5 Bollywood classics that you did not realize are seriously messed up
What kind of person hands over his wife to someone else? Meet Vanraj
KARACHI:
Bollywood has its fair share of timeless movies that have gone down into history as classics. But looking back, you actually realize that there were more than quite a few strange things about some of them.
Here's our pick of five movies whose plotlines downright weird once you watch them without a pair of rose-tinted glasses.
1. Lamhe is actually a tale of completely inappropriate relationships!
Surely, there has to be something strange about wanting to marry someone who is not only significantly older than you, but who also had very strong feelings for your mother? Or falling for the daughter of the woman you once loved? This in essence is Lamhe.
Anil Kapoor stars as Viren, who has fallen in love with Pallavi (Sridevi). Pallavi does not return Viren's feelings and marries Siddharth, with whom she has a daughter called Pooja. Pallavi and Siddharth then die in an accident, leaving Pooja in the care of Viren's governess Dai Ja.
Viren ends up falling in love with the grown-up Pooja, who looks exactly like her mother. This isn't just some random bizarre coincidence - Viren's friend specifically points this out to him, and another character is afraid that his feelings for Pallavi will be reignited after seeing Pooja. It gets weirder: when Pooja finds out about Viren's feelings for her mother, it does not deter her one bit. She continues to harbour love for Viren - and despite the inappropriateness of the entire scenario, both ultimately get together in the end.
2. Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam is really about a husband who wants to hand over his wife to someone else!
Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam (HDDCS) starts out as the typical Hindi movie of the late 80s and 90s - boy meets girl and they both fall in love, but the zaalim samaj comes in the way. Now a typical movie of that era would be about how the love-struck pair convince the zaalim samaj otherwise and manage to get hitched at the end. But this isn't the typical 90s movie - this is Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam and of course it needs to be different.
HDDCS stars Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai as Sameer and Nandini, the happily-in-love couple. After the enraged family finds out, Nandini is married off to Vanraj (Ajay Devgan). This is where the movie starts veering off into "downright weird" territory. Vanraj finds out that his bride is still pining away for her lover, and decides to do the sensible thing.
Except Vanraj's definition of "sensible thing" is to make all possible efforts on his part to reunite Nandini - his lawfully wedded wife - with Sameer, and let her go. No tantrums, no scenes, no threats - just handing over his wife to another man because that is what she wants. Even if he has to fly all the way to another continent with her for that to happen. The ending really makes you seriously question Nandini's sanity: what kind of woman would want to spend the rest of her life with a man who is willing to hand her over to someone else?
3. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is really about a father who was unable to control his kid!
The movie shows Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul, a single father of a very spoilt eight-year old daughter called Anjali. His wife Tina has passed away due to childbirth complications, but managed to write a series of letters to her daughter on her deathbed. The last of these letters relates the story of Rahul's college friend Anjali (Kajol) who secretly loved Rahul, and who slipped out of his life when she found out that her feelings were not reciprocrated.
The letter prompts Anjali (did we mention she is only eight years old?) to do a bit of stalking and locate Anjali Senior, who teaches at a summer camp in another city. She asks her father permission to attend the summer camp, but he refuses. Despite that, this minor girl hops on a train and travels all the way to another city, where she expects her father to follow her. Her father does exactly that - but there are none of the normal consequences of defying a parent that one would expect.
Rahul meets Anjali and old feelings are reignited but due to a misunderstanding, Anjali goes back home to the fiance she has left behind. Rahul shows up at the wedding and confesses his love to Anjali, and her fiance decides to let her go. So, a disrupted wedding. a fiance left brokenhearted, family reputation dragged in the mud - all because a father could not control his own kid.
4. Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, in which everyone is extremely dense!
This movie stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol as Rahul and Anjali (this is not the same movie as KKHH, even if it does also star Rani Mukherjee in a side role, and even if some of the music is exactly the same!), who marry against the wishes of Rahul's father Yash Raichand. Rahul and Anjali are banished from the Raichand household and start a new life in London.
Rohan returns home from boarding school after ten years and accidentally overhears his two grandmothers talking about why Rahul does not live with the family any more. Which brings us to the obvious question: how does it take ten years to figure out why your own brother no longer lives with you? Or why your parents do not speak to your bhaiyya and bhabhi? Your brother may have told you not to find out where he went, but isn't it natural for anyone's curiosity to be aroused if your brother just left you a cryptic message and then went MIA? Rahul and Rohan's mother Nandini is shown to be upset throughout the movie - surely as a dutiful son Rohan should have realized something was not right at some point?
After finally "getting it", Rohan decides to go off to London in order to reunite his brother with the family and manages to get himsef installed in Rahul's house. Here we get to find out something even weirder: Rahul cannot recognize his own brother. Yes, Rohan has shed tons of weight during this time, but that is no excuse to flat out not register that the person in front of you is actually your brother who you were once very close to. What is wrong with everyone in this film?
5. Devdas, a tale of mixed-up priorities, and an alcoholic who no one really cares about!
Devdas has gone down in the annals of Bollywood history as the timeless tale of love lost, or unrequited love, however you want to look at it. But the reality is that it is one genuinely messed up movie with quite a lot of abnormal behaviours on display. There have been several Bollywood remakes of this Bengali novella, but this particular discussion is just about the 2002 Sanjay Leela Bhansali version.
First we have Paro, a besotted girl who has absolutely no sense of priorities. Devdas continues to insult her, calling her ganwaar and "silly", yet she doesn't seem to understand the meaning of "self-respect" and keeps on putting up with it - making up her mind she will have him and no other. When her mother takes her rishta to Devdas' mother, she is rudely insulted in front of an entire gathering, complete with shagun ki thaali thrown at her face. Yet Paro still dreams of the day she will be Devdas' bride - despite her mother's humiliation!
The movie proceeds and we see Paro being married off to a widower who has three children from a previous marriage, plunging Devdas into depression and turning him into an alcoholic, encouraged by "friend" Chunni Lal. Devdas' copious consumption of alcohol severely damages his liver and he is told that any further consumption will straight up kill him. One would expect that the time would be about right for either his family or his loyal friend to introduce him to some sort of rehab program.
Instead, the family's idea of "rehab" is to get Paro to talk Devdas out of it. Very ironic when you realize that losing Paro was what drove Devdas to drink in the first place. Chunni Lal's bright idea is to get Devdas to drink some more - one last glass "for old times' sake". It is this "last" glass which ultimately takes Devdas' life. Makes you question everyone's sincerity towards Devdas, doesn't it?
Bollywood has its fair share of timeless movies that have gone down into history as classics. But looking back, you actually realize that there were more than quite a few strange things about some of them.
Here's our pick of five movies whose plotlines downright weird once you watch them without a pair of rose-tinted glasses.
1. Lamhe is actually a tale of completely inappropriate relationships!
Surely, there has to be something strange about wanting to marry someone who is not only significantly older than you, but who also had very strong feelings for your mother? Or falling for the daughter of the woman you once loved? This in essence is Lamhe.
Anil Kapoor stars as Viren, who has fallen in love with Pallavi (Sridevi). Pallavi does not return Viren's feelings and marries Siddharth, with whom she has a daughter called Pooja. Pallavi and Siddharth then die in an accident, leaving Pooja in the care of Viren's governess Dai Ja.
Viren ends up falling in love with the grown-up Pooja, who looks exactly like her mother. This isn't just some random bizarre coincidence - Viren's friend specifically points this out to him, and another character is afraid that his feelings for Pallavi will be reignited after seeing Pooja. It gets weirder: when Pooja finds out about Viren's feelings for her mother, it does not deter her one bit. She continues to harbour love for Viren - and despite the inappropriateness of the entire scenario, both ultimately get together in the end.
2. Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam is really about a husband who wants to hand over his wife to someone else!
Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam (HDDCS) starts out as the typical Hindi movie of the late 80s and 90s - boy meets girl and they both fall in love, but the zaalim samaj comes in the way. Now a typical movie of that era would be about how the love-struck pair convince the zaalim samaj otherwise and manage to get hitched at the end. But this isn't the typical 90s movie - this is Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam and of course it needs to be different.
HDDCS stars Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai as Sameer and Nandini, the happily-in-love couple. After the enraged family finds out, Nandini is married off to Vanraj (Ajay Devgan). This is where the movie starts veering off into "downright weird" territory. Vanraj finds out that his bride is still pining away for her lover, and decides to do the sensible thing.
Except Vanraj's definition of "sensible thing" is to make all possible efforts on his part to reunite Nandini - his lawfully wedded wife - with Sameer, and let her go. No tantrums, no scenes, no threats - just handing over his wife to another man because that is what she wants. Even if he has to fly all the way to another continent with her for that to happen. The ending really makes you seriously question Nandini's sanity: what kind of woman would want to spend the rest of her life with a man who is willing to hand her over to someone else?
3. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is really about a father who was unable to control his kid!
The movie shows Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul, a single father of a very spoilt eight-year old daughter called Anjali. His wife Tina has passed away due to childbirth complications, but managed to write a series of letters to her daughter on her deathbed. The last of these letters relates the story of Rahul's college friend Anjali (Kajol) who secretly loved Rahul, and who slipped out of his life when she found out that her feelings were not reciprocrated.
The letter prompts Anjali (did we mention she is only eight years old?) to do a bit of stalking and locate Anjali Senior, who teaches at a summer camp in another city. She asks her father permission to attend the summer camp, but he refuses. Despite that, this minor girl hops on a train and travels all the way to another city, where she expects her father to follow her. Her father does exactly that - but there are none of the normal consequences of defying a parent that one would expect.
Rahul meets Anjali and old feelings are reignited but due to a misunderstanding, Anjali goes back home to the fiance she has left behind. Rahul shows up at the wedding and confesses his love to Anjali, and her fiance decides to let her go. So, a disrupted wedding. a fiance left brokenhearted, family reputation dragged in the mud - all because a father could not control his own kid.
4. Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, in which everyone is extremely dense!
This movie stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol as Rahul and Anjali (this is not the same movie as KKHH, even if it does also star Rani Mukherjee in a side role, and even if some of the music is exactly the same!), who marry against the wishes of Rahul's father Yash Raichand. Rahul and Anjali are banished from the Raichand household and start a new life in London.
Rohan returns home from boarding school after ten years and accidentally overhears his two grandmothers talking about why Rahul does not live with the family any more. Which brings us to the obvious question: how does it take ten years to figure out why your own brother no longer lives with you? Or why your parents do not speak to your bhaiyya and bhabhi? Your brother may have told you not to find out where he went, but isn't it natural for anyone's curiosity to be aroused if your brother just left you a cryptic message and then went MIA? Rahul and Rohan's mother Nandini is shown to be upset throughout the movie - surely as a dutiful son Rohan should have realized something was not right at some point?
After finally "getting it", Rohan decides to go off to London in order to reunite his brother with the family and manages to get himsef installed in Rahul's house. Here we get to find out something even weirder: Rahul cannot recognize his own brother. Yes, Rohan has shed tons of weight during this time, but that is no excuse to flat out not register that the person in front of you is actually your brother who you were once very close to. What is wrong with everyone in this film?
5. Devdas, a tale of mixed-up priorities, and an alcoholic who no one really cares about!
Devdas has gone down in the annals of Bollywood history as the timeless tale of love lost, or unrequited love, however you want to look at it. But the reality is that it is one genuinely messed up movie with quite a lot of abnormal behaviours on display. There have been several Bollywood remakes of this Bengali novella, but this particular discussion is just about the 2002 Sanjay Leela Bhansali version.
First we have Paro, a besotted girl who has absolutely no sense of priorities. Devdas continues to insult her, calling her ganwaar and "silly", yet she doesn't seem to understand the meaning of "self-respect" and keeps on putting up with it - making up her mind she will have him and no other. When her mother takes her rishta to Devdas' mother, she is rudely insulted in front of an entire gathering, complete with shagun ki thaali thrown at her face. Yet Paro still dreams of the day she will be Devdas' bride - despite her mother's humiliation!
The movie proceeds and we see Paro being married off to a widower who has three children from a previous marriage, plunging Devdas into depression and turning him into an alcoholic, encouraged by "friend" Chunni Lal. Devdas' copious consumption of alcohol severely damages his liver and he is told that any further consumption will straight up kill him. One would expect that the time would be about right for either his family or his loyal friend to introduce him to some sort of rehab program.
Instead, the family's idea of "rehab" is to get Paro to talk Devdas out of it. Very ironic when you realize that losing Paro was what drove Devdas to drink in the first place. Chunni Lal's bright idea is to get Devdas to drink some more - one last glass "for old times' sake". It is this "last" glass which ultimately takes Devdas' life. Makes you question everyone's sincerity towards Devdas, doesn't it?