Centenary of Indian Cinema (Part II)

Continued from Part I

To read Part I, click here: http://uditbhatia.blogspot.com/2013/02/centenary-of-indian-cinema-part1.html

As the Indian Cinema entered into the retro phase with the resurgence of the Manmohan Desai’s and the Yash Chopras, the inception of college romance took place. The formula turned out to be such a tremendous path-breaking success that it has made some of the most dumb and decadent directors into millionaires. Loads of clichéd dialogues and chessy antics were commonplace during this era. “Meri mummy ne tumhe chai pe bulaya hai” was considered a blast of oxygen. Girls in shimmering colors with tons of make up and gallons or glycerine romancing boys (some of who resembled uncles) donning bell- bottoms and over-sized aviators, singing in public places; hands-hands; what a gala time it was. Though, on one side, there was the urbane Rishi Kapoor- Neetu Singh pair which was considered poster couple for any sexually starved couple those days, on the other side there was a simpleton ,boy-next-door Amol Palekar trying to succeed in his “pyaar ka izhaar”  but in vain. Hearts broke, marriages annulled…”yeh hamari izzat ka sawaal hai”. The period saw some welcome changes in not only the idealogy regarding love, sex and marriage from the film makers but the audience also was broadminded to digest movies like Silsila and Kabhi Kabhi with the former based on extra-marital affairs. The boy fighting the girl’s father, bodyguard followed by unrelenting rona dhona and than fortunately happy endings. The Kashmir ki Kalis either eloped with their Dharam Veers or in a sudden turn of events, the family complied..”beta, tumhare pyaar ne meri aankhe khol deen” *where’s my tissue paper*…

As the Indian cinema turned 75, the cynosure shifted from colleges and conventional locales like Switzerland to slightly more unconventional ones like Bangkok, Mauritius and Greece. Searching their long lost loves, our leading lovers crossed all boundaries and restrictions , crossed harshest of terrains to eventually win the war of love. If earlier the directors used the mingling of flowers to symbolically portray love, this era witnessed full fledged sensuous scenes burning the reels on fire. Liplocks and getting heavy on the bed were no longer a taboo and love scenes became the usp of a successful love story. Films like 1942, a love story; Chalte Chalte, Saathiya and the entire shebang were cute love stories which are exponents of the risky ishq! With Yash Chopra donning the director’s hat, it was the time to finally witness the evolution of the Indian love story plots take a prudent turn. The erudite veteran made DDLJ, Dil to Paagal hai, Veer Zaara and more recently Jab tak hai Jaan. Though the latter did not have that strong script, all these movies put one perennial doubt to rest: when it comes to love story, no one knows it better than Bollywood. Chopra’s protégés ala Karan Johar (kuch Kuch hota hai, SOTY) and Farhan Akhtar (Dil Chahta hai) brought an urbane angle to love, there is an entire fresh crops of young directors who have the baton to make this emotion the backbone of the filmdom. 

What started with the Dilip Kumars and the Dev Anands with the Wahheda Rehmaans and the Sharmila Tagores, passing on to the Shahrukhs and the Kajols and now with the Ranbir apoors and the Katrina Kaifs, relationships hovering over love as portrayed in our cinema have changed a lot. Scripts change, the protagonists change, the times change, but is there anything as timeless as love?

As  Anupam Kher aptly says to Shahrukh Khan(in DDLJ), beta yeh mohabbat hai, ye naa badli thi, naa badlegi…..

Udit Bhatia

Centenary of Indian Cinema (Part1)

My views on how the portrayal of love has changed in our CINEMA over the past century....

In the late 40’s and 50’s ,the portrayal of love was idealistic. It was full of heavy dialogues bursting with emotion leading to excessive use of glycerine, studded with lines penned by poets(who were failures in love themselves). The locale for action was not Switzerland or Venice, it was an apocryphal garden with the Heroine holding a tree branch or clutching the end of her saree, while the hero rendering(read wailing) the song of love. The leading ladies were the perfect wives/ girlfriends that might even put a “sati savitri” to shame while the leading pen were the quintessential devdas who just wanted their women at any cost. The audience, which was relatively new the nuance of love on screen, shed more tears than the actual charactes portraying the emotions leading to utter melodrama. It was the pristine love without any shades of grey. The likes of Dilip Kumar and K.L. Saigal portrayed the roles of alcoholic lovers dying to the pain of separation and societal pressure while the Meena Kumaris and Vyjanthimalas vehemently trying to overcome all odds and embrace their love; their elixir of life. 

The advent of love and relationships in Indian cinema has been since the days of yore. From the time of the very first talkies by Dadasaheb Phalke and Sohrab Modi to the Guru Dutt/Bimal Roy classics and the Raj Kapoor- Nargis enigma to Yash Chopra and Karan Johar histrionics, Indian cinema has seen a tremendous eclectic mix of characters and concepts pertaining to the evergreen emotion of love.

As fate would have it, efforts of both the men and women go down the drain as the circumstances rule the roost. Nahinnnnnnnnnn…… K.L. Saigal’s nasal yet melodious piece rightly summarises this foundation period, “jab dil he toot gaya, to jeeke kya karenge” *sob sob*. 

to be continued....

Udit  Bhatia