Alia Bhatt's Raazi is not the first film to cross Rs 100 crore at Box Office this year and yet it needs to be celebrated

By Vineeta Kumar

on May 29, 2018

It's the fifth month of the year and five films have already crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at Box Office in Bollywood. Alia Bhatt starrer Raazi is the latest one on the list. The other films are Padmaavat, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, Raid and Baaghi 2. Raazi achieving this feat at the Box Office is special in many ways.

This film, which has been deemed as a one heroine-project at the surface, is actually not. There's conviction and creative forces of two strong women behind making Raazi -- Alia Bhatt, who features in it, and Meghna Gulzar, who directs it. Films like Raazi that talk about soft patriotism can only be made with a strong belief in the idea. An idea of conceiving a story which doesn't focus on belittling the nationalism of people on the other side of the border. The idea rather focuses on showing nationalism through an individual's life journey.

It was important for a film like Raazi to register cash ringing at the Box Office. For it means more people have watched it, resonated with its intention. The movie, which also has Vicky Kaushal and Jaideep Ahlawat in pivotal roles, has turned out to be a sleeper hit, a term that is often used for films which were not expected to perform the way they did eventually.

Alia's Raazi or any other Hindi film without a 'hero' in its conventional sense is never expected to create a storm at the Box Office. The fact that 'content is the king', of course, doesn't qualify for films which are run on the shoulders of a female actor. This year though, we saw Deepika Padukone's Padmaavat and Rani Mukerji's Hitchki trying to break the glass ceiling. Raazi, followed.

The movie also helps the industry to have Alia as its next female superstar. The actress has been balancing well in choosing scripts which are out and out commercial and the ones which solely run on their content. Even when she does a candy floss like Badrinath Ki Dulhania, or Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, she makes sure she's just not being a lead prop in it. Her names are associated with commercial films which talk about issues like dowry, mental illness and child sexual abuse under the garb of things that attract audience to theatres -- songs, drama and all other colourful showsha.

So, when a film which can't afford to lure the audience with heavy commercial elements in it, does well, it boosts the morale of artistes. Artistes, who happens to be female here -- actress Alia and director Meghna.

What Raazi also attempts to do, apart from cementing a strong hold for a woman-oriented film at the Box Office, is it erases the divide between commercial and realist cinema. The story of cross border ties doesn't find its satisfaction in showing anything like knelt-down Pak army, weeping soldiers or an act of super-smartness by the Indian army. Raazi nurtures believability in its core. It marries simplicity with some talented performances. It gives out a story which is capable of changing real stories, real people.