The other day while channel surfing I came across the song YAARA O YAARA from a movie called JEET. Any ardent bollywood fans out there who remember this movie?? It had Sunny Deol, Karishma Kapoor and Salman Khan.
What struck me was the picturisation of the song – here we had a great looking girl in some garish outfits and an awful hairdo swaying her hips to a masala song at the favourite Hindi cinema location – Switzerland. The guy on the other hand, was Sunny Paaji. Now what to say....the man can’t dance to save his life. The definition of two left feet seems terribly meek compared to what he was doing in that song.
I couldn’t stop laughing. In fact I was sympathising with what the choreographer must have gone through during the shoot “Sunny ji, aise haath hilaiye...nahi nahi...legs nahi...haath hilana hai” or “Sunny ji, thoda apna waist move kijiye...nahi nahi full body nahi move karni hai” or “Sunny ji thoda romantic expression dijiye...nahi nahi itna gusse mein nahi” and after an exasperating rehearsal would have given up and said “Sunny ji, aap aisa feel kijiye ki aap cheenti maar rahe hai...full force ke saath” and Sunny would have said “haan this suits my action hero image too...I’ll do it”. Poor Karishma had no choice but to follow suit.
So in the entire song, we see Sunny only killing ants (forcefully hitting the ground so that even if the poor ants had an afterlife, they wouldn’t survive to see it). The second step is him using his hands in the air as if he is about to punch someone. While Karishma on her part, is the saving grace who manages some groovy moves to keep the song alive (much to the choreographer and directors relief, I bet!)
Nevertheless, the song was incredibly popular. It was a chart buster when it released and the movie was a super hit courtesy the action packed performance from our junior garam dharam Sunny Paaji. I for one, had gone to a theatre to watch it...all awestruck with Salman (ok at the age I was smitten by his charm and magnetism over Sunny’s heroic abilities)
But the point of this entire note is to bring back some memories of what Hindi movies were all about. They weren’t as classy, tasteful, sensible or realistic as they are today but they had this unbelievable charm, a larger than life aura, a this-is-too-good-to-be-true feel in them. Think about it, where else will we see Salman wearing a pink suit with a green shirt or Sunny Paaji screaming “Laashein beechan doonga” or Karishma wearing a tent like skirt with a choli? Gone are those days guys! The golden days where Bollywood was full on paisa vasool, where the protagonist was a hero who could take on 10 goons in 1 shot, where the heroine danced with 300 extras in the background, where the villain looked truly evil or when we as kids got inspired by movies and bought "jumma chumma frocks" or "the COOL locket worn by Shahrukh in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" ...aaahhh the alluring magic of Hindi cinema!
And while I was retrospecting, the next song that came on the channel was HUN HUNA RE HUN HUNA, HUN HUNA RE HUN HUNA from a Kajol and Vikas Bhalla starrer. Obviously, I stayed on to watch the 90's dance moves and wondered if Kajol would ever get back to doing a song like this. What do you think?
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