Noir and India- The Perfect Setup?

One might think that in a country like India, film noir would be quite common and widely appreciated. When we study noir, we notice a few elements that are imperative to all pieces on noir content. These elements; a broken system, cynicism, and outsiders, complete a noir story. Other than these there are quite a few other things like femme fatale and night scenes that add more depth to a story and can be seen quite commonly.

To say that the reel life is inspired by the real life and vice versa is absolutely true in all measures. Often filmmakers pick up real life stories, experiences and create art out of it. As a country, India, and as a style of writing, noir, both have quite a few links and similarities. If for nothing else, we as Indians realise the broken nature of Indian institutions and governments at certain levels. On a daily basis, the common man struggles for basic amenities and works hard to make ends meet. This struggle often picks up individuals from the confines of their homes and transports them to distant lands in search of a better lifestyle and opportunities. All these elements that we call imperative for a noir are much too common for the people of India.

Instead of picking up these everyday life examples, we see filmmakers scouting the Hollywood archives and recreating their tried and tested plot lines. Writing noir in India has so much potential, even if there are no literary references, we see so many people and their experiences in life that can inspire writers to use the noir style of storytelling. And for a little reference, there are already numerous noir writing examples from the West.

The film noirs made in India, like No Smoking, Manorama Six Feet Under, Bhavesh Joshi, Monsoon Shootout, etc, are all great films, capturing the raw, honest, blatant reality of India. These films may have received fair reviews on the critic's end, but their popularity remained scarce. This led to the infrequent creation of content along the lines of noir.

Earlier we discussed the perfect setting India offers for a noir story to develop. As perfect as this setup may seem, we don’t see it converted to cinema. It is wrong to say that noir as a style of storytelling does not have an audience. There are so many Indians who binge on the American noir archives. Names like Sunset Boulevard, The Third Man, and Chinatown are much too common here too. So the responsibility to fill this void in cinema now rests on the shoulders of filmmakers all over the country.

About the Author

Sharon is the Content and Social Media Head at Binge Mad

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