old hindi movies

Here is the thing that almost always gets to me when I watch old hindi movies. They are not that old fashioned at all!! :) You know, the things they show, the things these people do, these women, how forward they are, well... I will be damned, coz here I am, this bright smart intelligent young woman who grew up in the nineties in India, and I did not have the guts to do half the things these women do. They go out for long walks with these men, they sit around sipping coffee in restaurants, and sing and dance around trees. What universe are these women from? This did not happen that way in India, not ten years back, so how come it happens in the movies.

There is Rakhi in bemisaal, going out to see kashmir alternatively one day with Vinod Mehra and the next day with Amitabh Bachhan, while the other one sits beside her sick father, Mr. Hangal. umm... what? If your father is sick, will you be traipsing around a hill station, listening to poems and singing songs with two unknown men? I mean, not to talk about the fact that you are so blatantly two timing them, but just, well the whole situation, is that plausible? Does anybody do that?

There is Nargis so coolly travelling half the country with Raj Kapoor in Chori chori. Granted she was a spoilt brat, but, really, any half brained person would not have the guts to do that. It is not safe, and most indian women I know are very very cautious people. We are forever scared of losing face, publicly and privately, we do not take these kind of risks.

Remember Zeenat Aman in Yaadon ki baraat, aahahaaa! wah! the stunts she carries out. I did not even know what a housewarming party was, untill a few years ago, I must be exceptionally backward.

Then there was Aasha Parekh in Teesri MAnzil. The fool! she is going to catch her sister's killer by pretending to be a naive woman alone in a hotel at some hill station. Her plan is to get this man to fall in love with her and then get him caught. Wow! daring hai boss. But if you think about it, if this man was so sinister that he killed her sister, is she not all kinds of a donkey to be putting herself in the same position. And more importantly why does she have to do this by herself, why can she not get her family involved. Or are they all too smart and she is the only one foolish enough to serve the purpose of an illogical story line, I mean that movie, its dialogues and situations are exceptionally B-grade, it is sad really, because the songs are so magically beautiful.

And the list goes on....

I can remember watching so many movies as a kid and thinking probably when I grow up I would have that kind of freedom to do these kinds of things, but it never happened that way. I guess the movies have always been out of sync with real life, or prehaps they have always potrayed a sliver of the population. Maybe some people out there do stuff like that. The rest just quietly walk the line, and its not that fascinating to tell stories of the people who follow the rules, so the heroines are women who are exceptionally ahead of their times. Like the stuff that Priyanka Chopra does in Anjaana Anjaani - nah! i don't think real people do stuff like that.

He's just not that into you.

I watched the movie, I have not read the book and i do not think I will anymore. No, not that the movie was that bad, just I do not think the book would have a whole lot more than the movie did so... why waste effort?

The movie was almost therapeutic. almost because... not quite, it falls for the very myth it sets out to bust - that most of us are the rule not the exception. Trouble is, the protagonists in the movie - some of them at least - end up being the exceptions to the rules. hmm... I guess people need happy endings or no one would watch the movie again. or read the book. Whatever. I don't believe in happy endings. I would like to. I try to. But I just know better.

Here is the premise of the movie : Most girls grow up with the notion that if a guy is behaving like a jerk, it means he likes you. And that this idea is wrong, not true. If a guy is treating you like he does not give a damn about you then, he most likely, actually, truly does not - give a damn about you.

Commendable.

It is a fact. Women do believe that men who are treating them bad are trying to hide how much we mean to them. I have heard that, countless numbers of times, being told to my friends, hell, I think I must have said that to someone too.

But really! Think about it. Aren't there guys that were genuinely nice but you some how did not care about them, and it is possible you might have been mean to them on occasion, but the fact is that it does not keep you up at nights because you really did not care much. So why should it bother any guy who was mean to you? What is so special about you?

It is very hard to accept that there are people out there (both men and women) who do not like us, not everyone can like everyone else, not the same way, and yet, bound to this inherent notion of how-great-I-am, we go to great lengths to weave twisted stories to avoid facing the fact that the person we are confronted with, is not impressed by anything we do.

That's what I liked about the movie, it talks about a very basic flaw in our psyche, this need to prove to some one who does not like us, how incredibly charming we actually are. And the inevitable failure of all such schemes. It is the classic case of being stuck in a mental asylum and trying to prove you are sane. The harder you struggle the tighter they tie you up. It is a losing battle. The smartest thing to do is to cut your losses and move on.

Yes, I am completely aware of how much easier this is said than done.

That is why I liked the movie, it is easier to laugh at someone else than yourself, and your own hopeless efforts in trying to win over the respect, admiration, and friendship of people who are determined to deny you any hint of that - be it your boss, the high school bully,or your mother-in-law. Same principle.

Come to think of it, if they gave it you, you just might not want it. Duniya jaadu ka khilona hai, mil jaaye to mitti kho jaye to sona hai.