Celluloid take on print media

Newspapers and issues of their integrity were widely explored by Hindi films in the 80s

Notes from the past A clutch of films discussed the varied facets of media and its functioning

‘Killer Breaks Lock-up’ Reshmi freezes in astonishment on reading the newspaper headline in the Daily Sunset about the daring jailbreak of the undertrial convict Shera. Hadn’t she seen this surkhiyaan (headlines) in a newspaper cutting earlier that day around 11 am at the corporate office of Prasad Publications, the company that owned Daily Sunset ? 11 am? But, how could the news story be ready at 11 am when the jailbreak had taken place no earlier than 12.30 in the afternoon? In this episode of “Bollywood Lost & Found” dedicated to 140 years of The Hindu we take a look at some of the prominent films revolving around the good old print media.

Desperate about his company’s commercial viability, Keval Prasad, the owner of Prasad Publications starts rigging up incidents thus being able to become the first paper to report the news. Needless to say, the rigged news had to be sensational — and of the criminal variety. Surkhiyaan (1985) was based on Irving Wallace’s novel The Almighty . True, sensationalism is one of the easiest things to sell. Which is what journalist Subhashini Saigal (Shabana Azmi), faced with the prospect of getting fired, does in Main Azaad Hoon (1989). She creates a fictitious character called Azaad and makes him the newspaper’s mouthpiece to expose corruption and posting a claim that he would commit suicide on Republic Day. The company’s owner Gokuldas loves the idea. Not just because newspaper sales start multiplying but because he figures out the bigger opportunity — he can use the fictional Azaad as a bait for winning public support to help Golkuldas run for Chief Minister. Subhashini’s sensation gimmick ends up creating a Frankenstein. But in the original Hollywood Meet John Doe (1941) from which Main Azaad Hoon was inspired, John Doe (Gary Cooper) does not commit suicide whereas Azaad (Amitabh Bachchan) actually jumps to his death from a high rise.

News sensationalism comes in many shades. In

Dil Hai ke Manta Nahin (1991), instead of merely reporting that he had located the runaway millionaire heiress Pooja Dharamchand on an inter-City bus, the ex-reporter of Daily Toofan Raghu Jaitley (Aamir Khan) threatens to expose her (her dad has already put out a “Missing Person” notification on her name in the papers). Raghu cuts a deal with her, agreeing to help Pooja stay anonymous and help her reach her boyfriend in Bangalore. In return, he gets a ‘ sansani khez khabar’ that he can sell to his Editor at Daily Toofan (from where has just gotten fired) for ₹10,000. There was this question of whether what Raghu did was much different from what Keval Prasad used to do – both were rigging news and tampering with the truth to suit their individual interests. Director Mahesh Bhatt admits that Dil Hai ke.. was a remake of It Happened One Night (1934).

And look at Shoba Sen (Bhakti Bharve), the Editor of Khabardar magazine in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) — she was the ugliest blotch on the media community. All of the audience’s awe and respect for her fearlessness through the film comes undone in one sickening moment towards the end. Instead of publishing the damning evidence of conspiracy and murder that could have crippled the real estate crook Tarneja, she offers to sell the evidence back to Tarneja for a sum of ₹10 lacs. Not only that, she is spineless enough to let the blame for murder and sabotage fall on the same two innocent photographers who had gifted her the evidence against Tarneja.

Who knows? Maybe honest journalism does come with a heavy price of backlash, as honest Vinod Kumar (Dilip Kumar), who runs the titular newspaper

Mashaal (1984), discovers. Looted and ransacked by the criminal Vardhan in an act of revenge against Vinod Kumar for having published material against Vardhan’s contraband trafficking, Vinod too becomes a ganglord. The yarn of a newspaperman becoming a mafia don is a typical over-the-top Bollywood ketchup.

Investigative scribes

A more realistic scenario is what happened to Vikas Pande (Shashi Kapoor), Executive Editor of the titular New Delhi Times (1986) while investigating a political murder in Ghazipur. Pande takes personal risks and fearlessly investigates into the case and comes out with an incisive story that shows the culpability of the criminal MLA Ajay Singh in the murder. But the owners of New Delhi Times pussy-foot on Pande’s story trying to persuade him that the criminal MLA Ajay Singh could harm the company with diversified interests if Vikas Pande were to pursue the story. Vikas doesn’t buckle despite a physical attack and multiple veiled and not-so-subtle threats. He has multiple battles to fight — the Editorial vs. Management within as well as the one against the criminal politicians.

Too much aggression and flamboyance are bad, as investigative journalist Jaisingh Jadhav (Marc Zuber) in Kamla (1984) discovered. To build an authentic story of female trade in the backward areas of Madhya Pradesh, he buys a girl Kamla from the rural interiors of the State and presents her in a press conference as an evidence of this shameful trade. And Jadhav becomes a superstar in his company overnight. But this exposure of slave trade displeases his politically connected bosses. They coerce Kamla to turn hostile and Jadhav’s entire story and his credibility comes crashing down. A man coming home from work at noon tearful and drunk can mean only one thing – that he has been framed and fired. Evidence is everything — even when it is ‘invisible’, as Gaitonde, the perennially hassled Editor of Crimes of India in Mr. India (1987) emphasises to his effervescent young journalist Seema. Gaitonde’s integrity was worthy of emulation.

It may be observed that all the films we have spoken of so far are post 1980 ones. That is because the 1980s was the decade of corrupt politicians, police and professionals as screen villains. But there were a few in the pre-1980s like Aarop (1974). Subhash (Vinod Khanna) exposes a vile gambling den called 3 Aces Club run by a businessman in collusion with corrupt politicians — and exposes himself to their retaliations including attempts to burn his press down and diluting the press’ assets… and then finally, framing Subhash in a murder case. It was a lone battle for survival for him what with his defence lawyer’s intent being suspected as the lawyer actually stood to gain from Subhash’s death sentence! These conflicts would only intensify with the coming of the electronic media. But that would be a different story sometime soon…..