A letter to Bollywood with love from an ardent Bollywood fan!

I'm not a jabra fan; I'm just a cinephile whose heart still skips when Raj Aryan enters with a dhol in Mohabbatein or when Prem and Nisha cough their way into love in Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! This is my letter to a Bollywood that feels a little lost.

Bollywood or rather Hindi cinema has always hated that name. A riff on Hollywood, given by the English outsiders, was something the industry never chose for itself. Yet, over the years, it has come to define the most recognizable part of our Hindi cinema different from the indie or parallel cinema. One where the songs, the dances, the grand entrances, the timeless trio of hero, heroine, and villain live, one that we call mass commercial. This world has seen many seasons; from not even being recognized as an “industry” to becoming one, telling simple yet dramatic love stories to carrying social messages wrapped in fictional fun to shifting tones with every era the country itself lived through. Just like the weather changes the mood of the story. But lately, especially after the pandemic, it feels like Bollywood has lost its way. A few pan-India blockbusters helmed with the help of the South film industry may have jolted it back to life, but the pulse still feels weak.

And maybe, it isn’t entirely Bollywood’s fault. Audiences have changed too. We intellectualize emotions before we even allow ourselves to feel them, and the films began to cater to this new, restless behavior. Dance became less about an actor losing themselves in choreography and more about a “hook step” trending on Reels. Songs turned into backdrops for Instagram filters instead of moments that united a nation in celebration. In all honesty, when was the last time you saw a step or a song grip the country as one where from the oldest to the youngest was tripping on the tunes? When was the last time a film release felt like a community event? Perhaps that’s why nostalgia found a vacuum to fill. Old films returned to theatres and audiences showed up for re-releases of films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani that, even after a decade, had a hold because its dialogues, scenes, and songs still live in us. After all, no new Holi song till date has managed to top the charm of Balam Pichkari!

Also Read: Dissecting The Ba***ds of Bollywood: Bastards, Bollywood, and the meta joke we’re all in on!

That’s the Bollywood we miss! Cinema that doesn’t chase virality but becomes cultural memory because it reflects its times while staying rooted. As the ‘angry young man’ wasn’t just raging against the world he was furious at a broken system, channeling the silent frustration of the common man, all wrapped in a heroic image. In fact, if you look back, you’ll see that every era, more so, every decade of films offers a glimpse into the time it was made, especially what the general sentiment was. And while the stories and styles may have changed over the years but if you just look closely enough then you’ll find that their core remains the same. Because even if Dil Chahta Hai or Piku were the flagbearers of a wave of change in mass commercial Hindi cinema yet they were still very much love stories, only of friendships and your roots. Just as Mohabbateinwas love that transcended mortality and Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! was love expressed through family bonds. It's just that the films have been different in packaging but bears the same soul. And othing proves this better than Aryan Khan’s recent TheBa**ds of Bollywood of what we long for. The drama, the gossip, the romance, the villainous turns, it’s all there, a full Bollywood’s masala flavour just served with satire. And no, that doesn’t mean we stop making films like Masaan or Gangs of Wasseypur. Hindi cinema has always been vast enough to hold both extremes - a Masoom and a Sholay, a Payal Kapadia and a Karan Johar. My cinephile heart is moved by the quiet grace of All We Imagine As Light but equally overjoyed by the flamboyance of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. As there is space for both to belong and for both to matter.

So the answer isn’t to go back and undo the progress. It’s to find a way to speak to today’s world without losing the heart that once made Bollywood what it is. After all, Luck By Chance and Om Shanti Om together paved the way for The Bastards of Bollywood. Just like Saiyaara proved that you can take the most run-of-the-mill tragic romance and still make it feel fresh and necessary for everyone. As each time the film works in your anticipation only to throw it out of the window to give something refreshing to the same old story. In doing so, it reminds you of the true magic of Bollywood that always excelled at giving us familiar tropes of emotions but in new forms, reminding us that love is not logic to be solved but a feeling to be lived in all its mess and magic. And isn’t that's the Bollywood that we've alwasy lived for? One that offer us a world brighter, louder, and larger than life only to return us to our own with some sense of meaning? And if not that, then just providing us with some entertainment, entertainment and entertainment! 

I'm reminiscing that soulful magic of Hindi cinema that doesn’t worry about algorithms before feelings, or trends before origin, but trusts in its own unapologetic glory. Until we return to that trust, to focus on making stories rather than PR driven exercises working hard to impress everyone rather than just being, we’ll keep churning out “content.” But what we really need is cinema, the kind that dares to be messy, melodramatic, overwhelming, and unforgettable - the kind we still can call Bollywood, even if the industry hates to be referred to as that! 

-By a hopeful Bollywood fanatic  

For more entertainment, follow us on @socialketchupbinge