Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
(Are most popular Bollywood movies, like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’, really good? Or can their very popularity be attributed to them being just the opposite? Here’s my analysis on the same.)
Movies are arguably the best schools in the world. By ‘best’, in this case I do not mean it qualitatively, but rather quantitatively. Most people learn and have learnt much, much more stuff from movies and storybooks than from schools and colleges. Schools are viewed as institutions imparting knowledge that helps you to excel only in exams, not in life; they are that much disconnected from real life. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. Movies, on the contrary, teach us a lot about life and how the world works, or at least are supposed to. Popular movies, thus, possess immense power — they can influence a humongous number of people. But are they doing their job properly? Or are most popular movies doing their job even worse, and much, much more dangerously, than our schools ever did?
I have chosen to analyse the famous Bollywood movie called ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’ to answer this question.
Before I begin, I would like to say that, putting it frankly, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. And I don’t even want to get into the details of how it was bad, or the numerous logical gaps; rather, I want to say how this movie can be potentially dangerous for a naive, gullible audience. This movie, like many other popular movies, is fraught with plenty of myths and stories that a credulous audience might fall prey to, and they can be broadly divided into the following categories:-
1. It shows life to be too easy
“Listen to your heart. Then you will succeed in anything.” The movie begins with this dialogue, when Rohan (Hrithik Roshan) is preparing to hit a six. Firstly, one cannot listen to one’s heart, or mind, because our mind is always influenced by external factors. Our ‘own’ thoughts are not really our own, they are reflections of the currently prevalent myths of the society. Secondly, one can’t really succeed in anything. Nobody can be good at everything. I am not against optimism, but such unsubstantiated optimism can lead to unrealistic dreams and thus crashed hopes.
In this entire movie, there is not a single instance of marital conflict, even though so much of it displays supposedly displays family life. Rahul and Anjali behave like a newly-wed couple, bursting with love for each other, even when they are ten years into their marriage. This makes one think that married life is eternal bliss, probably leading to so many failed marriages.
In the second half of this movie, Rohan arrives in London in full pomp and splendour. He somehow procures a gaudy red sports car from nowhere. And then voila, next day, we see him driving a stylish new white convertible! I thought — okay, so this guy changes cars like we change clothes, a different one each day! And remember, this was before the days of Uber Hire! Watching this movie, one would think money and dazzling cars to be plentiful!
The whole world is shown to be a wonderful social place. In college, no studies ever happen; the only things that seem to be happening are songs and dances and sports! When Rahul and Anjali fall in love, they are teleported straight to Egypt from Chandni Chowk. There they dance for a long time in front of the pyramids!
All these show life to be incredibly easy. But it isn’t so. Life is suffering. Problems and obstacles are ubiquitous in everybody’s life, and one has to have the energy and perseverance needed to overcome them. But if a naive onlooker watches this movie, he would completely break down upon experiencing real life.
It can be countered that this movie is about the separation of a family, so how can it show life to be all fun and joy? But the way Rohan solves this problem by uniting the family, with numerous sportcars and dances, and by encountering no difficulty at all, is absolutely ridiculous.
2. It shows life to be full of coincidences
How exactly does Nandini sense the exact moment of Rahul’s homecoming? She walks to the door and suddenly Rahul appears from thin air! And how does Nandini — praying in India, understand the exact moment when the two brothers (Rohan and Rahul) embrace — in London, and comes running to the door as if to find her sons embracing at her doorstep? Telepathy?
And when Rohan is searching for Rahul in London, how come Rahul brushes past right beside Rohan?
This movie is just too full of coincidences. A gullible spectator will think the same to be true of life as well. But life is not coincidental, it is absolutely random. Life has no mind of its own, and unlike us humans, it doesn’t want to find an order and connection between everything. It works on simple math, simple probability.
3. It promotes love at first sight
Love at first sight is one of the most disastrous misconceptions that our Bollywood movies have borrowed from their Western counterparts. Rahul sees Anjali dancing and immediately decides that she is the woman he will marry. Pooja is struck by Rohan’s good looks and his showy sports car and immediately decides to have an affair with him.
Seeing this movie, a credulous onlooker will start thinking that love at first sight is the purest and most untainted form of love. They will think that they are destined to marry the other person and will “die without him/her” — as Rohan sang to Anjali. This leads to so many failed relationships, since one needs to know another’s quirks and character intimately to adjust to them for one whole lifetime. Love at first sight is a short-lived love, more of an infatuation.
4. It shows wrong way of impressing girls
Rahul repeatedly pesters Anjali, trying to talk to her. He even pesters her by calling her from public phones when she refuses to talk to him personally. At the fair, he grabs her hand forcefully without her consent, and imparts some silly moral advice to convey that he is in love with her. And in the next half of the movie, Rohan impresses Pooja by being rude to her and not giving her any importance!
These are all wrong ways to impress a girl. The right way is to just talk with her and try to present yourself as an an interesting individual. Who knows how many girl harassers have been inspired by this? Or how many failed relationships could have resulted due to this, with the boy trying to emulate Shah Rukh Khan and the girl spurning him disdainfully?
5. It stereotypes based on colour and beauty
Rohan and Pooja have a fight at school, where Rohan teases her along with other kids. Rahul comes to Anjali’s house, supposedly to sort out the problem between Rohan and Pooja, but actually to see Anjali. Rahul looks into Puja’s eyes and says, “What pretty eyes? Rohan, you should never anger beautiful girls.” So what he is basically saying is that one can abuse not-so-beautiful girls as much as they want, but it’s better not to anger beautiful girls, because one would obviously like to pursue a relationship with the latter, not the former. As if beauty, an entirely irrelevant quality in a relationship, has more value over character and intelligence!
Have you realised that most of the actors in this movie are white in colour? It’s tragic that we, as a nation, admire such movies where such unfair stereotypes are promoted.
6. It displays too much patriotism
Even in London, Rahul’s family wakes up listening to patriotic Indian songs. When Rohan steps into London, a flock of girls waving Indian flags smile at him, and then he goes and dances some Bharatnatyam with some girls who seem to be performing in the middle of the road! The final ridiculous scene comes when Rahul’s son sings the national anthem of India at his school’s annual festival, with all of his British friends too joining in the chorus!
All these, however frivolous they are, inculcate a lot of patriotism in the gullible spectator. Patriotism, taken in the right spirit — that I love my country and want to make it better, is not wrong. But it is often interpreted into — my country is the best and anyone who criticizes my beloved country are anti-national who deserve to be deported to Pakistan, etc, etc. This form of patriotism is quite dangerous, as it is against the very idea of improvement of a nation.
7. Showing the ‘perfect’ model of an Indian family
The Father of the household, Yash (Amitabh Bachchan), is the unquestionable monarch. His opinions and decisions are ultimate, irrevocable. If his wife tries to dissent, he silences her with a ‘BAS!’ of his. Rahul says at his father’s birthday party, “I had a dream since childhood to be like my Papa. No one in this world is like Papa.” among uproarious applause. Even when his father condemns his love for Anjali and disowns him, Rahul never even protests; he just says his father “to never forgive him”. Earlier Yash always talks to Rahul about never dishonouring the family name, and Rahul invariably dutifully nods his head.
No, respect to parents and elders is not a bad idea. But excessive respect is just like devotion to God. What happens when a father decides the career path of his child, is the child supposed to bow his/her head down and just accede?
When Anjali leaves the house, her mother in-law tells her to always keep her husband (Rahul) happy. Again, when Rohan comes to Anjali’s house, he says that the house feels empty without elders and a mother in-law.
Is the wife supposed to respect a husband who never listens to her and never takes her opinion before taking a decision?
This movie reinforces many potentially dangerous stereotypes regarding the conventional Indian family — an uncompromising father, a dutiful son, a meek daughter-in-law, etc. through many of its scenes and dialogues.
These movies are not popular for being good. The directors of such movies are very incisive people who just say what the masses want to her — life is easy, coincidental, love at first sight is the best, and all the others. They reinforce all the harmful societal myths and always try to preserve the status quo.
Some might say that a movie like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’ is also popular for being so funny and entertaining. But entertainment should be of better quality than this. An ideal movie should be both entertaining, fun to watch, as well as educating.
An ideal movie should teach people something new, something important and correct, rather than just propagating all the wrong myths and fictions of the world all over again.
