Bollywood

It was easy falling in love with Bollywood! I saw my parents romancing each other at the play of movie songs from their times. I heard my mom crooning her favorite numbers while doing chores around the house. I saw my dad pulling mom towards him and making moves together when their favorite song would come up on TV or Radio -making her blush and laugh and making us hysterical. Till date, I see my parents romanticizing to songs like 'Oh meri zohara jabeen, tujhe maloom nahin..tu abhie tak hai haseen aur main jawaan..'. Having spent most of his youth in Bombay- the Bollywood city, my dad has been a Mumbaikar at heart since and throughout. From what I know.. A typical average society Mumbaikar would be someone practical and zealous to the core, struggling in sweat and blood everyday to make a mark in the country of billions and at the end of every such day- watch a Bollywood movie over dinner to lose the stress! Yes, my dad is a Bollywood-lover Mumbaikar at his heart! And that is where my love for Bollywood comes from! and yes, it was VERY easy falling in love with Bollywood.

How could I have not fallen in love with Indian Hindi cinema a.k.a Bollywood movies. After all, as a kid I saw likes of famous and finest Ashok Kumar, effervescent Dilip Kumar, evergreen Devanand, patriarch of film-making Raj Kapoor, iconic and ahead of his times Guru Dutt, the charismatic heartthrob of 1960s- Shammi Kapoor, the very first Greek God of Bollywood Dharmendra, ever dashing and worth a drool Vinod Khanna and none other than legendary legend Amitabh Bachchan. To add a panache of beauty and romance to the blockbuster movies of that era were actresses like immortally beautiful Madhubala, classically graceful Waheeda Rahmaan, dream girl Hema Malini, immensely talented Jaya Bhaduri, suave and sexy Zeenat Aman (my dad till date calls her 'Zeenie baby' as she was called so by her fans in those days), versatile and sexy Rekha and many more..

While I admired in awe the blockbusters with these superstars, I have to mention some of my personal favorite actors who were underrated by Bollywood then but had an unsurpassed fineness and have left behind a legacy that is yet to be inherited. These were - prominent theatrical actor Uttpal Dutt, Cabaret Queen Helen, popular character actor Om Prakash and an unwavering citadel of talent- Pran!

Then came a time while growing up when I wanted Sunny Deol to be my protector.. I duplicated chulbuli Sridevi's expressions in front of the mirror for hours after watching Chandani, Chaalbaaz and Mr. India.. Angry and still a young man Amitabh Bachchan's fad continued..I wanted to be Madhuri singing 'Lakkhan ne Lakkhan ne..bada dukh deena...' for Anil Kapoor a.ka. Lakkhan or Dimple Kapadia singing 'Mujhe tumse hai kitne gile'in the movie 'Ram Lakkhan'. Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor continued disgusting and scaring me raping all those women and killing innocent people onscreen. And if you would laugh at me for loving Mithun Chakrovarty, Govinda and Jakie Shroff- I would just shrug you off as someone who doesn't truly understand Bollywood and is just ignorant to the fact that Indian cinema would not have seen a light to those 'at-the-par' acting phenomenon in movies like 'Prem Pratigya', 'Hathya' and I shouldn't even be giving proofs- they were there once and they delivered then in some movies what noone else could! Period.



And if I start talking about the ones behind the scene- from Gulzaar to Javed Akhtar, from RD Burman to AR Rahman, from Hemant da & Kishore Kumar to Sonu Nigam and Udit Narayan, from Lata Mangeshkar to Shrey Ghosal, from Satyajit Ray to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, from Rishikesh Mukherji to Rajkumar Hirani - it would take me a blog after another to even begin writing about them.

Ya..did someone yawn thinking..just an irrational bollywood buff talking almost gibberish. YES! Exactly! That's my deaf and blind love for bollywood. However, I wont hide the fact that once came a time though that bolly looked deprived of talent. Every movie that came would either be good songs but poorly acted, or good actor/director jodi but a bad story! All in all, each production was a lackluster and the sheen of our cinema almost began fading. I dont know..all this happened during and around when Amitabh Bachchan retired, Vinod Khanna retreated as Osho's follower, Anil Kapoor-Jackie Shroff tried their best once in a while, Sanjay Dutt was lost to drugs and someone gave reigns of bollywood into the hands of Chunky Pandeys, Aditya Pancholis, Kimi Katkars, Neelams and blah. After that, I could've continued on watching old movies- black and whites and those first time colored ones but thankfully, THE 3 Khans walked in and conquered back my lost heart! And oh!.. how convincingly they won it! :)

To join their promenade, along arrived Kajol, Juhi, Karishma, Saif, Ajay, Akshay. Ah! Big Bolly Blockbuster drought was over. Gone! Success stormed in not only from within nation, but woed overseas audience worldwide showed their enthusiasm too! Millions of hearts were taken, this time not just from my generation. Dads and moms were interested too! There came movies like 'Dil', 'QSQT', 'Hum hain rahi pyaar ke', 'Hum aapke hain kaun' , 'DDLJ', 'Dil tou pagal hai' , 'KKHH', 'Hum dil de chuke sanam'....... To admit the truth, Shahrukh won me over others. Probably he came in my life at the right age, right time and gave me the right exposure. This was when I was still in my fancyworld- the lalaland where every romantic story is hunky n dory and every girl waited for that guy like Shahrukh to come and paint her world colorful. 'Rahul!..naam tou suna hi hoga'.. made me and many like me wish upon the shooting stars! Not just Senorita or Simran, even parents believed him and Maya(Madhuri- my all time fav) when they said, 'Is duniya mein har kisi ke liye koi ek bana hai..aur ishara woh deta hai'! If you didn't want any complications in life, well you could just waive it all off saying 'itne bade bade sheheron mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rahti hai, Senorita'. And yes, there arrived Bolly's Superstar! Not that I don't whistle while watching Sallu's mindless 'Wanted' and 'Dabangg'..or that Amitabh Bachchan's fad ever faded..and not that I don't appreciate Amir's much thought through work and the new talented ones like Hrithik Roshan, Farhaan Akhtar and Abhay Deol..but as I said..Its all about the timing and I tend to stay loyal! :)

Now that we talk about loyalty, I see mine towards Bolly never dying. I love our larger than life cinema that might make even a broadway musical look minuscule and lose its splendor if compared. I value the variety of aesthetics and emotions introduced by it, decade after another, for us to insinuate into the world full of colors, hues and imaginations. I enjoy as much of its randomness as its integration. It amazes me with its vividness and brilliance and cracks me up with its facetiousness. I acknowledge when it is comprehensive and thoughtful and I even like it when it is hindless and unmindful. For me, it is what it is. It is Bollywood and I am a huge FAN!