In the land of Make Believe

Not so long ago the classic bollywood film makers users to amuse us with these heavy, intense, and strong dialogues like “मैं तुम्हारे बच्चे की माँ बन्ने वाली हूँ” which made the women in the theater shy away. The focus was to bring out the emotion and passion of the character in the most melodramatic way possible. The yesteryear stars did it and they did it so well that even today we celebrate those dialogues.

One can only imagine and cheer when Dharmendra says “कुत्ते, कमीने मैं तेरा खून पी जाऊंगा” Those were the days. We loved it, we enjoyed it, we still remember it. Or Shashi Kapoor, with full-on drama telling Amitabh Bachchan “मेरे पास माँ हैं” To top the charts here is my personal favorite which was used virtually by every Police Officer in every movie “पुलिस ने तुमको चारो तरफ से घेर लिया है. अपने आप को कानून के हवाले कर दो.”

Then there are the dialogues which are famous because of a character artist. From Gabbar Singh delivering “अब तेरा क्या होगा कालिया” to Amitabh Bachchan declaring, “रिश्ते मैं तो हम तुम्हारे बाप लगते हैं नाम है शहंशाह.” It was all good and it was all fantastic.

Then came the era of Sunny Deol and in “Daamini” he rocked our world and lived upto his dad Dharmendra’s name when he delivered this famous dialogue “तारीख पे तारीख पे तारीख. तारीख पे तारीख मिलती रही है लेकिन इन्साफ नहीं मिला” Oh God, was he good!

The list is endless. The common theme which binds these dialogues is the emotional connect. Bollywood still continues to be inspired by such heavy dialogues and even in recent movies we have seen our heros delivering similar lines. The most recent one which I can recall is Shahrukh khan delivering a great Speech in Om Shanti Om and ending it with “Picture, अभी बाकी है मेरे दोस्त”

I am sure there are tons of such dialogues and if I go on quoting I can quote and quote and quote…

But, Bollywood recently started including very refreshing dialogues which sound really really cool and are very close to the language which we speak “Hinglish”

You cannot do anything but smile when Kareena very innocently says “मैं अपनी favorite हूँ” in Jab We Met, which I think was a cult movie. This movie changed the norms of classical dialogue writing. The content was fresh, it was relative, and it was something that we use in our daily lives. We are seeing quite a few dialogues which I would like to call as neo millennium dialogues in almost all movies that are being made.

In Bluffmaster, Abhishek Bachchan’s dialogue “गोली वो चलाते हैं जो दिमाग नहीं चलाते” won him kudos from everyone. Or Rani Mukharjee in Hum Tum saying “Emotions भी कितने stupid होते हैं ना logic ही नहीं समझते” was a reflection of how we mix English and Hindi to speak in Hinglish. Recently, In Love Aaj Kal, Saif Ali Khan conveniently and convincingly uses the phrase “Mango People” or “आम जनता” not that it is something new, it is really cool to be used in a dialogue.

Rock On, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Love Aaj Kal, New York all have dialogues which are neo millenium. Bollywood has evolved and so have the dialogues. It is a welcome change and we all enjoy it. The generation neXt wants to listen, and watch something which they can have a connect with, and the dialogue writers are doing excatly that. In the coming years, I think that bollywood dialogues are going to be a modified version of the common language that we speak. That said, I am sure the tradition of high-on emotion dialogues with melo dramatic delivery and passion will continue to exist and be cherished, for one part of our “Indian” heart wants to listen to them every now and then.

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