About two-thirds into Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai, Shalini (Preity Zinta) takes Akash (Aamir Khan) for an opera present. It’s the Greek tragedy of Troilus and Cressida, rising out of the siege of Troy — half of a bigger story which has been the flavour of the summer time due to one other movie.
Akash is bored out of his thoughts, attempting onerous to maintain awake. However because the opera unfolds, Shalini is in tears. Additionally, one thing surprising is going on. Akash seated subsequent to her seems shocked to witness the tragedy on the stage. On Shalini’s request, Akash shuts his eyes and involves the realisation that he’s really in love along with her. The facade he has constructed round himself begins to crumble.
Quickly after, when Shalini departs for India along with her fiancé, Akash is heartbroken and devastated, as Sonu Nigam sings Tanhayee within the background. He sits right down to name his good friend Sameer whereas tears roll down his eyes.
Dil Chahta Hai has been praised for narrating the story of three pals who talked naturally, joked and laughed, wore regular garments like common millennials (though Khan was no less than 10 years older than the character he performed).
However Akhtar’s 25-years-old landmark movie additionally advised us that it was okay for these males to be unhappy, to cry. It was completely cool for males portraying characters who didn’t care a lot for critical points in life to additionally present their weak facet.
Hindi cinema has usually proven the lead males singing tragic songs, going again to Dil Jalta Hai from Pehli Nazar (1945) sung by Mukesh in his very KL Saigal voice. And practically three a long time later, Mukesh, once more, sang Koi Jab Tumhara in Purab Aur Paschim (1971).
However a personality like Manoj Kumar’s Bharat in Purab Aur Paschim was pushed by a mission and the message that the East was higher than the West when it got here to tradition and custom. The post-college buddies in Dil Chahta Hai had been on no such mission. Their aim was to reside off their dad and mom’ wealth and have enjoyable in life. Till the bolt of lightning struck them and so they found that love actually exists.
In 25 years, because the three characters of Dil Chahta Hai would have reached center age, the temper of the viewers appears to have shifted. There may be the acceptance of poisonous masculinity and misogyny in works by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (Arjun Reddy, Kabir Singh, Animal), and in Aditya Dhar’s current testosterone-laden and heightened jingoistic hit movies (Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge).
The gentler males corresponding to Akash and his pals Sid and Sameer appear to be from one other period. As an alternative, we have now males like Ranbir Kapoor’s Ranvijay Singh in Animal whose unhappiness and ultra-violent behaviour emerges out of the daddy-issues he suffers from. However Animal doesn’t analyse or try and resolve Ranvijay’s daddy-issues. As an alternative, it justifies the stylised gore, violence and misogyny within the movie, blaming it on Ranvijay’s traumas. And if Ranvijay cries ultimately of the movie, it’s only after an over-the-top, melodramatic confrontation together with his father.
However did the weak males of Dil Chahta Hai actually vanish, or is Bollywood taking a pause? Within the occasions of filmmakers like Vanga and Dhar, are there nonetheless areas for heartfelt movies which might be nearer to actuality the place males can present their weak shades?
It’s onerous to say if Bollywood will now solely go within the path of loud, testosterone-packed movies. However the sluggish, evolving success of Imtiaz Ali’s love-in-the-time-of-Partition story — Essential Vaapas Aaunga — due to a powerful word-of-mouth publicity, is a transparent indication that every one hope is just not misplaced.
And weak males cry in Essential Vaapas Aaunga. Generally audiences don’t discover the gems after they fall in our midst. In contrast to the 2 Dhurandhars, Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis rationalises people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan. With out resolving to machismo and jingoism, it’s a clear-headed story that implies a distinct path and answer to a long time outdated animosity between the 2 neighbouring nations.
And as Ikkis walks into our hearts, it tells us it’s okay to cry.
Aseem Chhabra is an creator and actor. The views expressed are private
(This can be a Hindustan Instances digital unique)
