What were first DDLJ and K3G, have now become Kill and Kalki 2898 AD. Bollywood is not what it used to be. It used to have 5 minutes long songs with around 100 backup dancers somehow totally synchronized. Now all they are synchronized in is combat. The villain’s sidekicks who need to be fought keep on coming till there is a heap of dead bodies in a pool of blood.
This shift from the genre of romance to action does not sit right with me because it feels like forced Westernization. The need to use cutting-edge technology to create those elaborate fight scenes is slowly deteriorating the quintessential essence of Bollywood.
Genres Besides Romance
Even if we forget about the romance for a bit, what about the completely nonsensical comedy movies that brightened up everyone’s day, even if by a small bit? Movies like Hera Pheri, Dhamaal, Welcome, and Golmaal have disappeared from the face of the earth. Where once Akshay Kumar was seen as the OG comedy movie actor, now his movies have been replaced by Baby, Holiday, and Sarfira.
Do not take me wrong, though, I am not saying that these movies were not up to par. Baby remains one of my favourite Bollywood movies to date, but the utter disappearance of the former category of movies makes me feel as if a part of my childhood has been taken away from me.
Aside from these, there are also the feel-good type of movies about friendship and life in general, which make you feel good about life, such as Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, 3 Idiots, and Wake Up Sid, among many others. This transformation from lightheartedness to seriousness has made Bollywood lose its essence wholly.
Karan Johar or Sandeep Reddy Vanga?
Criticise the cliched Karan Johar films as much as you want, but that is essentially what Bollywood has always been about. It is about the “accidental” entangling of the female lead’s dupatta and the male lead’s watch. It is about highly choreographed dance routines. It is about typical dialogues like “ja Simran ja, jee le apni zindagi” or “hum ek baar jeete hai, ek baar marte hai, aur pyaar bhi ek baar hota hai”. Everybody has these dialogues memorised because of how iconic these movies were at the box office. But the modern movies fail miserably in this regard.
Nevermind the sticking of dialogues in someone’s mind; originality is not even seen as a necessity anymore because how else do you explain the recycled songs and more and more movies being based on some real-life moment that marked a change in the development of India (for example, Sarfira which in itself is a remake of an already existing Tollywood film besides being a real-life story). The constant need to be seen on the “same level” as Western cinema has blinded people to what real cinema is.
The reaction of the Indian audience to Sandeep Vanga’s Animal baffled me to the point of losing faith in the future of this country. How can a movie that promotes violence and extremely vicious toxic masculinity be a favourite among the public? It shows where your values lie. Even the actors accept these scripts, like what happened to Ranbir Kapoor of Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani or Tamasha? Under the pretense of bringing to light a “social cause”, they just end up doing more harm than good.
Bollywood Through Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Imtiaz Ali
To make up for the loss of beautiful Yash Raj films, I see myself turning to Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Imtiaz Ali. The grandeur of Indian culture portrayed by SLB is nothing short of magnificent. Even though incomparable to the classics of before, his films have the spice that keeps you hooked throughout. While we see a pattern of portraying the life of prostitutes in his work, he still manages to maintain Bollywood’s essence throughout.
Imtiaz Ali is another such director whose simple yet deeply emotional movies have touched the hearts of the public. Laila Majnu and Chamkila are two such movies. While Chamkila is, I agree, a story about some real-life moment, it nevertheless was a controversial one. What better way to attract an audience than to initiate gossip? Laila Majnu’s songs themselves transport us back to old Bollywood, which was all about “when life gives you lemons, make lemonades”.
Conclusion
What we need right now is the comeback of the lost essence of Bollywood. We need three-hour movies with full-length songs where we can just have a hearty laugh and not be traumatised by the gory scenes of blood. Devdas, the hopeless romantic, Pooja (or Pooh) the fashion icon, and Shantipriya the legend herself are what we need.
Reliving the moments when Shahid Kapoor made movies whose songs made no sense whatsoever, when Munna Bhai MBBS had a whole second part on Mahatma Gandhi, and when the power of love and music broke Amitabh Bachchan’s “Parampara Pratishtha Anushasan”, really make me realise that Bollywood is not what it used to be. To fit in with the Western standards of acceptability, we have forgotten what our true culture was. I wish and utterly hope we go back to our roots and make movies that never fail to leave a mark.
Let us know what you think about this new Bollywood “culture” in the comments down below. You can also mail us your burning thoughts and opinions at larra@globalindiannetwork.com.
