Of Bollywood, Romance and ME

* The pics used here are courtesy google
** The author of this post is in currently kinda fraught with demensia. In a different mood and different world. So rolled eyes do not wander here.
*** This post is random. I mean really random - I needed to write it all now and publish it. And yes it is a lot like girly stuff. May be. May be not. I don't know! BUT WHAT THE HELL!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am tuned to the songs of Hum aapke hain kaun from the last 1 hour. Listening to each song twice. And I am certainly transported to my childhood of 14 years back.
I remember peeping out of my school bus window (almost with the whole neck out) everyday to look at this poster pasted on the mount of the movie hall. I would stare at the poster for as long as I could and wait to get back home and demand my parents to take us for the movie. Though the answer was always "we'll go", we didn't happen to hit the theatres till the end of the 02nd month of its release and till it was announced that they would no more show this movie from coming week. Anusha had seen it, swati too and all the girls of the bus had, so yes we demanded, cried and gave a terrifying time to my dad until he took us to the theater.

And one fine sunday we went. There was a big que outside the movie hall, ofcourse for tickets. We joined in and got our balcony tickets for Rs. 20 each. Yes, you heard me right. Tickets @Rs.20/ -(I know you cant even buy wafers now for that dime). And we sat in a row, we 04 of us. I sat in a corner next to my sister. I didn't want to sit next to any of my parents, for I was not sure as to when will my mom start chatting in the middle of the movie and my dad will keep asking us if we were hungry. I knew my sister like me was here to devour it, and out of the gang was the best bet to sit next to.
For the next 03 hours, I was no one's sister, no one's daughter for that matter. I just didn't belong to anybody and anywhere except this movie hall. It was just me and the screen and the frequent whistles on and off. I was too engrossed to mind that. The movie gave me an adrenaline rush for as long as it ran.The romantic scenes gave me tickle, the sad ones made me shed heaps of tears and the funny ones made me laugh like a drain.
Omitting the kaun and saying "Hum aapke hain" the movie came to an end. After which me and my sis exchanged looks and grinned. We had finally seen it and we loved it. My parents vouched too.

The songs were so darn hit, I was almost everyday hooked onto them. Play, pause and rewind were pressed again an again on the taperecorder untill I had got all the lyrics right & noted neatly in my song diary. And I would imagine salman and madhuri, scene by scene as I would hear each song. The movie had driven me mad, the songs had too and so had Salman Khan. Man I loved him then (not much now). The rest of the cast was fab too - Renuka Sahane, Mahnish Behl, Bindu, Anupam Kher and everybody else including the late Laxmikant Berde.
And I loved everything about the movie. There was something about it that drove this country into frenzy. It touched the chords of every household. The family values, the clothes and jewellery, salman and madhuri and the earth shatteringly cute romance (the kind where even holding hands conveyed a thousand feelings) between them won hearts .

 This kind of a hysteria was witnessed after a long time in India. I know DDLJ/KKHH which came later were super hits and romantic too. I remember how often we friends would debate on the one we liked. I always stuck to HAHK. Somewhere that is the kind of movie I wanted to see more. and I believed this kinda movies would go on to inspire script writers and directors. But sadly it didn't. The only which came a bit close to it was rajshree productions next "Hum saath saath hain" but then it had a lot of elements missing to give it a high. But not a single alike in all these years. But look who it inspired? Our soap queen "Ekta Kapoor" who ran a dozen of TV shows on the same lines charming few and eventually disgusting most of us. The fact that she laughed all the way to the bank and the TRP charts nonetheless is a different story altogether.

14 years since then, I see how bollywood movies have evolved. We really have some good movies to be proud of. Movies on an array of topics that catches our interest. But movies driving people frenzy cant be witnessed anymore so presumably they have stopped being made or can not be made. "Hum aapke hain kaun" can not be made again and even DDLJ for that matter. Or may be this generation is not interested. They are most probably waiting for Dabang 2 and Dhoom 3 or karan johar's next.  As for us, we are still happy with "Jab tak hai jaan"! , one of those movies that I pray can potentially convince one more generation that love is the emotion supreme.

Up next is my favourite "pehla pehla pyar hain" and that brings us to the end of this loooong and may be a boring post to an end. Coz now I am gonna close my eyes and turn into this hopeless romantic, imagining madhuri in that pink dress and salman without a shirt (I dont know whether he started the trend from this one) dancing and romancing through this hell of a beautiful song. Somebody give me a chocolate, and may be lime juice, icecream and toffeeian pls :)