WHY do most Hindi movies have drop-dead beautiful people playing the lead? I mean come on, most real people in real life do not look like Ashwariya or Arjun Rampal. For a change, I would like to see ordinary-looking people playing the lead parts.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that all the main leads should be played by the likes of the Hunchback of Notre Dame or by Medusa. For example, Amol Palekar and Dipti Naval may not have excelled in the looks department, but they are talented, and I found them and some of their movies perfectly charming and down-to-earth.
Also, why does the main actor always has to be more beautiful than his side-kick, or why does the actor need to be prettier than the villain of the movie? With this type of arrangement in almost every Hindi film, film makers are sending out an obvious message that beautiful people are the winners or the good guys, and ordinary-looking people are the losers or the bad guys.
I believe this type of thinking is so juvenile. If a movie requires a common working middle-class person playing the lead, then film makers should cast an appropriate-looking actor that would do justice to this part, and not put the same old mould of tall, slim, gorgeous beauties in every other movie.
In ’real’ life we have all varieties of people who are heroes and heroines in their own way, and ’reel’ life should make a decent attempt to depict this variety in a more or less random arrangement. It?s high time that Hindi movies get over their wild obsession with eye-popping, jaw-dropping external beauty.
WHY do I keep seeing foreign locales in every other Hindi movie? I am tired of seeing Europe, Canada, and Australia. I want to see the REAL India in Hindi films. We get very upset when foreign film makers only show the unattractive parts of India, but some of our filmmakers don?t want to show any part of India at all.
Okay I can understand foreign locales if the story requires it, but I fail to comprehend why foreign places are forced into the movie needlessly when the story is only supposed to be taking place in India. I want to see more Hindi films like memorable Choti Si Baat or the adorable Saathiya where the hero and heroine are common people going about their daily lives, and along the way falling in love, while traveling in local buses and trains.
Also, I am bored of seeing palace-like homes in hindi films. I want to see more movies showing a typical house in suburban India. For example, the movie Katha was picturised in a chawl, and the setting of the movie higly succeeded in exuding a warm, charming, and an overall real feeling to its story.
Sigh, where is the REAL India in Hindi films?
WHY is Bollywood a Hollywood-wannabe? Is there a lack of supply of good Indian-based stories? In Bollywood there seems to be a shortage, and that is why some film makers depend on stories from Hollywood. Whenever (most, but not all) I see a Hollywood movie copied into a Hindi film, in my mind I see a small child desperately trying to act and dress up like an adult, but failing miserably at his attempt.
WHY do some Hindi movies have to stereotype and use sick comedy? Some film makers think that making fun of overweight people or people with speech impediments is great material for comedy in their movies. Tun Tun was a favorite target for her chubbiness in the old days, and then came along Guddi Maruti who was mocked at in every other movie. This type of so-called comedy makes me sick to my stomach. In the stupid movie Amdani Athani Karcha Rupaiya, gross spousal abuse was shown as something to laugh about, when it only succeeded in making me nauseous.
Speaking of stereotypes, NRI?s are mostly always shown as dumb, spoiled, shallow people in Hindi films (Pardes).
WHY do most Hindi films have to end happily? It?s like a fairy tale ? starts with once upon a time and ends with happily ever after. Hindi movies are as predictable as Dev Anand?s springy neck, Sallu Lallu showing us his waxed nipples in every movie, or Amitabh? well? Amitabh just being the great Amitabh. In most movies story is similar ? lovers meet, lovers separate, and in the end lovers reunite (YAWN!).
Chalo movie katham, aur apne apne ghar jao. Come on what the hell, in real life people don?t always reunite. Some of the Hindi movies that I remember breaking the mould of this predictability was Arth and Ek Hasina Thi. At the end of Arth, we see the character of Shabana Azmi come to terms with her divorce, and instead of going ahead with another relationship, she chooses to live an independent life and not depend on any man to give her security or an identity.
Ek Hasina Thi is another unpredictable movie where we see the character of Urmila Matondkar dealing with her situation, and facing consequences without any man walking into her life to help her out. Unfortunately, these movies are few and far between!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
You might argue that film makers cannot do away with ’same ole recipe’ in every movie, because movies are mostly made for the masses and not for the classes. You might also say that commercial cinema has its place and parallel cinema has its own place, and the twain shall never meet.
My answer to that is masses or classes, commercial or parallel ? We are ALL hungry for a good original story! A good story and how the story is presented in the movie will always rule above everything else.
As a consumer, I cannot do much, but I can stop appreciating cutsie, shutsie, candy floss, far-from-reality, blatantly exaggerated films (Ex: Kaho Na Pyaar Hai).
Okay, a fairy tale movie once-in-a-while is tolerable, but movie after movie causes excruciating migraines that goes by the name of Suraj Barjatya.
As a cinegoer, I have been ready for changes ages ago, but if you are not, then let this fairy tale world in Hindi cinema continue until we erase all traces of the wicked step mother called REALITY from our films.