Modern Bollywood Rendition of Classical Hollywood Musical Code and Conventions
A Comparative Analysis of Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and Main Hoon Na (2004)
In late 1920s, The Jazz Singer (1927), and the first “all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing musical,” The Broadway Melody (1929) began shaping the genre of musical. While musicals’ popularity fluctuates over time, they have a proven appeal to audience, still being made and consumed around the world across various cultures today. Contemporary scholars such as Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis even consider musical “the perfect showcase of cinema’s magic,” because of its ability to interlace the character-driven plotline and sensational visual and aural effects. Although the content of musicals has greatly evolved and is being drawn from a much wider range of themes as the cultural context of the film changes, certain codes and conventions of classical Hollywood musical are still present in today’s musicals. In this essay, I aim to analyze the code and conventions used in Singin’ in the Rain, a classical Hollywood musical, and Main Hoon Na, a typical “masala” film from India, the biggest film industry in the world in terms of number of films produced and cinema admissions, with a focus on the representation of gender, love, and relationship.
The plotline of Singin’ in the Rain is rather simple. It is a story that takes place at the time when Hollywood is transitioning into sound films, and how this process affects the three main characters, popular silent film stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, and Kathy Selden, who is originally a chorus girl, but eventually becomes a musical film star because of her voice. Don is the strong male character with a great career — his boss recognizes his value to the studio, he has a large fan base, and he even has a sidekick, Cosmo Brown, who is a loyal best friend and does not mind providing Don with great help and support without receiving the fame he deserves. On the other hand, Lina, Don’s on-screen partner, is depicted as the stupid, shallow woman who is incapable yet full of herself, obsessed with Don and firmly believes Don is madly in love with her as well. Lina is one of the victims of the transition to sound film, struggling to meet the studio and the audience’s expectation due to her incorrect grammar and grating voice. The conflict in Don’s seemingly perfect life is Kathy, who claims to be unimpressed with Don’s films upon their first encounter. Despite being insulted, Don cannot get her off his mind, and tries hard to win her heart. The conflict is eventually resolved, when Kathy becomes recognize as the true star behind Don and Lina’s well received first sound film, The Dancing Cavalier, acting as Lina’s voice. After the success, she is promoted as a leading star, and the film ends with her and Don standing in front of a movie poster with their images on it happily as a couple.
Many codes and conventions similar to that used in Singin’ in the Rain can be found in Main Hoon Na, although the latter has a much more complex plotline consists of multiple subplots, a characteristic of typical Indian “masala” films. The “Masala” films often mix genres such as romance, comedy, family drama, and action, all woven together with song and dance routines. Just like Singin’ in the Rain, the main motivation that pushes the plot of Main Hoon Na forward is conflict resolution. It tells the story of the implementation of Project Milaap, an operation in which the Indian government hopes to release Pakistani prisoners from previous wars as a friendly gesture to alleviate the conflict with Pakistan. The second conflict of the film is between a group of militant, headed by Raghavan, who opposes Project Milaap, and General Bakshi, who is the commander of Project Milaap. After Raghavan attempts to kill General Bakshi, and threatens to do harm to his daughter, General Bakshi appoints one of his best men, Major Ram, to undercover at his daughter’s college to protect her. Ram’s father, who is also in the military and died protecting General Bakshi, tells Ram that he was not his only son, and that he hoped Ram could reunite the family, which coincidentally is now living in the same city as the General’s daughter. Not only does Ram need to reconcile with himself the fact that he is a child of an illegitimate relationship, he also needs to resolve his father’s wife and his half brother’s resentment toward him. A subplot of the conflict between General Bakshi and his daughter, Sanju, is also brought up. More conflicts occur when Ram was in Darjeeling. Ram finds out his brother, Lakshman, who prefers to be called Lucky, is the opposite of himself, constantly failing his classes, and having long hair that defies the traditional Indian culture. In addition, there are two pairs of romantic conflicts, between Lucky and Sanju, as well as Ram and the chemistry teacher, Chandni. The romantic conflicts are similar to that in Singin’ in the Rain, as they are all about how boy and girl become a couple. The noticeable difference is that in Main Hoon Na, it is not necessarily boy struggling to get girl. In the case of Lucky and Sanju, they both have feelings for each other but are afraid to admit. As for Ram and Chandni, they are limited by morals, as Ram is undercover as a student, and should not have relationship with a teacher. As Raghavan is defeated and both family and love conflicts resolved, Main Hoon Na ends with a happy closure, just like Singin’ in the Rain. However, even though Main Hoon Na follows conventions of character driven plotline and conflict resolution, it also transforms the conventions in many ways to better fit the Indian context, and indicates how the society’s view of gender, love, and relationship has changed between the years of the two films.
In Singin’ in the Rain, the two main female characters, Lina and Kathy, are constructed to fit the society’s stereotype of woman, while Don is the alpha male throughout the film. At the opening scene of the film, Don and Lina arrive at a screening of their new film, and Don is asked to give a speech about how he gets to the star status he now possesses. As the camera slowly approaches Don to a close up of his face, Lina is the first to me cut out of the frame, hinting Lina’s ultimate fail to adapt to the industry’s transition into sound films, as well as how although she is the co-star of Don, she is not as important as he is. Kathy’s first appearance on screen also fits the social stereotype of women that they are unreasonable and tend to overreact: Don jumps unto Kathy’s car after escaping from a group of crazy fans, and Kathy starts to panic and raises her voice, not listening to Don’s explanation. Kathy is not exactly the typical damsel in distress who needs to be saved by a prince charming, as she stops the car and asks the police for help, and later also firmly asks Don not to touch her. Nevertheless, she is still very much under the dominance of men — her career of acting in movies begins when the producer of the firm comes to recognize her talent, and even in the end of the film, she relies Don to reveal that she is the real star behind The Dancing Cavalier.
On the other hand, both Sanju and Chandni, the two main female characters in Main Hoon Na appear the first time on screen with a song-and-dance number, which is the most glamorous and important part of the film by convention. Because General Bakshi always wants a son instead of a daughter, Sanju tries hard to dress like a boy to make her father love her, breaking the convention of femininity. The film even directly challenges the convention directly, when Sanju is frustrated that Lucky does not notice her, and Ram suggests that she go to Chandni for advice on a make over. After the make over, Sanju reappears with another song and dance number, wearing pink sari and her long, now straightened hair flying with the wind. Following the convention, Lucky buys this and falls for Sanju. Yet while he tries to express his feelings to Sanju, she tells him outright that it is not the real her, and he is just falling for her clothes — in other words, the stereotypical construct of femininity. While Chandni represents the typical beauty that main male characters would fall for — elegant, always wearing carefully selected sari, and her flying long locks giving her a regal feel — how her relationship with Ram starts is rather unconventional. Ram is the “macho man,” as called by the Hindi teacher Mrs. Kakkad, excellent at his job as a military man, and basically flawless in all regards. His only weakness is Chandni, who makes him want to break into song whenever he sees her, and completely lose control of himself, which is a behavior more commonly associated with female characters.
Both Singin’ in the Rain and Main Hoon Na use song-and-dance numbers to push the plot forward, but there are several differences. First, because the characters in Singin’ in the Rain are movie stars in the diegetic world, it is easier for the film to switch between singing and spoken words — most of the time, they are in situations where it makes sense to break into a song, such as on a movie set, or playing musical instruments; this is not the case in Main Hoon Na, so there has to be more creative way to transition into song and dance number, and the most special of which is when General Bakshi is explaining to Ram his mission, and there is a photo of Sanju on his table. The audience first hears the song, then the camera zooms in to the photo, in which Sanju starts to sing and dance, and the audience is taken to where Sanju is, and drawn in to the song-and-dance number. Second, the songs in Singin’ in the Rain is generally related to the film, and they push the plot forward in that the lyrics explain what is going on; the songs in Main Hoon Na are not directly related to the plot, but are representations of the emotions. They are extremely important for pushing the plot toward a climax because the strict censorship in India means there cannot be explicit intimacy on screen. In addition, the musical scenes in Main Hoon Na, unlike does not just show the character singing and dancing, but often incorporate acting, which continues to tell the story even within a song. Third, the musical sequences in Singin’ in the Rain often use female bodies as spectacle, as a large portion of the women’s bodies is exposed. The majority of scenes are sensational because of the colors and the formation, while the power of musical scenes in Main Hoon Na lies in the large number of dancers in every song, and their actual dance moves, which comes more in focus in the solo numbers in Singin’ in the Rain.
In conclusion, a comparison between the two films provides insights to the social context of the film. Since they aim to entertain and fulfill the audience’s expectations, they often fit into the society’s stereotypical construct. It also shows how codes and conventions can still evolve over time and across cultures.
