I have finally managed to get down to write a post, after almost a year. The reason is an extraordinary event that took place in my life on 19th July 2021. I got a permanent promotion in status--i became a parent. Was blessed with a bundle of joy called Aavya.
Have often thought of writing a post on parenthood and how movies gave me gyaan in this regard. However, almost all the movies dealt with parenthood from a "funny parents" point of view, which I am sure will arise in the future, once the minion grows to be a potent force (there have been plenty of trailers to the potential movie thats coming in the near future).
In the present post, I am going to deal with a world that I did not know exist pre-July 2021. No, I am not talking about responsibilities and all other emotional stuff that is expected with the coming of the first child, and that too, a little princess.
I am speaking about the world of "Nannies".
Let me also give some context to some of the stuff that may come up in this post-- I have just finished reading up on "forced labour" and am at the peak of "sympathy wave" for work-force.
With this background, I would like to start by saying that the world of "Nannies" brings with it "forced employer-hood. You are compelled to employ a Nanny for the well being of both the child and the parents. However, the extraordinary and overwhelming experience with the spate of nannies over the last 9 months have been nothing short of a movie in itself.
This experience makes me realise why Mary Poppins was such a popular movie, not only for the children, but also amongst parents. She is the perfect Nanny who "magically" solved all the problems of the Banks family.
Closer to home, the popular "Nanny" themed movies that I remember watching would be "Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke" where Juhi Chawla comes into the life of Aamir Khan to help him handle his sister's orphaned children. Though Juhi Chawla is not really a "nanny", she does pretend to be one.
In recent times, Rani Mukherjee did her own version of Mary Poppins in the boring "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic".
Sadly, none of these movies gave me any "gyaan" to handle this life aspect. The real life "Nanny" is neither problem solver nor a delight who does "magic". Though what is really expected from a "Nanny" is nothing short of "magic".
So in a way Mary Poppins and all its wannabe versions, are not so much children fantasy, but much rather new born parent's fantasy movies.
You want your cities clean and green; stick to Delhi. You want your cities, rich and impersonal; go to Bombay. You want them high-tech and full of draught beer; Bangalore's your place. But if you want a city with a soul: come to Calcutta.
I was born and brought up in the Kolkata of the 90s. I have been away from Kolkata since 2005, when I went to college in Jodhpur. Now, settled in Delhi, since 2010, Kolkata is the place that reminds me of my childhood and a peaceful stress-free life-- but is today's Kolkata the same as "my Kolkata". I doubt it. The trips back home nowadays often puts me in a strange conflict, between today's Kolkata and my Kolkata.
I have often complained that today's Kolkata is trying to ape Delhi and Mumbai, and not doing a good job at it. However, the truth is, my Kolkata is 15 years older now, and as I have evolved, I am sure my Kolkata has also evolved and gotten "contaminated".
The prologue, seems to have turned into a rant.
As you read this post, it may seem like being a post about one's first love, who has now changed and moved on. While I, as many other Probashis like me, am still stuck in time and expect her to also remain the same, innocent girl I fell in love with.
The present post will try to balance between these two Kolkatas- my Kolkata and today's Kolkata.
Kolkata, as a character in movies
Kolkata in movies has always been depicted in a particular manner. It is the city of romance, culture and people who love their sweets and fish.
Why am I trying to describe it-- let me just borrow the words of the "son-in-law of Bengal", Mr. Amitabh Bachchan-- he beautifully introduced Kolkata (which was itself a character in the movie) in Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta, as the city "striving for a change, and yet happily stuck in the adda at coffee house, the undying faith of Kali baari, football in the maidan and rossogolla's sweetness". I have extracted the entire intro speech here for added effect 😀: -
This is possibly, the best description of what I feel about my Kolkata. It is a city which is the comfort zone.
Another lesser know movie beautifully showing Kolkata is Ayushman Khurana's only flop in the last 5 years-- Meri Pyaari Bindu. Ayushman plays a Bangali boy called Bubla, who has shifted out of Kolkata and goes back to meet his parents. There he meets his childhood lover, Bindu (played by Parineeti Chopra), after years. Bindu is now married, and has a daughter. The climax sequence, where its raining and the melodious "Maana ke hum yaar nahi" (sung beautifully by Sonu Nigam) plays in the background, while Bubla just looks at Bindu and smiles. The smile depicts the acknowledgment of the present and sweet memory of the past. Enjoy the song
Various bengali movies-- Belaseshe, Praktan and Maach Mishti and More-- takes us back to old North Kolkata, which goes to the probashi memory, rather than how Kolkata is really today. Probably, thats the reason, why I have been drawn towards these movies.
A stark contrast to above movies, would be Kahaani, where Kolkata was again a character, but not the lovey-dovey one, but the real one. It showed Kolkata as a normal city, without delving into the cultural spin. However, the climax with the Durga Puja, and ladies playing shindoor khela, in a split second, took us back to the beauty of Kolkata. The violence that just concluded, beautifully subsides into the background and the colourful spirit of Durga Puja takes over, with the melodious Ekla Cholo (in not such a good rendition by Amitabh Bachchan) plays in the background.
Kolkata from the eyes of the "outsider"
While the above movies were based in Kolkata, the next two movies, I will talk about, are probably closer to my current predicament.
Namesake, is based on the novella written by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story is about the journey of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguly (played by the indomitable Irfan Khan and Tabu). They are both pure bangalis, north Kolkata folks, who have shifted to US, in search of greener pastures. As they start a family and continue living there, they always feel something missing. Unknowingly, this feeling gets transferred to their son, Gogol (played by Kal Penn), who is born and brought up in the US. Initially, he is embarrassed about his Bangaliness, but after his father's death, he realises his "internal conflict", breaks up with his "white" girlfriend and goes and marries a bengali girl (hoping to find common bangali-ness). Eventually, by the end of the movie, he gets divorced with the "good bengali girl" and finds a sort of balance between his bengali identity and his actual status as a US citizen.
Finally, I come to the movie that I have related most with. It is made by a modern great, Shoojit Sircar, who has shown the funny idiosyncrasies of a bangali on screen, without reducing them to cliched caricatures. In Vicky Donor, the Bengali father and his obsession with "phish" is perfection on screen.
Coming back to the movie I wanted to discuss-- Piku. This movie released at a time, when I was in a similar space as the protagonist, played by Deepika Padukone. Only difference, she did not sell her home, and I did.
The emotional aspect aside, this movie perfectly sums up the the longing of being back home, yet knowing you can never be back, for Delhi is home now. Another reason, for a special place for this movie, in the song Bezubaan, my school, La Martinere, is shown-- this is where Piku's mother used to teach. Enjoy a trip of Kolkata through Amitabh Bachchan's cycle ride.
I will sign off with two songs, which sums up this post-- sorry to my non-bengali readers-- both are in bangla. The first one is from Praktan, which is a romantic song about Kolkata.
The other song is from the movie, Bong Connection, whose storyline is the sum and substance of this post.
To conclude, I borrow the famous dialogue (with suitable modification) of Naseeruddin Shah from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na--
You can take a Bangali out of Kolkata, but cannot take Kolkata out of a Bangali!!!
"My films are an escape hatch. . . . My constant efforts are to take people into a world of fantasy where there is no worry, no serious thinking, just fun and entertainment all the way. . . The person who comes to the movies should be happy to see whatever he’s seeing.
Up until 1990, rich people were usually the villains in the movie. In a socialist society, the rich people were depicted as the immoral lot. Even, if they showed the hero to be rich, he was always shown to be the exception to his fellow rich folks, as the one with a golden heart who cared for the poor.
It wasn't considered "cool" to be rich.
However, in the 1990s, in the post-liberalisation India, being rich and having a lavish life, became aspirational.
With this came the movies showing rich people's problems. These movies have often been criticised for being fake and dumb.
In my opinion, they are a wonderful watch. There is something beautiful in watching a movie with glamorous people doing outrageous over the top things. Commercially speaking these "big" movies have always done well. As they say, if that many people saw it and appreciated it, who are the critics to pan it.
Few of my most memorable movies (guilty pleasures) would be such "make believe", "larger than life" movies depicting rich people's problems. The grandeur and opulence, the make believe world, the designer clothes-- all are aspirational to say the least.
This post is not analytical. It's simply an attempt to share a "happy part" of my life. The choice of movies to discuss was tough, considering the HUGE pool. I finally narrowed it down to 3 of the cheesiest options, which would be mocked the most 😃😋😋.
The movies in chronological order, of their release dates are:-
One movie I can never get tired of watching is Hum Aapke Hain Koun. I think this was the first movie I saw in a movie theatre (the grand Hind Cinemas in Kolkata). Since, it's all about memories, I particularly remember the "didi Tera devar deewana" song. In the course of this song, Salman Khan's character (Prem) jumps onto a huge chandelier and continues dancing and singing.
It's hilarious to watch on screen, but what makes it unbelievably hilarious to me was the reaction of my great grandmother (bhalo dida), with whom I went to watch the movie.
When Prem jumped on the chandelier, Bhalo Dida, got so involved with the movie, that she started shouting in the theatre itself "nebe jaa, nebe jaa buddhu!! bhenge jabe" (get down quickly you fool, it will break).
The story and the conflicts are over simplified, bordering on being lame (if you try to rationalise it today). However, even today if I am feeling low and disillusioned with the harsh real world, I would turn on Zee Cinema on a Sunday, hoping they are playing HAHK. Most of the times it would indeed be playing, and you are immediately allowed to escape into this wonderful happy world where people are "extra" nice (come to think about it, the villain/antagonist is the khadoos aunty (played by Bindu), who we have seen probably in every family).
As a 8 year old kid, I fantasised about having a cricket field and swimming pool in my house. Even today I would love to have both of that in my house. It's this "happy space" that makes this movie special for me.
It's been 20 years since Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (K3G) released, and yet every time it comes on television, I would love to watch it from whichever stage it is playing. This will probably be the cheesiest choice in this list.
The number of memes and jokes made on this movie, even today, shows its relevance. You may criticise it's storyline and lamest of characters, but you CANNOT ignore this movie.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, was small scale in this movie.
To illustrate the opulence, the Chandni chowk (where the romance of Kajol and Shahrukh Khan's character blossoms in the first half) that is shown, looks more like an India themed set in Disneyland. Anyone who has visited Chandni Chowk (or seen it in movies like Delhi 6) would know that it looks nothing like the one in K3G.
In any case, who cares-- in the words of the movie's iconic character, Poo (played by Kareena Kapoor), all that matters is "good looks, good looks and good looks" 😋
The ultimate over the top sequence, has to be the national anthem scene-- Rahul and Anjali's (Kajol's character) son (who is born and brought up in London) sings the Indian National anthem in his school's annual day, to please his overtly patriotic mother. Boy!! His mother is pleased. At the end of the song, not only does she complete the song, but dashes with full emotion towards her son to hug him (Trust me, no son would be comfortable with such overt expression of emotions by their mothers, specially in front of the entire school)
As I said, none of it makes sense. Probably didn't make sense even then. However, the sheer conviction of the maker, created a magic world, which all seemed so believable and wonderful, while we sat in the dark movie theatre (I have an equally filmy story about how me and my friends went to watch K3G, first day first show. However, that will take up an entire post in itself- so maybe some other time)
Between Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and DDD, I chose this, since I guess, it's lamer, and will fit the bill for this blog better.
Unlike the previous two movies, which (if the need arises to appear "intellectual") I could blame on the innocence of childhood, this came after I had graduated and had started working.
In fact, when I saw this movie in the theatre, I was a little disappointed (maybe the burden of expectations post-ZNMD, were too high). However, this movie has really grown on me courtesy the numerous repeat telecasts on TV (This is another Zee Cinema weekend favourite).
Sima aunty
I love the world it creates. The champagne drinking crowd going on an international holiday (oh how I miss this, right now). The rich housewife (South Delhi) aunties sitting and gossiping or trying to be Sima aunty of the Indian Matchmaking fame.
My favourite scene would be when all the aunties are sitting and discussing prospects of marrying Farhan Akhtar's character to Priyanka Chopra's much younger cousin. PC, who loved Farhan, overhears the conversation and scolds them. She tells them to get a life and to go and do some work.
After PC leaves, Indu aunty (played by Ayesha Raza Mirza), completely oblivious to what PC meant, very cutely responds "pagaal ho gayi hain, humhe kaun naukri dega" (is she mad, who will give us a job!).
The beauty of these movies, is not the story or the performance or the direction. Basically nothing that satiates the needs of a puritan "cinema lover".
The true beauty of these movies lies in the "feel" it provides to the viewer, and it's precisely the reason I would hope that such movies continue to be made. After all, there are enough troubles in the real world, for a viewer to have to pay to watch the "reality" in the reel world.
The first real superstar of Bollywood (and maybe India) would undoubtedly be Rajesh Khanna. His rise to superstardom is worthy of a movie in itself-- 3 years (1969-72) and 15 back to back super duper hits. However, as meteoric a rise he had, the fall was equally dramatic.
On the other hand, Amitabh Bachchan, had the worst possible start to his career- 11 failures, one after the other, during the same 1969-72 period. However, what happened after that is part of Indian folklore.
Without going into the reasons for the rise and fall of the two, I would be talking about two of their movies with the same director, the great Hrishikesh Mukherjee, to demonstrate the change in fortune.
The movie is about a man, Anand (played by Rajesh Khanna), who is diagnosed with cancer (lymphosarcoma of the intestine) and has 6 months to live. Bhaskor Banerjee (played by Amitabh Bachchan) is a young oncologist, who is distressed with the poverty all around him and is suffering from depression due to his failure to save the life of his patients. There is a sense of idealism in Bhaskar, which is contrasted with his friend, Dr. Kulkarni (played by Ramesh Deo), who is more practical in his outlook.
Much before Zanjeer released and the cult of Amitabh Bachchan as the "angry young man" was developed and nurtured by Salim-Javed, this movie probably displayed the first signs of this anger towards a faulty failing system.
Anand comes to Bombay (as it then was) for treatment at Dr Kulkarni's clinic, and meets Bhaskar. He immediately takes a liking for Bhaskar (who he lovingly calls Babumoshai) and runs away from the hospital to go and live with Bhaskar. Through the next 1.5 hours we see how Anand spreads happiness and positivity amongst the people around him, while his D-day slowly but steadily keeps approaching.
The climax of the movie is probably the best death scene I have seen in Indian cinema (Bacchan's death scene in Sholay is a close 2nd).
In this scene Rajesh Khanna does nothing, yet steals the show completely. He smashes it out of the ground. The superstar truly reigned on.
[Exactly, 2.5 years later, Namak Haraam released. In the intervening period, Zanjeer released on 11.5.1973, i.e., 5 months prior to Namak Haraam's release.
However, at the time of casting, AB was still the struggling actor on the verge of oblivion and RK the reigning super star with the Midas touch.]
Namak Haraam (released on 23.11.1973)
Rajesh Khanna once again playing the lead, and Amitabh Bachchan is in the supporting role. The story is about 2 friends-- Somu (RK) and Vicky (AB). Vicky is a rich spoilt brat, who gets into a spat with a union leader (played by the "forever old", AK.Hangal) in his father's factory. He feels humiliated as he is made to apologise to Hangal.
To take revenge for this humiliation, Vicky and Somu plot a plan, whereby Somu will start working in the factory, and become the union leader himself and oust Hangal.
To implement the plan Somu, joins the factory as a labourer. He goes and starts living in factory worker's chawl. There he sees poverty and the hardships faced by the labour class from close quarters. He starts having a change of heart.
This change of heart is depicted beautifully in a scene (comes at 1:26:00 in the movie), when Vicky offers Somu a glass of Chivas Regal whiskey, and Somu enquires about the price. Vicky casually mentions that the bottle costs around 200-250, and one peg would cost around 25 bucks 🤯🤯😝. Somu, poignantly, points out that that's the price for a poor labourer full family's monthly ration.
What a simple, yet powerful take on societal disparity.
Sorry for the digression, coming back to the climax. Ultimately, Somu becomes completely involved in the labourer's cause. To stop him, Vicky's rich industrialist father, gets Somu killed. Vicky on realising what has happened, takes the entire blame and goes to jail. The final sequence is once again, Bachchan alone in jail, mourning the death of RK.
[There is a popular theory, that both RK and AB wanted to have the death scene, as the winning formula was "one who dies wins the heart" (remember Sholay, Deewar, Shakti, etc.). Ultimately, Hrishikesh Mukherjee thought RK's character dying was more appropriate.]
However, despite getting his wish of dying fulfilled, this time round, the transition of the super stardom was complete. AB completely stole the show and broke the formula. The vulnerability and anger shown by AB in the climax made the audience fall in love with him, making him the Star of the movie. On the other hand, RK despite being the hero, got relegated to playing second fiddle.
As Nelson Mandela once said,
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."
Apropos, AB went on to become the BIGGEST superstar. However, Rajesh Khanna will always remain the FIRST superstar.
PS- It's mother's day, and a post on AB was mandatory 😃😃
I am a lawyer by vocation, and a filmy keeda by interest. At the outset, I would say that courtesy my vocation, you will see many sentences containing stupid legal jargon like “at the outset”, “notwithstanding” etc.
When I say I am a filmy keeda, I would like to make it clear, that I do not claim (nor dream) of being a connoisseur of classy cinema. Quite to the contrary, I have grown up on absolute potboilers of the 70s and 90s. Most of my "zindagi ka gyaan" comes from movies and serials.
In line with the same, let me give the rather filmy (and NOTmythological) reference of Abhimanyu, who learnt this from the womb, considering what a filmy keeda my mom is. She knows every Amitabh Bachchan movie to the last dialogue—to the extent one reason for her marrying my Baba, was that he shared the same initials as Amitabh Bachchan.
In this blog, I will be putting down my crazy ideas and thoughts through the prism of cinema. As I said most of my life learning comes from cinema—Bollywood or otherwise. Will try to keep it simple and relatable for people who may not have seen the movie I am writing about.
Also this is my first attempt at writing something in 35 years of my existence—so please don’t be too critical 😇😇
