Bollywood that I miss

  In a lifetime one has multiple nostalgias, for some its about people, for many its about places, and for all its movies and daily soaps. I for most part love being nostalgic, not because living is becoming hard but because memories have their own life and nostalgia only strengthens it. Even perfume for that matter can take you back to memory lane, and it is most potent in doing so. I had once planned that i will use different perfume in different cities which makes for great nostalgias. But topic is not delving into these stories but it is to discuss storytellers of our time.

I do not remember reading anything anytime in my childhood or up until my teenage days. Ruskin bond only crossed my path when i was way older than his targeted audience. But what made our childhood and teenage fascinating is television. We are generation of Sonpari, Junior G, and who can forget Pavitra Rishta. those were times of climbing up the terrace and fixing antenna on our own. I hardly remember any movies because from those days except Zameen of Ajay Devgan, Kuch Kuch hota hain, Kabhi khushi Kabhi Gham and main hoon na of Shah Rukh Khan. And two movies from down south of Nagarjuna one of those is Don no 1 (does anyone remember that, 'come on, come on, come on' scene).

Movies for me were refuge. they allowed me to withdraw from brute realities and dryness of human relation into world of unreal lives of cinema. I wanted to see vulnerable man in SRK which was quite opposite to men around me. I wanted to believe that the fat kid in K3G would end up becoming Rithik Roshan. We just wanted to see something different, something that i knew is illusion but despite that something that will mesmerize our vision.

as I grew older, something changed in moviemaking, the illusion of Karan Johar movies was taken over by movies of Farhan Akhtar, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Raj kumar hirani. These are the movies which I could connect because real locations were being shown and even the stories. As many film observers say, these movies brought fresh air into movie making. 

This era gave birth to my most favourite movies, to name them would break the flow of writing but they do demand visibility because most of them were theatrical flops at those times.

Lakshya, Chak de India, Swades, Lagaan, 3 Idiots. 

these movies were revolving around writer's story and human relations and they never bothered about length of it. music was something that kept us glued to these stories for so long and by song I mean not just music but lyrics of it. the words. They were not scared to show human frailties and our inability to do something. They were fine with showcasing imperfections of human life on big screen. Broadly what I am saying is that these movies broke few templates of hero-villain, hero-heroine and mediocre scriptwriting of 90s movies.  

The only reason I am sitting in middle of night and doing this average labour is to tell that I watched Salaar yesterday, and I could not see anything of above. Movie making is changing, the rage, anger, bloodshed, revenge and masculinity that is being served with mediocre music and dialogues but with unimaginable visual effects has taken over the box office. 

Dunki comes with a hope that good storytelling, humor and watery eyed Shahrukh khan still works .