What Was Wrong With Bollywood In 2013?

India is a country where people follow Bollywood like couch potatoes. In fact so much that people tend to believe what is shown in reel as real in nature and ultimately try to inculcate the falsified theories shown in the movies as part of their existence.

2013 saw plethora of Bollywood movies release. Some made money, some didn’t. The hundred crore club became a joke and we saw the emergence of two hundred, three hundred crores clubs and even more.

But then those movies somewhere in order to make the producers, actors and directors rich didn’t account for the wrong messages they were sending in the form of their story, dialogues or even the lyrics of their songs and there are plenty of examples to be given.

For starters, let’s take the example of Shah Rukh Khan Starrer Chennai Express which was a mega block-buster, but then the movie can be safely accused of stereotyping the lifestyle of Tamils. The movie did receive lot of flak from various known faces that were from Tamil Nadu and showed their disappointment in way the Tamilians were portrayed. For example, not every Tamil girl would speak like the character played by Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone.

We also had another super hit movie Ranjhanna which also made to the hundred crore club. But then the lead actor Dhanush played the role of an obsessive lover who would slit his hand if the girl he loved said no. Even after being rejected, the boy would kind of force her to fall in love with her. In short the movie glorified stalking and beautified the existence of being an obsessed psychopath who would go to any lengths to get her love even if the methods he used were wrong. Unfortunately the obsession was shown as true love, which clearly sent wrong signals to many youngsters out there.

Shahid Kapoor’s movie R Rajkumar was even worse where in one scene a cop was shown raping a woman. The movie also glorified stalking and probably in a more aggressive manner. Lewd manners used by the hero to win his love are certainly not the right way if a boy wants to impress a girl in reality.

Look at the history of movies and you will witness that hero whether rich or poor carries with him a certain dignity and is a man of principles. He signifies goodness and is shown to have a strong character.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie Ram-Leela broke all barriers where the hero is shown as someone who makes his living by selling guns and porn movies. Probably someone doesn’t even have an iota of respect for women and signifies himself to be the lewd version of Romeo created by Shakespeare. How shameful.

Movies like Grand Masti thrived on cheap jokes but then we have been watching these movies for years.

Songs like Gandi Baat, Dhat Teri Ki Ghar Nhi Jaana, various Honey Singh songs have inappropriate lyrics and the way they have been picturized certainly doesn’t look good if we look into reality.

Bollywood in 2013. Photo Courtesy: Internet

Movies are a strong medium. In a country where we hear cases of a girl getting raped everyday and when we are dealing with the security of our women, such derogatory lyrics, and dialogues don’t help the situation.  Its flabbergasting to imagine a situation where a boy in order to impress a girl makes lewd expressions, teases her, even stalks her and when the girl doesn’t comply to his advances then either the boy turns into a rapist or ends up in a hospital by slitting his wrists, and he learns all this from these multi-crore blockbuster movies which we Indians watch with so much of intent without even thinking for a second about what are we really watching, what are we really learning.

Probably we cannot stop these people who resort to such cheap ways to make money but the public who every Friday throng the halls to watch a movie so that they can recharge their batteries should for once sit back and contemplate the fact whatever they are watching might recharge their batteries and might be refreshing but are those movies recharging their minds correctly?

Probably the New Year will surely set people up thinking, at least for once.

The author is a student of Mass Communication from SOC, Manipal, Nishit holds a deep passion for writing, where his interests range from sports to movies to politics and anything he can scribble about. The author also loves to quiz and get quizzed and also debate with people on various topics. The author also likes to face the camera and has acted in various plays and dramas whenever given the opportunity. A self-confessed movie addict and someone who calls himself as a ‘sports junkie’, the author loves to read books, watch movies, listen to music and just write on anything he finds interesting to write during his spare time. You can mail your queries or just anything to author at nishitkunal@rediffmail.com.

The article first appeared in The Indian Economist on 10th January,2014. The author is a columnist at http://theindianeconomist.com/