Love in Bollywood

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Love in Bollywood - when I got this topic, very first thought that crossed my mind was the interpretation of it. I was confused whether to choose real life love stories or reel life love stories. Well, there is not much of a difference between them as few of them are very dramatical and cliched in real as well as reel life. Movie buff that I am, I decided to go for the latter one.

Who can forget the legendary "On Screen" couple Raj Kapoor and Nargis singing "Pyaar hua Ikraar hua hai" under one umbrella. There was Nargis; reluctant to go close to Raj Kapoor; shy, elegant and still managed to create the magical moment of love and attraction.

Like it happens in most of the bollywood movies, a scene change takes place - the Villain enters. Since this scene is playing in my head (now, ain't I brilliant?), the villain turns out to be Raveena Tandon singing "Tip Tip barsa Paani" from the movie Mohra and trying really hard to seduce Akshay Kumar by dancing in the artificial rain in a chiffon saari. The latest movies do not differentiate between love and lust; but let me stick to the former one!

In the Sixties and Seventies, love was defined in a different manner. Hero and heroine went behind the bush to hide from the world, or the moving leaves meant that they were expressing their love for each other, wo palke jhukana aur sharmana, Kahin pe nigahe kahi pe nishana, sending love letters to each other and such.

Then the Eighties era started with "Ek Duje Ke liye" and "Love Story". So many couples committed suicide after watching Ek Duje Ke liye; and after watching Love Story, they eloped. We did take movies seriously; to an extent that dying for our love "because Vasu and Sapna did so" was a small thing.

Nineties saw many couples making a hit "on screen" pair - Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon, Anil Kapoor-Shridevi to name a few; but none became as popular as Shahrukh-Kajol. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge set an example of a perfect love story. It won the hearts of 99% of Indian movie lovers (I fall in that 1% category)


These days, love stories start in exotic locations and end with a bed scene that creates a lot of controversies and gives publicity to the movie. Not only a reel life love story is used for the fame, but in real life too a break up or a patch up between two co-stars happens before the release of their movies.


Like the movies, these actors and actresses have had a lot of twists in real life too. Sanjeev Kumar was madly in love with Hema Malini. But she did not love him, so he remained bachelor all his life, Parveen Babi went mad literally as Amitabh Bachchan did not marry her, Nargis broke up with Raj Kapoor and married Sunil Dutt instead as he saved her life from the fire that erupted on the sets of Mother India.

And we thought such things happen only in movies. Such love stories exist in real life too. Bollywood truly lives by its reputation of extremity in everything especially in case of love.

PS: To convey the feelings of true love, I have used certain Hindi words. The translation is:

wo palke jhukana aur sharmana, Kahin pe nigahe kahi pe nishana - eyes lowered down, feeling shy, looking somewhere and targeting somewhere else.

This expression is used as in those days, a lady never made any eye contact to the person she loved out of respect and shyness.