India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
“Dum Maro Dum” while you still can, on celluloid at least
Normally, I do not care much for actor Rajinikanth’s bullet splitting or his iconic cigarette flip.Â
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But as the government gears up to implement the ban on smoking in public places, I realise that the “long arm of the law” (apparently an all-time favourite dialogue of the celluloid police) may one day also extend to Bollywood.
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Having grown up on the antics of Bollywood’s Supermen with their rakish head tilts and outrageous stunts, I cannot help but feel a twinge of fear at the thought of the censor board ever sanitizing on-screen smoking scenes.
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Try as I might, I cannot imagine a docile, law abiding on-screen Rajinikanth sans his unbelievable cigarette stunt.
In my college years it gave us women endless joy to see male classmates end up red-faced while trying to imitate the southern hero.
Why smoke at all if you cannot toss the cigarette in air, let it flip thrice, catch it with your lips and light it with a single match stick scraped carelessly on your boot.Â
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Ajit in those days was the cigar-puffing gentleman gangster in numerous Bollywood movies with henchmen whose collective intelligence was nothing to write home about.
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His characteristic nasal twang and deadpan expression became a rage in the 70s.
The 
cigar between his teeth became as much a part of his persona as his hilarious punch lines directed mostly at his moll ‘Mona darling’.Â
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If smoking scenes are ever censored in Indian movies, I’m afraid the famous “Dum Maro Dum” song from the 70′s popular flick “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” – a soul cry for all smokers of dope – would be the first one on the chopping block.
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No film has ever managed to simultaneously glorify and mock the “Flower Children” generation as much as this Dev Anand-Zeenat Aman flick with its vivid scenes of a hippie commune swaying to trance music in a drugged stupor .
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I always found it interesting that very few leading men in the 60s and 70s were ever shown taking an occasional puff.
Hari Puttar – Home Alone desi style?
Warner Brothers did get one thing right.
‘Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors’ does have similarities to a children’s film – not ‘Harry Potter’, but ‘Home Alone’.
A child alone at home, two bumbling goons out to get him and whole scenes lifted from Chris Columbus’s very popular Home Alone.
Aamir and the media — the 180 degree turn
The transformation is amazing. Aamir Khan was known as one of the most reclusive stars in Bollywood – he shunned film magazines, rarely gave interviews and was generally unavailable.This year, he appeared on the cover of a film magazine, granted interviews to all and sundry for a film that didn’t even star him (nephew Imran Khan’s debut film “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na”), and is now one of the most media savvy stars in the country.Take Monday, for example. A day after his directorial venture “Taare Zameen Par” was chosen as India’s entry to the Oscars, Aamir addressed a press conference, seeking suggestions from the media on how to promote the film to the Academy. He asked for their support and talked about everything from SRK to Raj Thackeray. All of it, with a smile on his face and twinkle in his eyes.When he was referred to as the “King of Bollywood” by a gushing journo, he laughed and said, “Don’t say that, you will upset Shah Rukh Khan.”That was not all. He had a go at Ashutosh Gowariker, saying he preferred ”Mumbai Meri Jaan” over the “Lagaan” director’s epic “Jodha Akbar”.Raj Thackeray wasn’t spared either. “Politicians who divide us are not speaking for the country, they are speaking for themselves. We should vote for those who unite us,” Aamir said, referring to the politician’s campaign against the Bachchans.He was even sporting enough to answer a question about whether Saif and Kareena had gotten married over the weekend, saying “didn’t you find anyone else to ask this question”.The one question he didn’t answer was about younger brother Faisal, telling a reporter firmly that it was a personal matter and he didn’t want to answer it.At the end of it, I came away smiling and impressed. Here is a star who can utilise the media to his advantage (I don’t want to get into what that says about us in the media), and one who is not afraid to speak his mind. Yet, he does know where he wants to draw the line. He has my grudging admiration.
Welcome to Sajjanpur — a welcome change
When you are living away from home and surviving on bad restaurant food, it takes a day or two to get used to meals cooked by your mother once again, in my experience. Your palate has been abused so much by all the impersonal dishes you have been served that good, wholesome food takes a while to digest.
Shyam Benegal’s “Welcome to Sajjanpur” is that wholesome fare that has been missing from your palate.
The Last Lear: Not Bachchan’s best but watch it for the performances
There has been so much controversy about the release of “The Last Lear” that it’s easy to overlook this is a film that has been well received in the international festival circuit, has some of India’s best known actors and has even been touted as Amitabh Bachchan’s finest work yet.
Honestly, I don’t agree with that last statement — but then people are entitled to their own opinion.
Tahaan: Stark, beautiful but with character flaws
When the credits roll at the end of Santosh Sivan’s “Tahaan” , there is a disclaimer which reads ‘This is a fable with fictitious people and non fictitious incidents,” or something to that effect.
That sentence pretty much sums up this two-hour film. “Tahaan” has a surreal, almost fable-like look and feel to it, which remains consistent almost throughout the film.
A Wednesday — a thriller with a difference
A film that lasts under two hours is a rarity in Bollywood. And when the film pits an anonymous caller against Mumbai police, curiosity is aroused.
Neeraj Pandey’s film “A Wednesday” starts promisingly with staccato shots of a man placing a bag at a railway terminus and in the washroom of a police station.
Rock On: A band’s story of love and friendship
Rock bands and their members don’t really have a cult following in India — at least not the kind seen in the West.
So, basing an entire film in a milieu not many Indians would recognise is a risk in itself.
Mumbai Meri Jaan: A disjointed effort
Where were you on July 11? It’s a question Mumbaikars often ask one another. When seven blasts ripped through the city’s local trains in 2006, it changed its fabric forever, regardless of what anyone might tell you about Mumbai’s famous spirit.
So when a film comes along that seeks to document this tragedy and the reactions to it, curiosity is naturally aroused.
Going gay in Bollywood
A lot of taboos are being broken in Bollywood today. Kissing on screen is no longer frowned upon. Protagonists actually have grey shades. Having live-in relationships and pre-marital sex is no longer the preserve of villains.
And now the Indian film industry is set to break another barrier.
For years the word gay was all but banned in the oh-so-straight world of Bollywood, where heroes were always blue-blooded heterosexuals, with a harem of girls at their feet while heroines had eyes only for the opposite sex.
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The Wall
