Really, the poet had asked it too profound. We Ph.D researchers, fret about it when thinking about our project titles, as it should be representative in just a single line of all of the laborious years of toil. Parents think about the name of their babies months before they were born. The name, should represent who the parents are, who the baby should be, as well as be in line with the contemporary generation. I've often felt that rather than tossing away the importance of a name, the question as mentioned in the beginning should be said more with the exasperated wonder--what IS? what should BE? How much can you put in there, albeit speaking less of it?
All in all, names are banners; it flags your attention, holds it, directs it to further significant issues and then....makes you remember them; at least, strives to makes you remember them. It's just not a name, it's an entire story that should be spoken in those few words. Stories that remain in line with your expectation, that sail with the times, yet stretch somewhat to have a space in tomorrow and arch enough to leave their chiseled dust over your head as you walk on and move away from them.
Like films do.
For example, if you would expect that films often represent the society for which they are made, and have this uncanny democratic characteristic in them, in that they rise from people's expectations as well as mould people's choice to build forth a market, you would end up with a partially proven hypotheses. Like I did.
Considering bollywood, I thought it would be a safe bet to presuppose that 1950s would be more enthused with freedom and freedom fighting as tuned with the newly independent Indian society, 1960s would be more akin to coming to terms with the good things in life--the "pyar, mohabbat and ishq", 1970s being characterised by the coming of age what the 1960s started--the Shammi Kapoor and Zeenat and Dev Anand --romancing and solving mysteries and then 1980s being the era of angry young man, 1990s being Aashiqui and Kumar Sanu and the Khans all the way, and 2000s belonging to a motley of star sons and daughters. The dominant paradigm of each decade could be derived from the keywords, which are easily extracted from the names of these movies, that targets the audience in giving out a bird's eye view of what each film is presupposed to showcase. Although, I heard that many senior citizens were fooled and enraged in particularly two occasions in history--when they went to watch "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" and "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" with a particular expectation in mind.
I don't think it could have helped even if the release dates of these movies were in April.
Some days back, I was searching for a particular song online. And I chanced upon something that ignited my urge to procrastinate even further and do this little research. Even though connecting procrastination with research might sound somewhat like a oxymoron, let me clarify. I'm talking about blogger research. I was surprised to find something and then went to do some more searching and re-searching with some generic keywords such as "raat", "insaan", "desh", "pyaar", "Zindagi", "Kahani", and so on to see whether these keywords had any pattern as far as decades were concerned. Preliminary findings with the keyword "raat" gave me this:
Though I've no idea why the use of "raat" or stories about "raat" diminished from 1960s onwards; or why it was in high usage in the first place. Probably the convenience and cost of shootings indoor had much to do it?
Anyway, based on my working hypotheses described in a paragraph above, here's what I found, with running an analysis with keywords. The header of each decade represents the punchline.
Pre-1950s and 1950s: Jawani Ki Hawa
Doesn't gel. Does it?
Whenever I used to think of 1950s, I was more of the impression that it would have some love movies, with sacrifize, azaadi and desh and jawans taking the lead. And of course, Mother India. I think this movie was instrumental in thinking about the 1950s in this manner...we achieved independence in 1947, and therefore, there should be some sacrifice movies and some movies to remin
d of the bygone sufferings of pre-independent India. That's what I thought. So I searched with certain keywords.
And I found that expectantly, there were a few movies dwelling on life in general, some on Azaadi, and some on patriotic feelings, such as
Desh Deepak (1930),
Desh dasi (1930)
Azad (1940)
Desh Bhakta (1940)
Chhin Li Azaadi (1948)
Desh Sewa (1948)
Apna Desh (1949)
Swarg se Sundar Desh Hamara (1945 and 1959)
Pardesi, (1953 and 1958),
but what got my eyebrows up were the whopping number of movies dealing with "jawani" in the 1950s as well as in the pre-1950s, as compared to the later decades. I think they deserve a representation. The titles of these movies are illustrative, covered quite a range as observed below and of course, needs little description.
Jawani Diwani (1929)
Josh-E-Jawani (1930)
Jung-E-Jawani (1932)
Zalim Jawani (1932)
Jawani Diwani (1934)
Jawani Ki Hawa (1935)
Joshe Jawani (1935)
Jawani Ki Reet (1939)
Jawani Ka Rang (1941)
Jawani Ki Aag (1951)
Jawani Ki Hawa (1959)
Young India, young blood, and hot jawani. Understandably, with our jawans getting the first taste of success, can jawani be far behind?
1960s: Pyar ka Mausam
With jawani ka josh being subsided, people flocked to see Pyar, and speak of Ishq and Mohabbat. I'm not sure if people would have loved "Mohabbatein" if it were released in the 1960s and my hunch would be more in the negative, still, 1960s were indeed of Pyaar. No other generic keywords had 1960s so much represented as Pyar, Prem, Ishq and Mohabbat. Well, Pyaar was always there and will always be there, each decade, jawani foregone or not. Prem also had the 1930s brimming with it. If romantic movies had a golden era, among other kind of movies that the 60s are still so famous for, it would definitely be the 60s. This goes with quantity, as well as....arguably, quality.
1970s: Dum Maro Dum
Everybody knows that 70s had it all. It introduced the teenage romance, it had taut thriller movies that kept you on the edge, it had patriotic movies, ...in fact....the 70s turned copious results with each generic keyword. It was difficult to contain it in a category. You name a subject, and the 70s had it. You search with any keyword and the 70s had it. Entertainment was pumped up!
Clearly, the 70s tried to deal with an "all-round perspective" as far as an issue was concerned. Wholesome entertainment was its motto and Hindi cinema, up till then, had really come of age. This would be more evidenced, in the end. Stay put.
1980s: Paap ko Jalakar Raakh kar Doonga
80s really takes the limelight to a new intensity. With the society and films maturing and covering all, suddenly everything gets a nosedive to almost an adolescent intensity; something is found to be inherently wrong, and 80 is almost all about foaming anger, destructive fire, the kanoon being non-existent or malfunctioning and the dushmans being ubiquitious. Consider the following list, and this is a list in comparison to all the other decades, with just the keyword "Kanoon".
| Kanoon Aur Mujrim (1981)
Andhaa Kanoon (1983)
| |||
| Dharam Aur Kanoon (1984)
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|
| |||
| Kanoon Kya Karega (1984)
Kudrat Ka Kanoon (1987)
Kanoon Apna Apna (1989)
Kahan Hai Kanoon (1989)
|
| Badla (1974)
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| Badla (1977)
|
1980s were more specific though, with:
Zulm Ka Badla (1985)
and thankfully, Aakhri Badla (1989) (so aptly named, considering the year).
The 80s was also the leading decade of "Dushmans".
Pyaara Dushman (1980)
Daulat Ke Dushman (1983)
Dushmano Ka Dushman (1984)
Meraa Dost Meraa Dushman (1984)
Bhai Ka Dushman Bhai (1986)
Mera Yaar Mera Dushman (1987)
Mohabbat Ke Dushman (1988)
Desh Ke Dushman (1989)
No wonder then, that "Paap" also had maximum representation in the 1980s:
| Pet Pyaar Aur Paap (1984)
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| Paap Ki Duniya (1988)
|
| Paap Ko Jalaa Kar Raakh Kar Doonga (1988)
Paap Ka Ant (1989)
|
And, strangely, 1980s was also the leading decade of Kasam-s; the level of generalized trust onto others, was clearly quite low, and therefore the secure fastening of kasam was squarely put into place with almost everything. Take a look:
Khuda Kasam (1981)
Sanam Teri Kasam (1982)
Kasam Durga Ki (1982)
Teri Kasam (1982)
Kasam Paida Karne Wale ki (1984)
Maa Kasam (1985)
Mujhe Kasam Hai (1985)
Yaadon ki Kasam (1985)
Yaar Kasam (1985)
Mohabbat ki Kasam (1986)
Kasam Suhaag Ki (1989)
Kasam Vardi ki (1989)
Let's move to 1990s now. I hypothesized that with the Khans, Nadeem-Shravan and Kumar Sanu, it would be mushy, maudlin and mellow. Ha!
1990s: Aag se Khelenge
Notice the verb in the above header. It clearly promises to continue to do something. So even with Pyar, pyar and pyar...and Aamir Khan, inexplicably, 1990s has the maximum movies dealing with "Aag", compared with all the other decades. Probably the fire ignited in the 1980s didn't die, even with all the love songs. Thus, though 90s were a decade of getting back to love, it was equally met with aagmark fire on the other front as well.
The aag movies:
Aag ka Dariya (1990)
Aag ka Gola (1990)
Apman ki Aag (1990)
Aag laga do sawan Ko (1991)
Yeh Aag kab Bujhegi (1991)
Aag ka Toofan (1993)
Aag Andhi aur Toofan (1994)
Aag aur Chingari (1994)
Mohabbat ki Aag (1997)
Phool aur Aag (1999)
Aag hi Aag (1999)
2000s: Popcorn Khao mast ho Jao
The 2000s had the butter while it made sure you couldn't smell it. Putting aside the pervasive movies based on love and vendetta, the 2000s is marked by nice bods, star children and of course movie names that wouldn't just give it away. As well as movies with names such as "Let's enjoy", "aloo chat", and "popcorn khao mast ho jao" where the bottomline promised was obviously fultoo entertainment, movies such as "Rock on!!" "Ek Chalis ki last local", "Being Cyrus" wouldn't tell a story in the title. Entertainment IS the keyword in this decade, and variety has no bounds as far movie titles and subjects are concerned. Movies are made on teenager, on gigolo, specifically on NRIs, EMI, as well as on how fake doctors could be good hearts.
The loss of linguistic puritanism is also evident in this decade as you see commonplace hindi words, as represented in erstwhile movie titles like Jab jab phool Khile, Angrakhshak, Hatya, Ghatak, give on to titles like Jab we met, Dil maange more, The Killer, Rules: Pyar ka Superhit formula, Murder, Fool N Final, Raaz: The Mystery Continues, Life in a Metro, No Smoking, Gangster, Girlfriend, Shakalaka Boom Boom, Luck By Chance, as compared to a handful of English titled movies of yesteryears (e.g. Evening in Paris, Around the World, Jewel Thief (1967)
"Company" did not speak of commercial business or the corporate world, but the commercial purpose behind the underworld. "Lagaan" spoke of something to do with "tax" but spoke a very different story than what could have been probably expected before the first day, first show. The 2000s didn't only want that the movie-goer should watch the movie in dark cinema halls with popcorn in hand; the decade focussed its attention on how in the age of trailers and incessant music channels, it could keep the audience in the dark as to the nomenclature of the movies, the theme of the movie, as well as its predictability.
Therefore, came the item songs performed not by one who is specially skilled to do so (like Helen of yesteryears) but regular movie heroines or other curveceous models/VJ. It kept the interest burning, kept in contained and kept them guessing.
When it comes to guessing, I would have to mention this. As far as covering all ground were concerned, the 1970s truly covered all ground. Or, else, claimed to.
Otherwise, how would you explain this movie?
And any predictions for the 2010s?
