Disguises in Indian movies and TV

Disguise is what one resorts to in order to deceive others. When it is done in Hollywood movies, the result is convincing enough. We have seen examples in Face Off with Nicholas Cage and also in Mission Impossible II with Tom Cruise. The disguise is incorporated meticulously through use of molds and latex coverings and is as good as the original.
However, when it comes to the Indian scenario, disguise appears to be so simple. It has been going on for ages and, the heroines find it most convenient to wear a turban, don a coat and get a new identity of a Sadarji. The turban hides the hair and the coat conceals the girlish features.

As to the heroes – they wear a moustache and goggles and fake the voice. At times they will wear the disguise of an old man with a shaky voice carrying a walking stick. The apron of a Father of a church is also a fairly good disguise which had been effectively used by Amitabh Bachhan.
A moustache symbolizes a man – these are of different shapes and also have names like Hitler moustache, walrus moustache, handlebar moustache, pencil moustache, toothbrush mustache to name a few. It takes plenty of patience to maintain the moustache and it is taken to be a sign of being a man. There is even a Guinness World Record for the longest moustache.
However, our moviedom takes the moustache too lightly even though Amitabh Bachhan had remarked in the movie Sharabi – ‘mooche ho to Nathulal jaisa’.
Moustache is considered to be a great disguise by the Indian film makers – stick a moustache and the other party cannot recognize you. One of the best proof is in the movie Golmal – the vintage one with Utpal Dutta and Amol Palekar.
Another favorite disguise in Bollywood is wig coupled with stammering and a walking stick – they can transform a young man into an old one in need of support to walk. Like I S Johar in Shagird. This sort of change in appearance by wearing wigs have been seen in other movies like Shaan in which Amitabh Bachhan and Rishi Kapoor don the disguise of sadhus and walk into the water.(to be continued… )
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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