Love Is In The Air
February is the month of romance because of Valentine’s Day. Nowhere is it more apparent than in a metropolis like Mumbai from where I am writing this piece. Growing up in the city, I’ve observed several telltale signs of Valentine’s Day preparations that have anything but increased over the years. A few weeks ahead of February 14th, shopping malls and small businesses are adorned with V-day paraphernalia including red outfits, jewelry with heart motifs and heart-shaped balloons flashing in window displays. Brands launch special discounts and promotional offers especially for Valentine gifting. On the day of, restaurants are overbooked with revelers waiting for long hours to enjoy candlelight dinners with their families or loved ones. Local radio stations start playing romantic Bollywood songs that are available in an endless supply. It’s a whole Valentine’s festival and makes you think that nobody loves love more than Indians.
Despite all the amorous sentiments permeating the Mumbai air around Valentine’s Day, couples spotted in public places are reprimanded by cops and asked to go home or clear the space instantly. In the Indian society, there are major concerns of young people meeting each other without their parents’ permission. The biggest fear is that matters of the heart will result in teenage pregnancies and elopement with someone from a different caste or religion, which can all bring “shame” to the family and clan. Hence, the best solution is considered to be permitting couples from cozying up altogether and the authorities take it upon themselves to be the society’s moral police.
Reel vs real
This, of course, reflects in Indian movies and as a reaction to the society’s suppression of love, our films have had an overdose of the romantic genre. For years, Bollywood has been synonymous with love stories. The plots are stereotypical: boy meets girl, they fall in love, there’s opposition from the family or society, they fight all odds to be together and of course, there’s singing and dancing to represent every stage of their relationship. Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar candidly expressed in a 2018 interview for The Times of India: “Sadly, love is still taboo in our culture. We’re still not completely allowed to have love marriages, there are restrictions on dating. Your parents still decide who you get to spend the rest of your life with. The ultimate fantasy in India is to see a boy or girl fall in love and end up happily, no matter what sort of opposition happens in their life. Love stories will always be big in our films, till our culture changes.”
It’s true that the main reason why Indian audiences have historically gone to theaters is to watch a good romance unfold on screen. The right concoction of melodious music, attractive stars, exotic filming locations and a story with an insurmountable conflict is guarantee for repeat viewing of a movie. The popularity of stars is determined by how desirable audiences find them. Filmmaker Yash Chopra had famously said to now superstar Shah Rukh Khan during the initial stage of the latter’s career that if he doesn’t become a “lover boy”, nothing will happen to his career, it will not move ahead. Khan who is considered the king of romance, catapulted to fame post the success of the romantic film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) produced by Yash Chopra and directed by his son, Aditya Chopra. It is the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema and 19 years later, is still being shown at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir theater.
Star makers
Love stories have also been the most effective vehicles to launch the careers of the offsprings of established superstars. The sons and daughters of superstars are known as ‘star kids’ in Indian journalistic lingo and many a star kids’ career began with a love story that made them heartthrobs of the nation. Some examples include Rishi Kapoor in Bobby (1973), Amir Khan in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Bobby Deol in Barsaat (1995), Hrithik Roshan in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000), Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor in Saawariya (2007), Alia Bhat and Varun Dhawan in Student of the Year (2012), etc. A lot of these films are funded by their successful parents and care is taken to create the perfect canvas on which to mount the star kids’ career. In the film Sanju (2018), a biopic of actor Sanjay Dutt, there’s a funny sequence where the character of his father, Sunil Dutt, an erstwhile romantic hero, is standing behind the camera helping his son lip-sync to a ballad and give the most perfect amorous expressions.
The power of love and other cliches
When I watched the Bruce Willis starrer, The Fifth Element (1997), the desi filmy in me was quick to remark, “This is a Bollywood film but without the songs!” Much to the amusement of my husband, I was also accurately predicting every plot turn of a film I had never watched before. The message of the popular 90s sci-fi film is that love is the most essential element and that humankind can only be salvaged with the antidote of love. This is a theme that I grew up watching umpteen times in Indian films and recognized it as all too familiar. The most common scene in any Bollywood romance is the protagonist’s monologue about the power of love that can move mountains, challenge dynasties, change the course of the winds and make stony hearts melt. Alas, no such monologue ever saved a couple from the rebuke of a cop determined to disperse a loving couple from the Mumbai beachfront.