The other day I had lined out for myself to watch (as I always do when I am depressed) an awful sappy, mindless Bollywood caper. I might have surfed four to five channels watching bits and pieces of movies – Kal Ho Na Ho, DDLJ, Pyar Kiya Tho Darna Kya etc and none of which managed to hold my interest completely. More sadly, something kept hankering me, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, and eventually ruined my enjoyment of the films entirely. These has been an overdose of Punjabi in Bollywood and its been that way for quite sometime now. So long that its making me retch. No offense my dear Punjabi friends.
Punjabi is a fine language and with an equally memerising culture to back it. But there are surely more cultures and languages in India that can be showcased?
Heck! We are the most diverse country ever in the world with a shocking number of 415 living languages spoken in India and equal number of distinctly different cultures to showcase. But No, we are going to be stuck on to just Punjabi.
Think DDLJ, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ..If your saying that these are just the Chopra’s and Johars”..how about Namastey London..Bhagban, Muhjse Shaadi Karoge, Bride and Prejudice, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom….The list is simply endless.
And it doesn’t stop simply at films, go on to music and almost all the popular songs are set to the Bhangra beat or the usual Balle Balle (read dhol) background score. Try and see Partner songs and you will realize what I mean.
Honestly I am sick and tired of watching Shah Rukh, Saif, Amitabh, and every other actor mouthing the - soniye, kudiye and maahi ve, words. How about giving us a taste of rustic Bihari folk or Rajasthani panihari music or the local flavour of the pahadi’s, Bollywood?
And on top of this they dare want Bollywood to be called the ‘Indian Film Industry”.
Ya sure, first try and identify the four south Indian states correctly, will ya?
But who cares if a madrasi female sitting in the audience is shaking her head in disgust by the end of a film? We’re too sensitive, and we don’t matter anyway. And oh!, everyone knows racism is only when you use the caste-word and treat people differently based on their color.
Comments
I doubt letters to producers would bring about any change.But its a nice theory you got here, about the differences in the audience of East and West.
The point is both Bollywood and the India food industry have to show more respect to other cultures and cuisines.
I would love to see a bollywood cinema helping us explore culture of Rural Gujarat and hotels serving Bihari cuisines...
anyone listening