I am a Bollywood fan. Having grown up watching Hindi movies, I used to think that if you're Indian you ought to be a Bollywood addict. But I grew up to realize that there are Tamil movies and Bengali movies and Telgu movies etc etc, that had an audience of their own. And were pretty BIG in their regions. And considering for many folks in South India Hindi is an alien language, it makes sense for regional movie industries to be popular and folks to wonder what the big fuss about Bollywood is!
Interestingly, I had a conversation with a set of friends last night and they were all South Indians and for most of them Hindi was not even their second language at school. And I being a Shahrukh Khan fan was being ragged onw stereotyped Shahrukh had become and that his 'open arms' pose was so cliched that they had to think hard to think of a ShahRukh movie without it. More recently, how and why Chennai Express was so hyped When its such a dumb movie....Etc Etc Etc. You get the drift. I am usually ok with people critiquing ShahRukh. It takes tremendous patience, but I do some pranayama and breathing exercises to keep my cool in these conversations. haha. And obviously if you are talking about Shahrukh. You need to talk about DDLJ. For the 6 people in the room, 1 had watched DDLJ 1000 times and loved it (quite obviously that is me), 2 had not watched it, 1 thought it was quite silly & had horrendous dialogues, 1 slept all the 3 times he tried watching it, and 1 watched it very recently and wondered what the fuss was about. While I listened to them, my heart was aching (literally) to make them understand the world of Bollywood, the meaning behind Shahrukhs antics, the beauty of the dialogues, and story and it's meaning and relevance. But I realised, that unless you have grown up watching Bollywood movies, you will not quite get it. So I calmed myself down and breathed a sigh of exasperation and helplessness.
So here's my very very biased opinion about Bollywood, I'll come to Shahrukh Khan later. For the millions and billions that go to watch the Friday Hindi release, the 3 hours that they expect to spend inside a theater, are meant to be a break from real life. It's meant to be full of drama, unrealistic dreams and love stories, heroes that fight 10 people at once, heroines who are beautiful and of course the famous song and dance scenes! Now, you can argue that these are elements that are a part of even regional movies. There is nothing in Hindi movies that regional movies don't have. Then why the fuss? Well, the numbers for one, the number of people who watch Hindi movies is WAY bigger than any audience the regional movies have. The media. Of course, like everything else, the media plays a big part in shaping our opinions in India. And it is rare for them to focus on a regional movie star (unless it's Rajnikant or Kamal Hassan), which is very different for how they treat Bollywood movie stars. International appeal. Karan Johar and Yash Chopra's NRI audience. Raj Kapoor's fame in Russia. The world's obsession with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the quintessential Indian beauty. All this matters.
There are loads and loads of other reasons. But the point is, it works. Rajesh Khanna's 'babu moshai' is endearing, Amitabh Bachchan's angry young man works, Akshay Kumar's action hero image is loved, Govinda and Johnny Lever's comedy was a huge part of the 90's Bollywood industry. Salman, Aamir and Shahrukh reshaped romantic heroes. Moving away from the male-focus, Meena Kumari's Pakeezah and Madhubala's Mughal-e-Azam, Sridevi's Chaalbaaz and Madhuri's Hum Aapke Hain Kaun are so loved and watched over and over and over again. So what about Bollywood working do the non-bollywood audience not like? I don't know and frankly, if you ask them, most will not be able to articulate their issues with the movie industry. They JUST have a problem with it. A part of me thinks, that they feel cheated. In their opinion, Bollywood doesn't deserve the attention and the fame it gets. They cite examples of how so many regional movies win National Awards every year and Bollywood is 'bullshit' in front of them. And more recently, they were livid at '100 years of Indian cinema being celebrated as a 'Bollywood' milestone and feel cheated again. All of these are valid reasons. Again, this is my opinion of why they dislike Bollywood, the truth may be very different. Another trend you will notice is how they will praise Aamir Khan to high heavens and laud him for having the guts of stray away from the "Bollywood formula" to make more "meaningful cinema". Like regional cinemas don't have heroes flying from a 50 storey building and landing on the ground without a scratch.
Sometimes I wonder WHY we analyze our movie industries SO much. They are a medium of entertainment, yes sometimes they are meant to bring about social change, but they are meant to be fun and entertaining. Period. Any other expectations you have from cinemas are personal and do NOT apply to the wider audience. This in fact does not apply folks who don't watch Hindi movies, but everyone. Why do we want Bollywood to be like Hollywood? Or why should the movies be serious and 'make sense' and appeal to your 'intellect'?! You make the choice to go watch a movie, if you don't like what you see in trailers, don't go watch the movie man!
Now, let's come to Shahrukh Khan. A word of caution though, any objectivity I may have had in the last few paragraphs will now disappear. I love Shahrukh Khan. I love DDLJ. I think it's one of the most beautiful Hindi movies ever made. I love "bade bade desho mein aisi chotti chotti baatein hoti rehti hain". I love his open arms stance. I love it when he makes me cry, i love it when he makes me laugh, I love it when he loves, i love it when he hates. This does not mean I don't like Salman Khan or don't like Aamir's movies. I like them all, but I love Shahrukh Khan. I can watch DDLJ even now and find it relevant. I have danced like Kajol in a towel singing "Mere khwabon mein jo aaye" and as far as I know, millions do. I think it's a trend to criticise Shahrukh Khan. Just for the heck of it. Let me tell you about folks in my office who ranted and hated and posted on social networks, about silly and irrelevant and arrogant things Shahrukh does. But when Shahrukh came for our annual conference and went up on stage and did his much-hated open arms act, these very people screamed and shouted and said "ShahRuuuuuukh". I have proof on video. The man can charm anyone. He is one of the most well-read actors among his peers, speaks and speaks sense at events. Has a good sense of humour, and yes can tend to be arrogant at time, actually always. He is a self made individual and took chances early on in his career with anti-hero and negative roles with Baazigar and Darr. He is at the core of it a romantic hero, and there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing. He has done brilliant non-romantic roles in Swades and Chak De and those are as per his haters "movies he showed potential in". Whatever. I found him brilliant in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na, and that remains my favorite Shahrukh Khan movie to date. I love his stammering laugh. I have grown up watching Shahrukh movies. I watched DDLJ For the first time in 1996 when I was 8 years old. And have loved him since then. For people who have not grown up with Raj, Rahul, obviously the 'Senorita dialogue' in 2013 will sound "random" and "silly". Chennai Express, let's come to that. It is not offensive to South Indians, it is not slapstick and it's not cheap humour. I had so much fun. I took my parents for it and my father who is not a regular Hindi movie-goer, couldn't stop laughing. Most folks I know who watched it liked it as well and found it very entertaining. Then they wonder on how they could have liked something like that and add a "one-time watch only" to their statement. Haha. I don't know who they are trying to fool.
But here's my take. I love my films, and I have grown up watching hindi movies so they are 'my films'. I am not saying I don't like your tamil, telgu, malyalam and kannada movies. So you should respect my likes and my choice and let me be. I love Shahrukh Khan. I am not asking you to worship him. But don't hate him for the heck of it. have your reasons. And don't question "how did DDLJ make it so big" and "how is it the longest movie running" and don't criticize ShahRukh for "sticking to the routine". I don't question your fly movie, so you don't question my "Main ek Hindustani hoon ... aur main jaanta hoon ki ek Hindustani ladki ki izzat kya hoti hai"
Comments
Post a Comment