The Opinion de Jour seems to be that Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi is the most politically-aware film to be made in India for a long time. The film is apparently (I haven't seen it yet) about the political movements of the early seventies. (JP's total revolution, naxalites etc) It's being praised as a film that tries to make sure that the political milieu of our time is not forgotten from cinema.
A writer in the Indian Express quotes Shyam Benegal as saying that today's Hindi Cinema doesn't tell you anything about the time it was made in. etc. etc.
There are two problems with this argument. One, there have been plenty of politically aware films in the last decade or so. Machis, Mani Ratnam's film about the Bombay riots. Kamal Haasan's Hey Ram (my personal favourite) was about … well it was about a lot of things.
The other problem is that it assumes in a somewhat patronizing way that contemporary Bollywood cinema doesn't reflect today's milieu. Actually it does. In Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's India, you had no option but to be resigned to your fate. (I mean Dharti Ke Lal, Shehar aur Sapna and films like that and not some of the stuff he wrote at the end) In Karan Johar's time, aspiring to live like his characters is an almost reasonable khwahish. The revolution is not what failed in the streets of Patna and Calcutta yesterday, the revolution is what is succeeding in the glass-walled towers of Gurgaon and Bangalore today.
What I'm saying is that it's perfectly alright if your armaan are the kind more suited to Karan Johar's cinema than to Khwaja Ahmed Abbas'.
Do I actually believe in what I've written above or am I just trying to be a contrarian? I don't really know. Part of me believes that what the other part has written above is rubbish. I truly find myself able to hold both these opinions simultaneously.
By the way, many reviewers are writing about the film without commenting on the title. Even if you have only a passing acquaintance with Urdu/Hindustani, you can't help savour Mirza Ghalib's lines:
Hazaron khwahishein aisi, ki har khwahish par dam nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan, magar phir bhi kam nikle.
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