Personally I hate comparisons, be it - North India vs South India, Oriental vs Occidental, Maruti vs Santro, Levis vs Pepe, Amitabh Vs Rajnikanth, Hollywood Vs Bollywood, Man U Vs Barca, Rafa Vs Fedex, Times of India Vs The Hindu, Colgate Vs Pepsodent or for that matter be it Blonde vs Redhead vs Brunette vs Black. I always feel that each person/place/thing is unique in some way or the other, so comparing is an exercise in futility.
But this post is not about not-to-compare. It's exactly the opposite. Yeah ! I have started comparing. But it's not by choice that I drew parallels between two things. I was literally forced into it.
Recently Bollywood has been flooded with all kinds of flimsy and frivolous songs that compelled me to explore what our elders always said about how songs in their times were much better. And sure happy I am to have done that. What actually maketh listening to a song a memorable experience? My take is - Brilliant Lyrics, Soulful Rendition and Catchy Musical Score, Artistic Expressions and Picturesque Settings - almost always in that order. If all four are present we get a melody - that strikes right at the core of your heart.
Sadly, nowadays, there are too many songs but hardly any melodies. Lyrics is permanently paralyzed, though it might get an occasional reprieve of life from Javed Akhtar or Gulzar. It's quite astonishing that this is an industry that is associated with Arts - which has creativity at its core - and this is what best we can muster- "Unche se unche banda, potty pe baithe nanga", "Sheela ki jawani....i know you want it but you never gonna get it", "Munni badnam huyi...jhandubalm huyi", "Kutta ban gya mei kutta ban gya", "shalu ke thumke", "shakira se bhi zaada tera hile lakk ni", "character dheela hai", "DK Bose" etc. The lyricists have gone intellectually bankrupt and are shamelessly ripping apart catchy phrases from yester years hits, mixing with some pathetic lyrics of theirs and in the process ending up with something that is so distasteful.
The less I talk about the protagonists the better. The audience admires everything else other than their acting skills. Rather than making the whole experience a sensual one, they instead end up making it an erotic one. This new breed arrogantly flaunts its mind numbing aesthetic (in)sensibilities. As a result, we see expression less romantic gestures replacing the romantic mysticism that was once epitomized by Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar; Salman-esque lewdness uprooting the chivalry that was so gracefully carried by Ashok Kumar; bizarre hitting-the-balls, gay-fart-sex jokes in the garb of comedy which used to be so tastefully depicted by Kishore Kumar and Dev Anand. The female leads think they can shake a leg or two to the tunes of item numbers? In fact, they should be thanking their stars that don't have Helen as a contemporary. They spend on all sorts of cosmetic enhancements and nose/chin jobs but they forget that a women's beauty is incomplete without the subtlety of Rekha, the sublimity of Meena Kumari, the demeanor of Nargis, the infiniteness of Madhu Bala and the elegance of Nutan.
Today songs have been reduced to a visual extravaganza rather than being a personal, innocent, low-key affair between the male and female leads. The songs are packed with all kinds of exotic locations, 'n' number of junior artists dressed in gaudy clothes with all sorts of props, jumping in joy, that certainly set our feet tapping but are unable to stir the soul in a way that a 'aapki ki nazron ne samjha pyaar ke kabil mujhe' or a 'Lag ja gale ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho' or a 'Ajeeb Dastan hai yeh' would do.
On a closer introspection, why am I concerned? Isn't change the only constant? My only concern is that the sellers ultimately sell what the buyers demand. If the runaway success and critical acclaim of movies like Dabangg, Ready, Delhi Belly, Shaitan, is to be taken as a pointer, there is a dangerous trend that is emerging - that of changing sensibilities. Suddenly, vice is the new virtue; obscenity is the new decency; profanity is the new veneration. The depth of thoughts has lost ground to the abyss of depravity.
The biggest take away from India has always been its values like the emotional connect, the intellect, the philosophy towards life. Somewhere the danger lurks that these values might be lost in the vast swarm of social and cultural revolution that is sweeping India. If we don't preserve them, perhaps no one else would !
The biggest take away from India has always been its values like the emotional connect, the intellect, the philosophy towards life. Somewhere the danger lurks that these values might be lost in the vast swarm of social and cultural revolution that is sweeping India. If we don't preserve them, perhaps no one else would !
Evolve, but retain Values !
P.S: During my last visit back home, I saw my nephews and nieces singing "Sheela ki Jawani" in their cacophonous unison. And these kids that am talking about - the eldest one among them is hardly 10 years old and the youngest one just completed a year in school. I stood there speechless wondering whether I have been caught in a time warp or are these kids catching up too fast? Perhaps, it's time we think what we are leaving our younger generation with.
