It’s often argued that cinema acts as a mirror of the society. No matter how blurred the image, the mirror shows, it succeeds to portray a generic sketches of the society of the prevailing time. Taking this argument forward does it mean that the hero’s portrayed in today’s Hindi movie reflect the general psychology of Indian male. The reason for bringing out this argument is that many of the old movies are remade recently and you can see the difference in the on screen character across the generation.
Movies like Umrao Jaan, Don, Agneepath etc. has been remade in recent time and the characters of Nawab Sultan Khan, Vijay(aka Don) or Vijay Dinanath Chauhan have undergone drastic change. Can this change be attributed to the change in masculinity over the ages?
Why only stick to Hero’s alone..even villains have undergone transformation. They are no longer the bad guys who get beaten up in the end. They are cleaver and suave and stylish. The heroes on the other hand are more health conscious and come clean shaven irrespective of the scene. If he is not going to college or spending his dad’s money he may be seen romancing the heroine on some exotic locales. The heroes are now born in well to do families and no longer struggles to stay alive (At least in most cases). This fact seems to highlight the rise of the middle class in urban India. It’s no longer the days where old spice is a luxury but Hugo Boss is a part of most wardrobes these days. The urbanization and rise of multiplexes in India means that people are not interested to see the poor guy and rich girl story nor are they interested to see the angry young man. People are more willing to see an understanding man who loves and loves to be loved. He is non violent and would go to any extent to please the lady love but since there is no villain so his physical ability is never questioned.
The hero of yester years were not too keen to tear their shirt or show his martial art skills and in pretext show off his sculpted body. His appeal was the raw kick and punch that he would use to overpower the villain to rescue his lady love. The victory of good over evil would come at the cost of death and destruction around him. Today the struggle is more against the system or ones inner self. The good old days of bad villain is gone now.
The modern hero does not have to deal with widow mother and an unmarried sister who is always the target of the villain or his sidekick. He is brought up well and not much time is given to his family. If required then only a sister or uncle or dad is put in the movie. Yes the nucleated family is very well reflected in the screen play and the selfishness and individualism is very well reflected in his mannerism. This is a social change which we can’t deny.
The Vinay, Vijay, Vishwanath is replaced by Raj, Sid, Chulbul Pandey ‘s in the movie. Not to forget the importance of item number in the script. In the earlier movies if and only if there is a Don or a Gabbar Singh in the movie one could expect Helen aunty to dance to keep him happy. The set up now has changed to urban India but the mindset of audience has not changed hence the need for item number has gone up. Today the publicity of a movie depends on the peppy numbers that are used in the disc & night clubs across the country so the producers have no choice but to hire a Munni or Sheila.
Gone are the days of poetic lyrics and soulful voices, today’s hero can sing songs in different voices and he is not too bothered behind the poetry behind it. So long as he can lip sync it properly the girl standing in front would be impressed. This is because today the world runs on quantity and not quality. No one cares if your movie has become silver jubilee or golden jubilee. If they can recover the producer money in the first week shows then the project is successful. Yes movies are a project now and executed with precision and planning. You don’t get a year to complete your project. It must be done at max 180 days with 30 days to top it up with publicity. The PR team earns more than the singers of the movie so I guess we should restrict our expectation regarding the emotional aspect of movie making.
The story of the movie always appeals to the movie goers. This one common factor ties all the generations together. But the star appeal today and help the producer to recover his money in the 1st weekend even the movie is a complete trash. Hence the star sometimes becomes bigger than the movie which is acceptable so long as the product is good. Yes movie is an entertainment product for us, the consumers. I guess this mentality stems from the economic environment around us. The consumer chooses the product based on reviews and word of mouth publicity.
So cinema is undergoing an evolution from becoming a piece of art to a FMCG product. There is no harm with this change so long as people get the value of the money they spent. Heroes and villains are also under going change to suit the demands of the people. The evolution of Indian men and his masculinity is a similar process. We all welcome this change. The evolution of humans is always accompanied by change and so this process is one of the most natural manifestations of nature.
