is about the lead character’s descent into madness – a la Taxi Driver. So, the climax can be interpreted differently.
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Madan
February 13, 2019
I love, love the lead up to and the actual climax of Ardhsatya with a brilliant cameo by Amrakpurkar as the gloating, corrupt politician. It’s so despairing, Nihalani really brings home the desolation of the protagonist. Loses his girlfriend, loses face in the department and with seemingly nothing left to lose, he strikes the fatal blow. A very emotional passage.
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Enigma
February 14, 2019
@Madan, between Farah Khan, her out of work husband and her perverted brother, they have managed to churn out some of the worst movies ever made in the history of cinema. And she has the gall to trash an entire decade.
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MANK
February 14, 2019
My favorite Bachchan film\performance from the 80’s is sharaabi. i love Bachchan in this film. so i thought i would just elaborate on that 🙂
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13
February 14, 2019
Yes 80s are my favourite decade as well. So many great films Dutta’s Ghulami, Yateem, Hathyar. Rawail’s Dacait. Benegal’s Kalyug. Disco Dancer. Tarang. Ardh Satya
Even camp like Purana Mandir, Veerana
13
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Mank fan
February 15, 2019
You have sort of contradicted yourself at the end by saying “80s is like anyother film decade”. The question is, is this really your favorite decade when compared with the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s & 00s.
Cinematically i’ll remember the 80s with great fondness apart from the one’s uve mentioned I can name so many more – Paar, Katha, Chasme Badoor – Sai paranjape, khamosh, Rawail’s underrated biwi o biwi, Bhat’s Janam, Masoom, Benegal’s Felliniesque Mandi, Gulzar’s elegiac Ijazat or comedic Angoor, the pleasantly subversive chameli ki shaadi, the archetypal love triangle – woh saat din, parasher’s Jalwa & chaalbaaz. I can go on but the point is 80s gave bollywood tropes and archetypes that filmmakers continue to milk.
True there were films that were regressive and shoddy but I don’t think the 90s birthed as many important films and filmmakers.
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brangan
February 15, 2019
Mank fan: The last para was about the fact that there IS no one greatest decade. They all have pluses and minuses. The title of this series is “My Favourite Decade”, else I would have just gone with a title like “Why the 80s are maligned”
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(Original) venkatesh
February 17, 2019
We are talking 80s and not even a single line about Manmohan Desai?
Really.
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brangan
February 18, 2019
(Original) venkatesh: Because — despite Naseeb, Mard, Shararbi etc — I see Desai and Mehra as quintessentially of the 70s.
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MANK
February 23, 2019
My new edition to #50 years of Amitabh Bachchan series is about Kaala Patthar. It’s one of Bachchan’s grittiest performances. Hope you enjoy reading it
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TambiDude
February 23, 2019
*I remember reading Farah Khan saying the 80s was a horrible decade and cringed, thinking of the many fine films of the decade like Maasoom, Ardh Satya, JBDY, Arth, New Delhi Times. *
Could it be that majority of the movies listed movies where art movies, which was disparaged badly by Bollywood in general and specially by Man Mohan Desai. I hated him, not because of bad movies he made ( I didn’t care for his movies), but because he was so disparaging towards the movies made by the likes of Govind Nihalani and called himself king of making blockbusters. Serves him right that he died in penury (IIRC).
Unlike most of the good movies made in the last 20 yrs, 80s movies of GN are good to watch even today. I have them in my personal collection and love watching it every couple of years.
On a related note, by 90s art movies movement died and many of the stalwarts became bitter towards it. Naserrud-dung Shah, who in recent times seems to have gone senile, started vomiting venom against that movement. Perhaps to justify him doing roles in movies like Mohra. (he was good in that movie IMO).
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Madan
February 23, 2019
” because he was so disparaging towards the movies made by the likes of Govind Nihalani and called himself king of making blockbusters.” – I was not aware of this. So basically the Chetan Bhagat of 80s Bolly. I say Bhagat because he calls himself the most loved writer of India and takes subtle jabs at supposedly pseudo intellectual writers whose books don’t sell as much.
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TambiDude
February 23, 2019
Chetan Bhagat’s classmate at IIMA lives in NJ. Per him he was the fartoos of his batch who could just talk away to success.
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An Jo
February 23, 2019
MANK: no other actor on the face of this earth could have externally angsted the internal pain…as AB did in KP
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An Jo
February 24, 2019
And here it is MANK…the original trailer..where Amit smashes the mirror…
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Aditya
March 4, 2019
1980s was a wonderful decade. A decade rife great/underrated films(Arjun, Shakti, Hathyaar, Kalyug, Hatya, Mashaal, Parinda, etc), not to mention guilty pleasures I could still sit through, even today: Teri Meherbaniyan, Ghazab, Kranti, Bhrashtachar, Sadak Chhap, etc) Loved this decade!
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An Jo
March 9, 2019
Watched BADLA. Gripping till the end with strong performances from one and all with Amitabh and Tapsee leading the party.
This is one gem of a performance from Amitabh. It’s literally a drawing-room performance from him and he devours it like a hungry lion. He relishes in it and simply astounds you when you just thought what the hell’s there left to see in his performances? This is better than his performance in PINK. That was an inward, brooding performance while this one is a cold, calculated, and cunning performance. His presence is limited only to his interactions with Tapsee and their chess-play of an act is a delight to watch.
Do not miss this film. Do not, if you want to watch a film embellished with a performance by Amitabh that will stay on with you long after you leave the theater…
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MANK
March 18, 2019
My latest in Bachchan Bhakthi series is about Muqaddar ka Sikandar. I believe It has the best musical score for a Bachchan film. It also offered a multifaceted character for Bachchan to play – A mix of Devdas and Masala hero, which he pulls off as only he can
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Rocky
March 18, 2019
So much material to read and learn, just from this one thread !
Will have to come back to it later..
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ahmdahc
September 7, 2020
The best films of the 80’s
Shakti 1982 – Ramesh Sippy
Ghulami 1985 – JP Dutta
Hathyar 1989 – JP Dutta
4 Yateem 1988 – JP Dutta
QSQT 1988 – Mansoor Khan
Batwara 1989 – JP Dutta
Arth 1983 – Mahesh Bhatt
Parinda 1989 – Vinod Chopra
Shaan 1980 – Ramesh Sippy
Sultanat 1986 – Mukul Anand
Dacait 1987 – Rahul Rawail
Naam 1986 – Mahesh Bhatt
Arjun 1985 – Rahul Rawail
Silsila 1981 – Yash Chopra
Ardh Satya 1984 – Govind Nihalini
Ankush 1986 – N Chandra
Mr India 1987 – Shekhar Kapur
Massom 1983 – Shekhar Kapur
Sagaar 1985 – Ramesh Sippy
Joshilaay 1989 – Shekhar Kapur (80%)
My choices are based on the Script, Authenticity, Performances, Social Relevance and Technically astute films that still have a profound effect when you watch them now.
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krishikari
September 8, 2020
Ram Teri Ganga Maili was quite a meta movie too. I mean Raj Kapoor was masterfully exploiting Mandakini and also pointing a finger saying look how tragic this exploitation is. Terrible, but so good!
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