This Valentine’s Day, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Siddharth Anand, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Smriti Mundhra answer if the demand of edgy content and the age of Tinder killed Bollywood romances.
Bollywood taught us love is mushy, love is dreamy, love is what happens when you spread your arms in the air and violins start playing in the background. Call it delusional or the impact of Bollywood but that’s the love we all aspire to be a part of.
However, that love has changed, Romantic comedies are disappearing to an extent that we talk about them in the past tense, maybe that’s also because love is changing today, and the portrayal of it is evolving. Today’s films mirror the complexities of real-everyday-mundane-life, in happy days and in tragedies. To understand how much rom-coms have changed in Hindi films and the nostalgia of it, indianexpress.com spoke to some of the most loved rom-com actors and filmmakers as they breakdown the beauty of Bollywood rom-coms and why we crave them so much today.
The queen of Bollywood romantic comedies, Kareena Kapoor Khan, who has given us cherished films like Jab We Met, Ki and Ka, Ek Main Aur Ek Tu and Mujhse Dosti Karoge, says the number of romcoms have declined because the portrayal of love has evolved and “we’re pushing the boundaries” while citing the example of her latest film Laal Singh Chaddha. She says, “It’s been a while since I did a proper rom-com, but then what is rom-com, Jab We Met types? I haven’t done a film like that of late. With the kind of cinema today, on the big screen and with the content on OTT, we are pushing the boundaries today. Like even Rupa’s character in Laal Singh Chadha is quite brave for the fact that the way her life panned out and how it ended. In a way it is a different kind and yes haven’t seen mushy and jumpy films like Jab We Met and in the Hum Tum space in a while.”
Since we called Kareena the queen of rom-coms, her husband and actor Saif Ali Khan is the unabashed nawab of love genre. However, after featuring in a string of romantic comedies, one of which — Hum Tum — also won him a National Award, the actor decided that it was time for him to start experimenting as he felt that he has now “outgrown” the rom-com genre.
Asked why he thinks he has outgrown the romantic-comedy genre, he said, “I shouldn’t have said that, romantic films have changed. In those times there was a certain kind of language in movies, a certain kind of character that one played that I think was stretched, but I have personally outgrown that. I think one has to write it age-appropriately, and in a certain way, but rom-coms are always great.”
Filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, who had shot to fame with her wonderfully rooted 2017 romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi, says storytellers will always reflect the times. If there are no love stories on-screen, then perhaps it’s because the way people have started to love. There is little patience, no calm and hence, less romance for the screen.
“As storytellers, we get very influenced by what is happening outside. Maybe the audience, the generation is very impatient, no one wants to see love. But I think we are coming back to it now, because so much has happened, that a little bit of calmness is needed.”
When she did return to the romantic drama space with her latest work Faadu, the filmmaker said she started getting calls from people that “finally we can see a drama, a love story, which is calming down everything.”
“There is lack of love (out there). You need it in this fast-paced life, but when you find it, you get busy on your phones,” she added.
Not all reasons for love stories being reduced on screen dates to societal change. For some, like filmmaker Sidharth Anand, it is personal evolution. Before he transitioned to action with the 2015 Bang Bang, Sidharth was known to mount big scale romantic comedy dramas, from Salaam Namaste, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Bachna Ae Haseeno to his last in the genre, Anjaana Anjaani.
But then Sidharth started drifting towards action “organically” and jumped into Bang Bang when he was approached to make it. “I had just finished Anjana Anjani and was thinking of my next rom-com. It is just destiny,” he said. But will the filmmaker, who has given countless pop culture moments through his romantic comedies, ever return to the genre? Sidharth says at least as of now– no.
“Rom- coms are a no for me, for now, at least. I am enjoying this. I am a kid in a candy store. I am getting to do action with the best teams, best action directors in the world, best production houses.”
The fraternity is celebrating romance in films with Smriti Mundhra’s The Romantics that streams on Netflix from today. In her four part docu-series, Smriti aims to give an ode to YRF rom-coms that changed the way India loved. When asked if she feels that these films ruined the reality of love in everyday life? She says, “If you’re not chasing somebody on the train then what is love actually?”
Smriti then talks about how rom-coms gave viewers an “aspirational idea of love”. She says, “I think when you’re young, or anytime in your life, it is good to have an aspirational idea of love. It is what makes life interesting. But in reality, there is also recognition that there is love and romance in the day to day sort of quotidian stuff, you know, making a cup of tea or coffee for your partner in the morning. It could be as romantic as throwing rose petals out of a helicopter, especially when you have children, it is very romantic when someone brings you a cup of coffee in bed. It is all a part of fun and life to have aspirational love and that what Hindi cinema has given us, particularly what Yash Chopra has given us.”
When asked if she craves rom-coms in times when the world is running behind “edgy content”, Smriti says, “Of course I would. It’s my favourite genre and so many of my favorite films from Indian cinema have been rom-coms and romantic dramas. Though I appreciate some degree of realism in filmmaking, there’s also something really fun about the aspirational version of romance. The totally impractical and unrealistic version of romance. That’s always welcome, especially when it’s done well.”
News Source:- The Indian EXPRESS
