LOVERS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

LOVERS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

CO-AUTHORS:

Damini Yadav: B.A. (H) Psychology, Indraprastha College for Women

Harshika Kapoor: B.A. (H) Journalism, Kamala Nehru College

Lovers of the New Millennium: What constitutes the male romantic hero in Hindi Cinema today?

Abstract

Romance has been a recurring, oft visited, theme of mainstream Bollywood movies and has for decades decidedly shaped their narratives. The politics of this transaction of love has been scrutinized in feminist literature and has been understood as more than just frivolous entertainment. Films are both responsive to, and of the political climate in which they germinate. So, since characters like Karan Kapoor and Aman Mathur are not the quintessential patriarchs, should they be viewed as removed from their privilege? This paper endeavours to explore what exactly makes the romantic hero in a capitalist, growingly meterosexual society. It does so by analyzing the male romantic leads of the films- Hum Tum, Kal Ho Na Ho, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Love per Square Foot, through thematic analysis.

Keywords: Bollywood, romance, male heroes, feminist understanding

Introduction

Media representations of romance in a heteronormative society tend to lead to the establishment of a romantic ideal for both the male and female genders, one that is consciously (E.g., Alizeh declaring her desire for the fulfilment of her “filmy dream”, her hero chasing after her in an airport, to Ayaan in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil), or subconsciously sought out in romantic partners. This schematic impact of a fictitious romance on celluloid is worthy of exploration and scrutiny. “A Bollywood film is something to think with, even more than something to think about” [ CITATION Cha07 \l 16393 ]. An obvious androcentric bias is reflected in the way the narrative of the romance is shaped in Bollywood films, with men being the drivers of the story and women being the object helping their narrative go forward [ CITATION Mul75 \l 16393 ], whether it is Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in which Ayaan’s journey of realising his dream (becoming a musician) is propelled by the female protaganists’ characterisation (Alizeh’s rejection of his love and her death, and Saba’s poetry).; or Kal Ho Na Ho, in which, Aman is made to be the dominant voice as he is the one leading Rohit’s and Naina’s story, making them secondary to the story even though the film is a narration of Naina’s life. The selfhood of the female lead in Bollywood’s romantic movies is formed in relation to the male protagonist; her role is charted out in context of any male character who is central to the script, doomed to an existence dependent on the male romantic hero [ CITATION Ter12 \l 16393 ]. Romance in Hindi cinema thus is clearly not isolated from gender politics afflicting the real world. While it is to be noted that with the Indian economic revival in the 90s, Bollywood has undergone a transformation in accordance to the free market model too, with seemingly more liberated women. While extensive research has been made available by scholars on the shifting role of the female characters in Hindi films, similar amount of data for the male characters hasn’t been generated so far. Documentation of the feminine has been done longitudinally while the masculine has been left uncharted. It has been understood in reference to the trends followed by the former. One noteworthy point here is that one must not define masculinity in opposition to femininity even in Hindi films where the contemporary construction of the male character and his masculinity is complicated, engaging with different societal forces to create different kinds of masculinities, all of which still continue to operate under the patriarchal influence [ CITATION Raj06 \l 16393 ]. A review of available research indicates towards a dearth of exploration and analysis of how the male romantic leads in the movies are overemphasised and why, while at the same time research around the underdevelopment of the female protagonists is easily accessible. It is the characterisation of the male romantic hero in Hindi cinema, thus, that becomes the focal point of this study.

The Present Study

The present study aimed to analyse the consistent themes discovered in the composition of the male romantic heroes in the millennial romantic Bollywood films. It attempts to extricate both the common and the exceptional constituents of such characters across the two decades of the new millennium. The main objective is to understand and describe them through a feminist lens so as to be able to contribute to a more representative discussion around the character development in Hindi cinema and how it can be altered. For the purpose of this research, four films have been selected for review- Kal Ho Na Ho (2003) and Hum Tum (2004) as representative of the 2000s decade due to their high mass ratings; Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2015) and Love per Square Foot (2018) as representative of the 2010s decade. While Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has been chosen due to its high mass ratings and appeal; Love per Square Foot, produced by Netflix, has been favoured also for the representation of the alternative platform for Hindi films.

Brief Outline of the Male Characters (mentioned in the Discussion):

1. Kal Ho Na Ho (2003)

• Aman Mathur - The happy-go-lucky Punjabi man with a fatal heart condition
• Rohit Patel – MBA student, best friend of the female lead

2. Hum Tum (2004)

• Karan Kapoor- The famous cartoonist, the fun loving and frivolous young man
• Mihir Vora- A businessman, the mature and level headed best friend of the male lead

3. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2015)

• Ayaan Sanger- The rich MBA student who wants to become a singer
• Tahir Khan- The artist, ex-husband of the second female protagonist Saba
• Ali – A DJ, ex-boyfriend of female protagonist Alizeh

4. Love per Square Foot (2018)

• Sanjay Chaturvedi- The middle class IT department employee
• Sunny- The colleague and best friend of the male lead

Method

The method used in this study was thematic narrative analysis. This method allows individual units of meaning, like words, phrases, thought expressions, ideas, experiences and emotions that emerge from the film, in this case. These units then come together to form themes.This method treats stories as “data” and use “analysis” to arrive at themes that hold across stories or storylines [ CITATION Lea14 \l 16393 ]..

Discussion

After thorough viewing of the four films a few themes were traced out to be consistent across the board and there were exceptions to some others. Even with more than a decade long temporal distance between the four films certain sentiments around male heroism and heteropatriarchal romance continue to have a deep and dominant echo in the characters and scripts written by filmmakers. These have been enlisted below:

1. A brotherhood bound with casual sexism and implicit male supremacy:

“Ladkiyaan bus ki tarah hoti hain, ek jaati hai toh dusri aati hai, agar traffic na ho toh,” Karan explains to Mihir when discussing his losing interest in his girlfriend in New York, Mihir passes a smile. “Woh tere saath sex nahi kar rahi na toh tera chutiya kaat rahi hai,” Sunny declares. “Aisa nahi hai yaar, girls need security,” Sanjay assures him. After studying all four films, the commonality discovered was that the male romantic leads talked with their male best friends about the female protagonist as though the women aren’t capable of thinking for themselves; they posit the advice given to them by their male peers or even strangers (Ayaan taking love advice from Tahir on their very first meeting, in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil) over talking to the women about them directly or taking their opinion into consideration, even if it was a decision about the women’s own lives. To substantiate it can be noted that when Rhea’s mother in Hum Tum shares her concern over her daughter’s loneliness with Karan, he ostentatiously takes the responsibility of getting Rhea married on to his shoulders and discusses the matter with Mihir, the best friend he thinks is fit for Rhea’s second marriage who is then asked to meet her and decide whether he wants to marry her. The conversation between the two men happens without consultation with the Rhea whose marriage is being fixed and also despite her verbalised insistence on not being interested in getting married again. A similar instance is observed in Kal Ho Na Ho when Aman races across the streets of New York to meet Rohit and convince him to marry Naina even after the truth of his disease and the nature of his feelings for her are discovered. This event transpires despite Naina’s clear romantic disinterest in Rohit and her declaration of her love for Aman. Once the discussion of her marriage commences, Naina’s love and Naina herself is treated as a commodity that can be owned and transferred between the two men as can be understood from Aman’s dialogues when he says “Naina’s love belongs to you; You have a right over her love; Naina is only you, Rohit”. Naina seems to lose her agency and becomes a secondary character whose marriage is the decision of the two men in love with her. Also, to be interestingly noted, is how in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, when Tahir schools Ayaan about unrequited love in front of his ex-wife and Ayaan’s now-girlfriend- Saba, and tells him that he doesn’t need Saba’s permission to continue to be in love with her.

2. The man (of the movie) shall save the day:

Whether it’s saving Naina’s family business or resolving the one traumatic focal point of her story- her father’s suicide- all of it is resolved by Aman, the hero addled with a God complex. Literally juxtaposed to the photo of Jesus in the background and watching over Naina’s family as their farishta (angel), Aman is treated as the saviour throughout which is reiterated by multiple female characters in the movie (As Naina says in the end, “He taught me how to love life, myself and Rohit”). In Love Per Square Foot, whether it’s getting the demand draft of Rs. 4 lakh to complete the formalities of registration for the Jeevansaathi scheme or giving single ownership to Karina D’souza to make up for his misdemeanour, Sanjay’s shoulders are saddled with the responsibility overcoming obstacles to give a new life to Karina. This is common to saviour-type behaviour in which the male characters are implied to be superior (to women) and hence, are able to solve the problems which the women cannot. This behaviour is disguised as nobility.[ CITATION Ben17 \l 16393 ].

• An alternative to the saviour- the man-child: The term that has been popularized through social media refers to adult male who still possesses psychological traits of a child, as per the Urban Dictionary. If men aren’t occupied with saving the women, they’re being nursed by them as they grapple with the near impossible transition from boyhood to adulthood. In Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, till the very end many frames with Alizeh cradling Ayaan can be noted. He’s shown to be petulant and stubborn; he insists on Alizeh falling in love with him and throws a tantrum every time his advances are rejected. A cradling scene can also be seen in Hum Tum after it is revealed to Rhea that he had tried to set Mihir and her up and she’s shown to be indignant, Karan is intoxicated and unable to take care of himself and his emotions, Rhea is found navigating and consoling him. Throughout the film, Karan is repeatedly asked to “grow up” but his misbehaviour is also consistently excused. The boyishness is visible in his gait, his untidiness (throwing wrappers around in the airplane while going to Amsterdam). His lack of maturity is normalized as the manifestation of “the little boy in every man’s heart who refuses to grow up,” despite the circumstances. The camera, too, gives legitimacy to the childishness by taking mid-close-ups, low angle and close-ups, longer focus on the male characters’ tantrum shots and emotional shots. A god example can be seen in the differential camera treatment given to Ayaan’s footpath crying scene after he runs to Alizeh’s hotel after her dinner at Saba’s place to ask her to “let him go” and cancer-ridden Alizeh’s crying scene when she tells Ayaan to get out of her house. During the former, the camera is placed on a lower angle, depicting Ayaan’s emotions to be supreme, it focuses completely on his body and hhow it crumbles with emotions. The extreme wide shot, which is usually taken in such scenes, is only at the end of the particular sequence. The EWS is instantly applied during the latter scene.

3. A complete disregard for boundaries: It is a recurring theme which is construed as funny moments. Whether it’s Karan going through Rhea’s bag without her permission as he was “bored and she was sleeping, and he just wanted to kill time,” or Aman going through Naina’s private, business documents, or Sanjeev lack of hesitation in yelling at Karina at her place of work, or Ayaan coming to Alizeh’s home and refusing to leave. In addition to this, physical boundaries are not respected as well. Karan kisses Rhea in Amsterdam to shut her up and behaves like he has won the argument, takes a bow for the audience; constantly touches her despite her demanding to stop it; Aman snatches and holds Naina’s arm to shut her up every time Naina refuses to hear him; Sanjeev comes too close to Karina on the train despite her visible discomfort and her easily understood double-meaning dialogue --“log toh kahin bhi shuru ho jate hain” – politely telling Sanjeev to back off is ignored by him and he kisses her. The theme is repeated time and again and is supported by happy background music, positive reactions, etc., indicating that it is okay to break boundaries.

4. Redemptive helpfulness: It is to be noted that despite the above stated common and core traits of the characters, the male protagonists are progressively constructed to be the ‘hero’ because of the ‘well-meaning help’ they offer to the female protagonists. The help is not asked for but is given straight away, and the problems of the women are treated as a wrong that can only righted by the man in the lead. As stated above, Karan’s immaturity, Aman’s disrespect, Ayaan’s petulance and aggression are excused and forgotten because of their helpfulness, which ultimately redeems them and makes them the ‘hero’.

Conclusion

What’s simultaneously surprising and disappointing to find is that despite these film being made years apart, the misogynistic undertones of filmmaking still persist. Even 11 years apart the male romantic heroes insist that, “Ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahin ho sakte.” There has been a growth in terms of textures and other nuances as is visible in films like Love per Square Foot, but somehow we still fail to create an egalitarian narrative where the space of the story is shared equally by the protagonists of both the genders. It has stunted the growth of Hindi cinema towards inclusive and representative storytelling. This perseverance of patriarchy in contemporary films is both a contributing factor and a reflection of our current socio-cultural ecology, and thus it is essential for social scientists to inspect this potentially harmful phenomenon.

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