A shrinking of art in our literature, films & music

My wife and I spent two nights at Ganga Kutir, the new Taj Hotel built in collaboration with the Neotia Group, two hours beyond Kolkata, where the river appears to be as wide as the ocean it is about to merge in.

- Pavan K Varma

Classical music requires space for elaboration, as each raga is meant to evoke a mood. But increasingly, audiences don't have the patience to let that unfold.

(HT ARCHIVE)

Among the others invited were Aparna Sen, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar. On a balmy winter day, as Shabana and ‘Aparna discussed their remarkable cinematic experience, I asked them whether, over the decades, audience tastes have changed, and how this has impacted the art of filmmaking?

Both of them said that the change was noticeable. Earlier, films could be made that were less melodramatic, more subtle and nuanced, and beautiful for the quality of their making and message. Today, most films are overloaded with simplistic and predictable sensationalism, revelling in inane visual flamboyance. This seriously limits the canvas for creative films.

Later that day, Javed spoke about poetry and literature, and the question I had asked Aparna and Shabana loomed large again. Is there an audience out there that wants to hear good poetry, memorable for its intrinsic content? Or are they happy with merely clever rhyming, on the same jaded subjects, the lyric quickly forgotten if the music is not instantly suited to gyrating?