It is said people try to copycat movies into real life. Often it's other way round. A lot of movies are known to have lifted chapters from real life into reel life with plenty of connections and connotations.
A Bollywood movie named KHATTA MEETHA (Sweet and Sour) is at best passable. Shot in a small town of Maharashtra, the actor Akshay Kumar is a simple contractor struggling to meet his ends engulfed by a corrupt system both outside and inside his home - where his brother and brother-in-law curry favor with government officials by entertaining them in his house.
One late evening Akshay Kumar returns home to see his unmarried sister forced to serve alcoholic drinks to government officers and petty politicians who are entertained because they can get men of his household some lucrative contracts. As she bends over to pour a drink, the lusty lot take a break from the goblets and gossips to lasciviously peep at her curves. The peeved brother in Askhay Kumar promptly orders her to go inside to the chagrin of the guests and gives them a piece of his mouth, but can't buy peace in his house for shooting straight.
Such incidents are not uncommon in India. Decades back, the son of a Government Contractor complained about similar unpleasant situations. His father used to throw lavish parties for Who's Who of the time who can pass his bills. One of them was a BADA SAARE (Big Officials) well into his fifties drank himself silly and while picking his nose and scratching his private parts in public was known to pass lewd remarks disguised as double entendres to females old enough to be his daughters.
Yet SAARE (Sir) had to be tolerated and kept in good humor. It's common knowledge that some of our Babus (bureaucrats) and Journos are champion freeloaders - great at imbibing alcohol at the cost of other's money. Long story short - his father tolerated this officer's nuisance as an unavoidable professional hazard and collateral damage to his self esteem in spite of the later creating embarassing scenes.
In another part of the movie, Akhay Kumar's now estranged girl friend taunts him for not thinking like an Indian. He retorts back - "Who tells we are Indians. We are Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Bengalis first. Only time we think and feel like Indians is when India plays cricket against Pakistan".
A very pertinent monologue indeed. The actor wasn't far from truth. Nothing gets India more united and brings the best patriotism out of us than the game of cricket (to a lesser extent Hockey), especially an Indo - Pak encounter. It's arguably the only instance we don't see ourselves as a Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil or Odia, rather as Indians, thanks to our Western neighbor.
Sunil Gavaskar, an eminent cricket player of yesteryear once said - Indian movies are made for the masses by asses. Whatever he maint, he probably forgot that the asses come from masses, so also their ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment