A week after watching one of rarest regional films in the country that crushed the bussiness of its co-released hindi film , I read many reviews lecturing the same typical critics tone of this could hve been bettr, that should hve been this etc etc…Since I once had an enthusiasm to criticise films on this very blog and now I don’t , I strongly feel some exceptions should be made.. Atleast 1 out of 100 films should be spared from criticism..and Dharti is that one film..
Punjabi film industry has lost crucial 25 years of its film making .We have drained tonnes of punjabi talent to bombay. They all try to gain healthy publicity in punjab by just speaking punjabi in interviews , and dance to sensless so termed punjabi bhangra nos .They would also desire to shoot their films in punjab, but they wouldn’t desire to help the drowning punjabi industry..
I f some artists have taken this initiative to curb the menance, why cant we just celeberate punjabi films getting released in best of the screens worldwide..i remember way back in 2006 people preferred watching Dil apna punjabi over Kabhi alvida naa kehnaa and Dharti in 2011 over DMD..People gathering in such nos for a punjabi film is a rare achievment.It took 15 years since acclaimed cinematographer Manmohan singh from bollywood( cameraman of all yash chopra films) initiated to make some punjabi films..He even opted out of working in veer zara just to make a punjabi film not even half the budget of VZ..Though all his films have been monotnous but he did bring back the trend of films in punjab..
Flaws in Dharti are not few but many….with some hindi films such as udaan and gangster ( both made under 3 crore) that are amongst the best technical films of the decade Dharti with a 5.5 cre stands no where .The makers should have avoided the expense of hiring a harley davison and audi cars and put in mre to improve the camera wrk and make it look like a descent film..Also roadies shall stop idolising rannvijay since he performed idiotically..believe, there are many other things in DHARTI that make no sense ..But criticism on such small attributes should have made sense fr a hindi film because they have their history of thousands of films, hundreds of crores of budget,the best artists , and we the punjabi industry don’t ..Moreover DHARTI is an entertaing watch with some stunning dialogues and superb performances by jimmy shergill and rahul dev..Also the film has a song SARKARAAN though in the end, but surely one of the best lyrics and with huge appeal..
Allegations have also been raised against Dharti of ripping rajneeti…ofcourse not…rajneeti’s influence can be felt, but copying and ripping are very strong terms..rajneeti was itself a story with partial concepts of THE GODFATEHR and epic MAHABHARTA slapped together..But even that was done intellectually and not shamelesly..so does Dharti, it tells a different story and has a charm to it..
Flaws in punjabi films must be spared since this is a premature state..let us give punjabi films some more redemption from criticism.For now regular production of punjabi films is all what we need.We need people to watch more and more punjabi films..We don't need people to give expertise ratings wether these films should be watched or not..i thnk criticism can wait,atleast till we too make big films,release them in multiple languages and have our own film city some day..
I strongly believe heavy budgeted bollywood films have potrailed a depressing image of punjab and its culture..and to check that, we need quality punjabi cinema…but for that we need punjabi films being made regularly…So guys, be generous and watch Dharti..Though not a perfect film, but more entertaining than many hindi films. Have great time..:-)
