Come Valentine's Day and the rush for a warm, groovy love story at a cinema hall was a given. But for almost a decade or more, no romance on screen has really struck it big. PRAKRITI ROY looks at the reasons
When was the last time that a romantic film went viral in either Hollywood or BollywoodIJ When was the last time a romance swept the Oscars or Filmfare AwardsIJ Which was the last “must-watch” love story that was eternalised on the silver screenIJ
Not that no such movies were made in the recent past in both Hollywood or Bollywood. There’s been Bajirao Mastani, Tamasha, 2 States, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya and Hollywood films like The Fault In Our Stars. But all these films are not remembered purely for the love story angle. There is almost always an unhappy ending or someone dying.
The last real dialogue one remembers without a hitch was written 21 years ago when Shah Rukh Khan delivered one of the most repeated dialogues in the history of Indian cinema. “Bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai, senorita” has been a consistent rage from one of the best-loved romantic movies Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge (DDlJ).
Director and actor Kunal Kohli says: “To look for iconic romantic films, you would probably have to go back at least 10 years — Fanaa, Hum Tum, Jab We Met.” The most recent romantic Bollywood films that made some mark were Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and Aashiqui 2. In Hollywood, you would have to think even further back. It has been a while that a film like Pretty Woman, The Notebook, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle or love Actually was made. Now it has become all about action, comedy and fantasy.
Nothing reiterates this shift more than the awards given out each year. The last time that a romantic film won the Best Picture Oscar was almost two decades back in 1998 and that was Shakespeare in love which bagged seven Oscars. Since then, no other film in this genre has come even close. An iconic film like Pretty Woman (1990) only managed to get Julia Roberts a nomination for Best Actress, so this eventual letting go of romance as an award-winning genre is not really surprising. In India too, the Filmfare for Best Film was almost always won by a love story in the 90s with DDlJ (1996), Dil Toh Pagal Hai (1998) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH, 1999), each winning the coveted Best Picture.
Maker of die-hard romantic films Kunal, however, believes that love stories are not something that can ever go out of vogue. While he is aware that there are very few people actually making them, he doesn’t feel that the audience has changed, they are only looking for something new. “Right now, it is probably just Karan (Johar), Adi (Chopra) and I who are still making love stories! Even Imtiaz (Ali), although his stories are slightly different. But you have films like Fitoor, Sanam Re and my own film Phir Se coming up. So it’s not as if people have stopped making them.”
Actress Himani Shivpuri who has been a part of films like DDlJ and KKHH tells you how much she misses the romance movies. “When I want to watch a film, I still go for Notting Hill or Pretty Woman. Filmmakers are more open to exploring nowadays. Romance will continue to be important, but now there are lots of other things as well that are part of films.”
In the past decade or so, the trend has shifted to making big budget films with a lot of action sequences. Imagine a film like Mad Max: Fury Road or Resident Evil, both post-apocalyptic tales, having a full-fledged romance narrative. Or back home, even a film like Bajirao Mastani, which is a love story, but more about Peshwa Bajirao as a warrior.
Himani agrees. “These days stories of crime, violence, terrorism are the ones that writers are writing and people are watching. Cinema is a reflection of what is happening in our society. Everyone is aware of other issues now and the focus has shifted from romance,” she says.
Since filmmaking has become a money-minting industry, it is probably no more viable to make films that have a simple love story. Even a couple like Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol inDilwale failed to create any significant chemistry despite being the most popular romanticjodi of Bollywood earlier. That’s because Dilwale was not a romance but a mishmash of attempted comedy interspersed with drama!
Director Divya Khosla Kumar feels that it was Yash Chopra who was actually the king of making romantic movies. “It is true that not too many people are making these kinds of films. There is a dearth of writers for this genre and the Yash Chopra stamp is missing. However, it also depends on the director’s treatment of the film. If a soulful and relatable film is made, then people will remember it,” Divya says.
