Outlook-MDRA Opinion Poll on Bollywood favorites in Romance

6 Comments

1. 
   Som

   July 5, 2009

   Namrata Joshi

   Romance Aaj Kal

   In 1995, the year Outlook was launched, twentysomething Aditya Chopra’s maiden film stormed the Indian box office and made cinema-goers fall in love with an entirely new idea of love. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge reinvented Bollywood romances so decisively that we can neatly divide them into two eras—before DDLJ and after DDLJ. Till then, love in Hindi films had been all about change and defiance. DDLJ upheld peaceful negotiations over belligerent rebellion, and in doing so, instantly connected with both the young and the old. It bridged the generation gap that love stories are meant to widen.

   Subsequent romantic films, be it Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dil To Pagal Hai or Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and Jab We Met have built on the DDLJ foundation. Love in Hindi cinema these days doesn’t seem to face external hindrances; it’s all about conquering your inner demons. Love as we once knew it—pure passion—has morphed into something fun and cool.

   Fourteen years later, DDLJ retains its hold over audiences. It emerged as the all-time favourite romantic Bollywood film in a poll conducted across five cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore—for Outlook by Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA). In fact, our poll was a clean sweep for DDLJ. Its yellow mustard-fields song, Tujhe dekha to ye jaana sanam, came up trumps as the favourite love song. Its leads, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, scored well over all other romantic heroes and heroines.

   Our poll revealed an almost unnerving indifference to the great romances of the past. Mughal-E-Azam, Pakeezah and Kaagaz Ke Phool seemed to have faded from public memory. Raj Kapoor and Nargis are the only romantic pair from their generation that managed to make it to the top 10. What does that say about us? After all, love is not just another four-letter word. Love is also about sociology, history, economy and politics; it is a marker of changing times and generational shifts. From the idealistic 1950s to the materialistic 2000s, we have come a long way. So have our on screen romances. The only certainty is that love will always flourish in Bollywood.

2. 
   rudresh

   July 5, 2009

   lol look like survey is done with sample ,who had watched only 90’s movie. Generation bias and age bias is clearly visible.

   Tum ko dekha is best romantic song…. what to say …………..

3. 
   Som

   July 5, 2009

   Looking at the sample size, It was expected. There are not many people above 40 who have participated in the voting.

   Out of the total sample size of 501

   15-40 age group – 432
   40+ – 69

4. 
   Rocky

   July 6, 2009

   Bobby , Betaab and Love Story not even in the list?
   WTF!!

5. 
   rks

   July 6, 2009

   “Out of the total sample size of 501″
   Statistics of polled people would be interesting case study

6. 
   Som

   July 7, 2009

   Boy Meets Girl On A Whistling Toy Train To Candyfloss Hills

   When Aditya falls in love with Geet in Jab We Met, a boy falls in love with a girl. For a Hindi film that is an uncommon thing to happen. Usually, when a hero and heroine fall in love, they carry with them the burden of something larger, either by way of a class divide, or the unpaid debts of an earlier birth, or perhaps the idea of modernity and tradition. To fall in love with someone else without such accompanying baggage is rare and, exceptions apart, a phenomenon of our times. We see it in Jab We Met where the girl does come from a mustard field-infested rural Punjabi background, but that in no way impinges on the choice she is faced with—whether to go with the boyfriend for whom she put herself on the line or with the new boy in her life.

   In Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, another recent romantic success, the protagonists carry no mythic weight; they are two friends who should be lovers and everyone else knows it; the film merely outlines how they find this out for themselves. In both these films,
   falling in love involves people who are grappling with the idea of choice itself, rather than agents of class or social background.

   The idea of choice in Hindi films has historically translated into a struggle to have one. The absence of individual choice is part of the truth about society in India in general where the great anxiety to keep the family structure intact led to many restrictions on the extent to which individuals could exercise personal liberty.

   This is particularly true of romance where we saw a high degree of social control. The need felt for such careful monitoring is easy to understand, given that romance was seen as a defining expression of the youthful need to act in accordance with their instincts. Even

   today, we see examples of this in real life, with episodes where police officers randomly rough up young couples in public parks to ‘teach them a lesson’. The idea that the young be allowed to choose their own mates is one that India has begun to accept with difficulty, and depictions of romance down the ages reflects our ambivalence towards romance and its many social implications.

   The idea of lovers coming together only to come up against a wall constructed by society has been a common theme with most ‘epic’ love stories following this structure. From Devdas, Laila Majnu down to Ek Duje Ke Liye and QSQT, we see the mythic tale of love thwarted by society retain its timeless appeal. These stories tend to end in tragedy, for that perpetuates the ‘epic’ nature of these tales, making them seductive in an idealised form but discouraging emulation in everyday life.

   Individuals in the films of the ’50s and early ’60s are depicted as forlorn figures that yearn to come together against the backdrop of larger notions of family honour, caste, nationalistic responsibilities and tradition. Examples include Devdas, Andaz, Mughal-e-Azam and Bandini, to name just a few. Love meant stealing oneself away from the prying eyes of the world (aa gup chup gup pyaar karein) and finding some moments of tenderness together before fate intervened. Romance quivered with yearning, and love was felt most strongly through pain. The time spent together was fleeting and the real intensity of the emotion experienced only when the lovers were apart. Some of the truly memorable Hindi film songs of this time are about the most exquisite sense of repressed longing. Love was usually expressed in symbolic terms and what we, as viewers, were consuming was the idea of love rather than love between the protagonists on our screens.

   More HERE