If Bollywood’s latest efforts to paint the picture of love and yearning can be described in one word, ‘Cringworthy’ will be the highest takers. There are other words that work equally well—irrational, unnecessary, and lazy. One has to wonder how the Hindi film industry, which was once guilty of encouraging many hopeless romantics, lost its heart.
Catch up on the latest Bollywood offerings – Ayan Mukerji’s brahmastra, Mukherjee worked on his ‘Shaandaar Rachna’ for 10 years to make us laugh. The film will make us believe that Esha (Alia Bhatt) is a ‘love button’ who switches on Shiva’s (Ranbir Kapoor) superpowers, but it gives them no time to fall in love.
It is not difficult to understand why most Bollywood movies impose a love angle in every story like Aloo in perfectly good biryani. Love sells. And it’s easier to foster a familiar, stale romance than to make a genuine effort to deliver something meaningful to an audience. A love story is one thing, but using an inexplicable, unrelated romantic subplot to propel the narrative until the climax is another. Kedarnathi (2018), simba (2018), Reservation (2011), even action, social movies—and almost every film of Akshay Kumar in the last decade—has an unnecessary romantic subplot.
Amit Rabindranath Sharma Congratulations! (2018) was welcomed with open arms. It was heartwarming to see Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao just looking at each other. They stood ground to each other like children, a rare spectacle of authenticity in Hindi cinema these days. But the film needed ‘Young Pyaar’ to reduce the unconventional, so we also had to endure Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra’s pointless romance.
In 2022, the Hindi film industry has released roughly more than 70 movies, and none of them were acclaimed as a great love story. The sad part is that most of these films were presented with a love angle in a way that made us say – please, no. What did Vaani Kapoor want to do in Aditya Chopra’s film? shamshera (2022) ? How much does Puri Jagannath hate women for writing the character of Ananya Panday? Liger (2022) ? Why did Shreya Dhanwantri have a relationship with Dulquer Salmaan? Mute (2022) If she could just be a talented film critic who understands villains? Why was Jeetu playing the role of a romantic fool? Magician (2022) If it didn’t help the film at all? For female characters, we get either stylish feminist ‘shero’ or porcelain dolls studded with bats like male protagonists. As if love either makes people lose their identity or make them a sly street fighter.
except amazon prime video depths (2022) and Red Chillies Entertainments Love Hostel (2022), love in the movies remained an unwanted subplot.
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dream stuff
Two films that I often think about are Ashutosh Gowariker’s JodhaOne Akhbar (2008) and Mani Ratnam’s Teacher (2007). While one is a love story, the other is about the rise of a business tycoon. Despite its flaws, Jodha Akbar Memorable for its aesthetic frames, larger-than-life scenes and, most importantly, the chemistry between Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan. Teacher There was no need to show the quarrel of loved ones, the pain of separation and the joy of meeting again, but how did it happen and how did it happen. In both the films, Pyaar Mein had music by AR Rahman in which strong dance was done.
Deepika Padukone in Shoojit Sircar’s film Piku (2015) didn’t have to share eyes with Irrfan Khan, but the latter took it a step further. This was the decade when Bollywood showed that romantic subplots were not useless. Now, it seems to have run out of ideas. Restarting the same legend no longer works. Movies also lack good romantic songs to complement the subplots. One exception, Amazon Prime Video’s Sher Shah: (2021) worked because of a real story and backing of good music.
We no longer see the lover’s patience on screen—no one is really keen, and love is now just a keyword to fit algorithmically into shoddy filmmaking. Bad scripts, remixes of old songs and formulaic filmmaking mark the death of Bollywood romance. And with that said, hopeless romantics will lose their greatest advocate.
Thoughts are personal.
This article is part of a series called off the reel, You can read all the articles here.
(Edited by Likes)