Early Influences- Bollywood -I

Recently, in Jan 2010, I was in India trying to be with my mother who has now begun to show signs of slowing down due to aging. Her knees have been afflicted with arthritis so the pain sometimes makes it difficult for her to move around. One of the doctors had suggested to my elder brother, that Total Knee Replacement (TKR) would be an option. Hence, my visit was a preparatory one, in case; such an eventuality came to pass.

Finally, couple of other doctors suggested otherwise so the option of TKR was ruled out.

However, this time, I got a lot of time to sit with my mother and spend time with her. During one of my chats with her, when I commented upon the heat and humidity, she began to laugh about my complaining. As a response to that laughter, I said –“You know Mom, I think I may have finally become a Canadian”.

It was her riposte which set me thinking. She replied to my claim of being Canadian in mildly humorous tone that only mothers can adopt with their grown up sons in India- “ Son, the day you prefer to watch an average Hollywood movie over a slightly above average Bollywood movie, I would grant that you have become Anglicised or Canadian in totality”. That set me thinking. Who am I really now? An amalgam of emotions, an assortment of thoughts, imbibed, inherited?

Hence, the reason for this Blog today! I hope to be able to garner some reasons that make me uniquely what I am- culturally, anthropologically and socially. The blog would be about Bollywood, the influences that it has had on me, my psyche, my being and my rootedness. I believe Bollywood has had a benign influence on me and many other young men and women, not only across India, but across much of South Asia/ South East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia and Malay Peninsula)/ Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Tazhikistan, Afghanistan)/West Asia and parts of Africa. Its social reach is phenomenal.

My early memories of growing up are linked to me fighting with my elder brother or sister and assorted other cousins, for the choice of radio station we all could listen to, on the massive diode controlled Radio that we had in the ancestral village. Invariably, the cues we took were from my grandmother, who would finally settle for some radio station which aired religious songs.

One of the earliest such songs, which seems to have stuck to my memory, was from a movie called Jai Santoshi Ma (Hail Goddess Santoshi Mother). And since my grandmother tried to hum along with this song – it became mandatory for us children to listen to it as well. Jai Jai Santoshi Mata Jai Jai Ma. So went the lyrics of the song. I think the year was late 1974 or early 1975.

The songs and dances are an integral part of Bollywood cinema. I think that is because of the cultural ethos that India inherited from its Sanskrit roots. Nritya(Dance) has led to Natya(Drama) and in almost all of Bollywood productions, dances (and thus songs) have been incorporated, which has led to a unique blend of cinema and theatre. As one critic has remarked about Bollywood, it is about Shakuntala in Skirts. But I digress. More of this in later parts of this series of blogs!

Right now, I need to discuss the songs that I first heard, because normally, that was the only entertainment option we children, living in the villages, had. The children of today`s India have plethora of television cable channels so it may sound anachronistic to them, but the fact was that up to around thirty five years ago, the only chance a kid had of watching a movie was when his father took him for one in the theatre. And it was a big deal!!

As I was growing up, I considered my father to be the ultimate authority on topics of the world. Hence, all discussions about songs were set to his arbitration as well. Probably those were the days of Aradhana and Amar Prem and Amanush and S D Burman reigned supreme in nation`s consciousness. One of the songs that Dad liked was – Wahan Kaun Hai Tera Musafir, Jayega kahan, Dam lele ghadi bhar, yeh sama payega kahan (Hey Traveller, where have you set off to for journey. Wait a while, take a breath; look at the beautiful world besides you before you proceed)

Hence this song buried itself in my being. And this song has found resonance in my soul across the length of the time that I have breathed. As a child, I liked the music of this song. Sometimes the way it was sung made me sway to it. It was only much later, in my early twenties that I began to understand the philosophical underpinnings of the same. Wahan kaun hai tera!

So my introduction to Bollywood was via the songs relayed and chosen. The ultimate triumph of the soul over matter was when I first went to the cinema theatre, which was in the closest town – around eighty odd kilometres from my village. I can still relate to the breathtaking excitement that we all encountered. The four of us guys, all cousins, including my elder brother went to see the cinema with my father- name of the movie - Upkaar. (None of the girls from the family accompanied us. I think it was much later, in her mid teens, when my sister first got to see a Bollywood movie in the cinema.)

I vividly remember the scenes, the display of nationalistic fervour in Upkaar, and the nationalism that so underpinned the whole endeavour of the society at that time being reflected on the screen. Mere Desh Ki dharti sona ugle, Ugle Heere Moti, (The soil of my motherland gives me riches- gold, diamonds and jewels) went one of the popular ditties from this movie.

TO BE CONTINUED – WAHAN KAUN HAI TERA!!