We all know it takes passion to make a movie. But my favourite ‘invisible’ genre of storytelling revolves around passion itself. Not just the love-and-ambition sort of passion; those are too easy. But a greyer and ambivalent brand of passion: the kind that borders on madness (‘junoon’), self-realisation and conflict in an increasingly risk-averse world.
It’s when passion becomes more of a survival mechanism and a necessity for the protagonists; if they aren’t passionate, they aren’t anything at all. Without getting too dark on you, dear reader, here are five modern Hindi films that treat passion as an innate condition and not an aesthetic.
Tamasha (2015)
Imtiaz Ali’s most divisive movie has acquired a cult following over the years. It’s an inventive coming-of-age story about a young storyteller (Ranbir Kapoor), though it’s largely about a confused hero torn between who he is and who he’s pretending to be. His name, Ved, is now more of an adjective for drifters pressured into nine-to-five cubicles by traditional families who kill personalities in pursuit of conventional ideas of success.
Ved’s story evokes the male-ambition epidemic in India — a conflict that made every repressed millennial feel seen and understood in a culture where dreaming hard is equated with mental illness. In other words, passion is the tortured protagonist of this film; love is simply a pathway to it.
Andhadhun (2018)
Sriram Raghavan’s popular thriller has its share of delicious twists and turns, but it essentially revolves around a small-time pianist who would do anything to achieve greatness. This “anything” includes pretending to be blind: an act of deceit established within the first five minutes of the film. The film gears through different subplots of a black widow, her cop lover, an illegal organ-harvesting racket and a bunch of desperate crooks, but Andhadhun’s core is that of a dark-ambition drama.
Ayushmann Khurrana plays an artiste who’s so passionate about “making it” that the art itself — his musical talent — becomes incidental. He’s more interested in weaponising the perception of the world towards disability and underdogs; he knows he can be seen as someone great only if they think he’s a pianist against all odds: a Beethoven or a Michelangelo-coded genius.
Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020)
This seems like the most literal example of passion on this list, but the surprisingly curious biopic of the first female Indian IAF pilot to fly in a war combat zone features a sheltered young lady who struggles with the gendered agency of passion. It remains Janhvi Kapoor’s career-best performance, particularly because she captures the arc of a girl who retains the strength of being a woman in a male-dominated field, rather than putting on a front and emulating the men themselves.
It’s about someone who stays authentic in a high-pressure environment that tests the limits of authenticity and courage. Having a father who refuses to hijack her story — and understands the relationship between modern patriotism and masculinity — helps her embrace an older meaning of passion in a new India.
Sardar Udham (2021)
Shoojit Sircar’s masterfully crafted historical biopic stars Vicky Kaushal as the titular Indian revolutionary who assassinates the Irish officer responsible for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The film’s non-linear narrative reframes the hero’s passion for revenge as a slow-burning and patient desire for justice. It’s anything but aspirational and glorified; it’s anything but black and white.
His journey is plain, pensive, bleak, almost mundane — it takes more than a decade in the wilderness to not just plot the murder, but also process the fact that his patriotism is perhaps a ready ruse for the personal pain and grief of witnessing the massacre as a young man. It’s the sort of journey where passion becomes more of an intangible and morally ambivalent entity. It isn’t visible, like a ghost in a horror film that evolves with time and normalises a sense of dread.
An Action Hero (2022)
It says something that this criminally under-watched action satire is Ayushmann Khurrana’s second film on the list. Maybe the actor’s passion as a rank outsider in a landscape full of access and silver-spoon privilege is more palpable through the roles he chooses. The tragicomedy is empowered by the irony of Khurrana playing a Bollywood superstar who rediscovers his passion to survive after he accidentally kills a political goon’s brother.
It’s an entertaining ride, almost too smart for its send-up of a star-obsessed movie business. But it also functions as a disarmingly poignant ode to a flailing Hindi film industry in the face of underworld danger and unoriginal stories. Imagine the impassioned actions of a real-world actor playing a make-believe action hero who is forced to become a real action hero.