That film on steroids

Main Hoon Na released sometime before my ninth standard summer vacation. Since ninth was not tenth, my conscience did not object to me watching the film practically every morning of the holidays, courtesy the obliging colony cable wallah. But turns out even those multiple viewings more than a decade ago did not help me appreciate just how well made the film was. The most underappreciated part being, that somehow the frenetic pacing does not lend the film a jerkiness or discontinuity, for at least two-thirds of the film.

The scene transitions are smooth, with some snappy use of old Hindi music. Jaane ja dhoond ta phir raha plays during Ram's efforts to trace his estranged younger half brother, Laxman on campus (yes, haha, Ram-Laxman in the 21st Century)-taking the story forward in a minute, something reams of dialogue wouldn't have managed as effectively. At one point the director wants to hint at us that Lucky, the college idiot, is in fact Laxman (like we never saw that coming). We are at Ram's balcony, which overlooks Lucky's house and we see the latter scoot in and out while his mother (inside) badgers him about finding a tenant. All this plays out against the voiceover of Ram resolving to find Laxman and his mother. It's simultaneously very filmy and very efficient. I think it's because of some solid editing, though I would have to be more film-literate to be sure of this.

What also helps this quick, smooth pacing is that the characters are unapologetically unidimensional. There is no character development required. We know Ram is the template ideal son, elder brother, colleague, we know Sanjana is the tom-boy in love with her friend who is going to get a makeover and that Ms Chandni is the hot Chemistry teacher. And none of this simplicity or non-'layeredness' grates.

Farah Khan is lucky that she had Shah Rukh Khan at his prime, to manage this for her. He is funny, he is charming, and he reminds you of the time when an SRK movie was an event in the family. Never an action hero, he still manages to sell some crazy fight sequences. At one point he chases an SUV on a cycle rickshaw (then again, if you Main Hoon Na is your kind of film, I am sure you don't go looking for realism). There are other heroes of course, who can do action better-Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar being successful examples. Yet none of them ever do it with such dimpled sweetness the way SRK does in this film. When he tells Lucky, 'Haath chhodo Laxman, Daro mat, main hoon na' (in the neater of the action. scenes), this is not just a (filmy) badass army man, he is also the caring elder brother who has your back.

And that's why it is such a waste to now have  Shah Rukh and Farah Khan collaborate on something as utterly stupid as Happy New Year. I found it tolerable enough when I saw it in the theatre, in part because Deepika Padukone is dazzling in everything, but also because I had gone with such low expectations. Quite forgetting, what these two Khans,were once capable of delivering.

PS: if there was ever a need for an award for song picturisations (not choreography), it was when this film released.

While we talk

One of my all time favourite songs is Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan's 'Mora Saiyyan Moh se bole na' (My lover does not confess he loves me). It has some beautiful lyrics, and the music has not dated since it first released in the nineties. What you can't ignore is the incessant whining of the point of view person in the song, about the lover who... well...does not confess his love. Compare this to the joyous 'Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha' (Neither of us have said anything) in 1979's release Baaton Baaton Mein. The newly dating couple in the film, played by Amol Palekar and Tina Munim, sing that even without explicit declarations of love, they feel in love (much less prosaically worded in the Hindi song). And this joyousness pervades much of the rest of the film, and papers over all its faults.

The songs are of course all standout. Most films of that decade don't stand scrutiny when compared to modern standards of what counts as creepy. And I am not talking of mainstream Bollywood where Jeetendra routinely molested Sridevi into accepting him as her boyfriend. Even a middle of the road film like Chhoti si Baat saw (the ubiquitous) Amol Palekar stalk (albeit very very non-threateningly) his heroine, Vidya Sinha. There is some of that in Baaton Baaton Mein as well. Who wouldn't feel threatened today if a man with a French beard suddenly starts sketching you while using public transport? But as the title song pains to underline, love, that follows the initial at-first-sight infatuation, must be on the basis of a lot of baatein.

Another strength of Baaton Baaton Mein (which has contributed to its endurance) are the loving characterisations of regular, middle class people we have seen around us. The meddling but well intentioned uncle, the boy's mother who doesn't want her son to be married, the girl's mother whose happiness is derived from her daughter being married, the lascivious friend, the relative who refuses to leave, and the mildly irritating younger brother with an artistic bent of mind (was Jaane tu ya Jaane Na's brother inspired from Saby in Baaton Baaton Mein?). They are also played by some very competent actors, especially the female lead's mother who is priceless when worried that the prospective groom earns less than her daughter but perks up when she realises that he will earn more once his probation is over (so what if he is only a cartoonist). Amol Palekar as the said cartoonist is his usual dependable self as mild mannered, and eager to please Tony Braganza. It is sad that we will probably never have a hero like him who fits in so well in this familiar middle class milieu (because let's face it, all the gym toned men we meet in real life are creeps). Tina Munim on the other hand is that generation's Katrina Kaif. Yet because the rest of the cast, and the script and the dialogue and the music are so winsome, it is possible to oversee this defect.

Overall, Baaton Baaton Mein remains a favourite (even after the 11th watch).