Animals in Indian movies

Haathi Mera Saathi (1971) was a hit movie that featured an elephant – the hero was Rajesh Khanna, heroine Tanuja and whether the popularity of the movie was due to the presence of the stars or the elephant could be a matter of debate.

Apart from that, animals like monkeys and dogs have appeared briefly in many movies apart from snakes because snakes or nags are a much loved topic of Indians – these snakes provide an opportunity to the heroines to perform the snake dance swaying to rhythmic and, at times, haunting music. The snakes are believed to be reincarnations of couples separated by evil men and they return to seek revenge on those who had wronged them.
Then there have been the tigers – invariably, long shots of the big cats are first taken and then merged with close-ups of the hero wrestling with dummy tigers.
Dogs have also been seen in Bollywood movies – there was a pomeranian Tuffy in the movie Hum Aapke Hain Kaun starring Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit. It not only umpired a cricket match but did baby sitting and played Cupid.
However, in contrast, the 1985 film, Teri Meherbaniyaan, had a dog named Moti. It avenges the death of its master, Ram (Jackie) and his wife Bijli (Poonam Dhillon) by hunting down the killers and tears them to pieces.
Such movies ae unthinkable today because of censorship and restrictions imposed on animals by PETA and their likes.
Animals in Indian movies play insignificantly small roles unlike Bollywood movies where they hold prime pace – like monkeys in ‘Dunston comes to town’ or ‘Monkey trouble’ or dogs in ‘101 Dalmatians’, elephants in ‘Hatari’. Then there are the ones like ‘Jaws’, ‘Anaconda’, ‘Pirhana’ and ‘Ratatoulle’ where animation adds a new dimension to the storylines. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)
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Disguises in Indian movies and TV

Movies on rebirth – hot favorites of Bollywood

Indian movies and ghosts

After twins and rebirth, another favorite topic for Indian movies is ghosts – these are believed to be figments of one’s imagination and common sense dictates that such issues should be ignored. But, some movie makers try to make ghosts appear to be real and conjure up situations that keep one on the edge and forces him to admit that such situations may be real and ghost might exist – ghosts that do not harm but try to do good.
A couple of ghost movies are ‘Hello Brother’ of Bollywood and ‘Bhooter Bhabishyat’ of Tollywood. Incidentally, the first is a remake of an English movie and, while the second one is a product of the Bengali minds, its idea has already been copied into a Hindi version ‘Gang of Ghosts’.

‘Bhooter Bhabishyat(2012)’ translates into ‘Gang of Ghosts(2014)’ and the story is set in an old mansion which is deserted but where a whole lot of ghosts have taken up residence. The problem faced by ghosts in the city of Kolkata is the shortage of space because, old buildings are being demolished and new malls and multi-storied buildings are coming up in their place. Hence, the ghosts are being shunted out and they are desperate to get accommodation in any building that has still not yet changed hands.
It is a story set in the world of today but some of the ghosts who reside there belong to the times of the British!! The set, the period costumes and furniture, the characters - all of them recall fond memories of days gone by. There is also a generous inter-sprinkling of modern lifestyles thanks to ghosts of a modern day singer and a hoodlum who was a victim of inter-gang rivalry.
As to ‘Hello Brother’ it was a Salman Khan Rani Mukherjee starrer of 1999 – the story revolved around Salman Khan. He had been killed Shakti Kapoor and becomes a good ghost trying to punish Shakti. When Arbaz Khan, the police inspector descends on the scene, Salman helps him to nail Shakti. The movie is a copy of Hollywood movie ‘Twin Brothers’ of Jackie Chan.(to be continued ...)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Movies on rebirth – hot favorites of Bollywood

After twins, another popular genre of Bollywood movies is the one about rebirth. Although there are not too many Bollywood movies on this, the ones that have seen the light of day have been blockbusters. The general theme is usually about revenge that the wronged one takes and the storylines are designed accordingly with plenty of scope for song and dance sequences.
In real life there are many stories of rebirth – like the 10-year-old kid from Oklahoma. He believed that he was the reincarnation of Hollywood actor Marty Martyn, a man who died in 1964. He even recounted to his mother stories of meeting Rita Hayworth, dancing on Broadway, traveling overseas and working at an agency.
There are 10 other interesting cases of rebirth here.

Or - a kid suddenly starts to talk about a long lost family in a totally different part of the country. His parents are puzzled, they discuss the matter with their family and friends and even with local priests. They feel that some evil spirit has taken control of the boy. The boy keeps repeating strange facts and stories of a past life. Finally, the parents decide to take the plunge and travel to the place as directed by the boy. And – once there, the boy begins to impress the people with his knowledge of intricate affairs of the family. That in short is rebirth – when one is reborn in a different family.
That is the theme of Bollywood movies on the theme of rebirth.
Only, in order to make it more dramatic, it is not about one stray rebirth but of two of them. It is certainly a bit of a coincidence but Bollywood movies thrive on coincidences.
The 1995 movie Karan-Arjun was about the rebirth of two brothers Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. They had, in their previous birth, been hunted down and killed by landlords of a village in Rajasthan. Their mother continues to threaten the landlord and his henchmen that one day, her sons would return to take revenge. And – that is exactly what happens. Another blockbuster rebirth movie was Om Shanti Om of 2007 - in this movie, Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone are killed and are reborn to take revenge against the man who had conspired to kill Deepika. Once again we see two rebirths, simultaneously. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Indian movies love twins

Indian movies love twins and movies made on them have always made the box office jingle and have never disappointed the producers or directors or the heroes and heroines. The storylines have usually been ‘lost and found’ cases where the twins get separated in childhood in places like the village fair, grow up in diametrically opposite surroundings and come together at the climax. In between, 18 reels would have unwound over at least three hours.
Indian movies with these of twins show one of them as meek, submissive, fear prone, and weak while the other character is just the opposite.

One of the earliest Bollywood movie with twins was in 1967 – it was Ram aur Shyam in which Dilip Kumar played the double role. Later there were other such movies like Seeta aur Geeta (Hema Malini 1972), Gora aur Kaala (Rajendra Kumar 1972), Chaalbaaz (Sridevi 1989), Kishen Kanhaiya (Anil Kapoor 1990) and Judwaa (Salman Khan 1997).
These movies draw crowds even when shown today – the storylines are tweaked for variety but, the end result is always the same. These provide a chance for the actors and actresses to show off their capabilities and talent.
In Seeta and Geeta, the heroine Hema Malini was superb as she portrayed two totally different roles in the 1972 film.
When Sridevi did her double role in Chaalbaaz, her fans swooned at her abilities to portray the role of a girl who loved her drinks.
Of course, supporting actors are also important to keep the interest of the audience alive.
In Seeta aur Geeta, the male leads were of Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar – both were admirably suited to their roles. In Chaalbaaz, the male leads were played by Rajnikant and Sunny Deol.
In all these ‘twin’ movies, the leading ladies and the men get ample scope to display their abilities to adapt to different needs of the story.
There have been Bollywood movies where the actor has done more than two roles in a single film – Sanjeev Kumar performed in nine roles in the 1974 movie Naya Din Nayee Raat. However, Priyanka Chopra went one better – she did 12 roles in the 2009 movie What’s Your Rashee? (to be continued …)

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