Those of you who are exposed to Bollywood movies of
yesteryears will agree that films of those days used to be made on expected
lines. In all the family movies, the
hero or heroine has to be poor. If hero is from rich family, the heroine would
be from poor family or else if hero is poor, heroine has to be rich. Both will
never be of same status. They would fall in love and undergo conflict of ‘Ghar
ki izzat’ & ‘Samaj kya kahega’ syndrome.
If it is a suspense movie, invariably the heroine’s soul
would be in white sari singing the signature song of the movie in the thick of
a jungle or around an old haveli where no one lives except a crooked looking
watchman with a lantern in one hand & stick in the other. Unlike rich or
poor hero/heroine, the soul would never be of our hero. It has to be female
only! The hero will be following the white sari clad singing heroine who keeps
vanishing behind bushes or would be surrounded by thick white smoke. In all
such films, our hero is able to hear the song but can not make out from which
direction the sound is coming even though the heroine would be around. For a
normal person like us, it is not that difficult to guess the approximate
distance and direction of sound in real life. At the end of the song, the
heroine vanishes leaving the hero gasping with sweat on his forehead.
Another character of interest in those films is the villain.
Not exactly with 6 or 8 packs on his body but will be a chain smoker with
wicked looks. He is always eying on the heroine and her father’s property. Invariably,
this villain gets a chance to rape the heroine in all the movies. Alas, despite
all his muscular body and strength, he is never able to tear heroine’s cloth
even after several minutes of struggle. Sometimes his goons chase the heroine
but they are not able to run as fast as the heroine (what a shame!). Finally,
poor villain gets blow after blow from the hero who arrives at the spot nick of
the time to save heroine’s izzat.
Comedian is one more character necessary to carry the film
forward. He keeps appearing and disappearing on the screen like filler in
newspaper. His job is to make the audience laugh with his antics and
buffoonery. It is absolutely not necessary that his character has to have any
link with the story. Sometimes his track runs parallel to the main film which
used to end when the entire family of both the hero and heroine unites happily.
The End.
