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College romance in Hindi films shows signs of growing up to address the problems of the youth today sugar coated by love and laughter
An ageing messenger in a newspaper office would sip his tea and tell the scribes around in a very profound manner: "There is no life without wife and no knowledge without college!" He must have had his reasons for this oft-repeated line that always drew laughter. Well, talking college romance that has been an inseparable part of the Bollywood formula from the monotone to the multi-coloured times, and more often than not, a route to great success and proving the case in point is Ayan Mukerji’s Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, which is fourth at the boxoffice in the all-time highest collection. Popular cinema thrives on catching them young for that is where the ultimate success lies. Amid all the razzle-dazzle and din of Pritam’s catchy musical scores like "Badtameez dil" and "Balam pichkari" between Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, the film was able to focus on the lure of the West and the question of commitment and love in the youth of the present times. This is indeed a change from the past where college would just be a starting point of boy meeting girl and much other melodrama thereafter. Its forerunner was Wake Up Sid, with Mukerji as director, with Ranbir in the lead with Konkona Sen and it did well at the boxoffice and paved the way for the grand success of Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. The turning point in the campus films was, of course, 3 Idiots which took off from Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five-Point Someone to include the other Bollywood essentials to become an all-time triumph even if Bhagat was left with a small remuneration and half-hearted credit at the tail end. However, in all fairness, the film did present a critique of the present-day state of education in India. In an engaging narrative, we come across ragging and abuse in colleges, the extreme pressure of rat race, suicide and the loss of creativity and the haunting note of a song: "Give me some sunshine, Give me some rain". The story-telling was so mesmerising that the masses and the classes lapped up everything from the headline-receding Aamir Khan playing the college genius to a child being delivered with a vacuum cleaner. Besides it broke all-time collection records and bagged plenty of awards and critical acclaim. Earlier, Aamir had raised a stir in Rang de Basanti where four college friends do the Bhagat Singh saga on stage and off it to seek justice for the unjust death of their pilot friend. Love is and has to be the leitmotif and friendship, too, for the young chords strike best to it with a mix of melody, sufiana qalam and some peppy numbers like "Pappu can’t dance saala" in yet another college best-friends film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. The buddies in this film Imran Khan and Genelia D’Souza, who are part of a gang of friends, feel they are too well-bonded as bum-chums to fall in love with each other. So they try it out elsewhere but the realisation comes, as it has to, and then a climax of making it to the airport and throwing the entire Mumbai in chaos. The more recent film Student of the Year grapples with the themes of love, sacrifice and the audacious competition which all but endangers a warm friendship. While on the theme of love friendship and the eternal triangle, something really happened in the 1998 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with the Kajol charisma, Rani Mukerji oomph and Shah Rukh Khan’s absent-minded charm. The film which won a bag full of awards, accolades and money, in the very slick direction by Karan Johar, today enjoys an iconic status and is still a favourite with television channels. The film had a lot of love, pining and sentimentality as Kajol who is Shah Rukh’s basketball buddy finds him in love with the new entrant Rani. It takes Rani to die, Kajol to get betrothed elsewhere and Shah Rukh Khan’s mother and daughter to engineer a coming together of the old-time friends in an acceptance of love. So there is much to college, including knowledge of various things as the messenger used to proclaim, and if the film clicks, then a lot of moolah for the filmmaker. So college romance Bollywood style will continue ad infinitum with a change here or there to keep pace with the changing times. Of another era College romance of the yore saw the cycles of the boy and girl colliding and love following this fateful collision and a scene that comes to one’s mind at once dates back to Nazrana in 1961. The college lovers were Vyjyanthimala and Raj Kapoor and soon they were cycling into a lush landscape to the song: "Mere Peechhe Ik Diwana, kuch albela mastana" Guru Dutt’s masterpiece Pyaasa (1957) had a memorable dream sequence of the poor poet fantasising a waltz with his rich girlfriend to the evergreen love song: "Hum aap ki ankhon mein iss dil ko basa dein tau". The flirtatious duet saw Mala Sinha in an evening gown and Guru Dutt in a dinner jacket and a bow tie. He wakes up from the dream to see his love gone to marry a rich man and leaving him a note on the bench where she was sitting next to him. The high point of the college romance betwixt Mala Sinha and Sunil Dutt, an artist, poet and singer all rolled into one, sketching her portrait in Gumraah (1963) and crooning unforgettable love songs with "Chalo ik baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayein hum dono". The same year saw college romance blossoming between the burqua-draped beauty Sadhana and sherwani-clad poet Rajendra Kumar. So the cupid could pierce an arrow right through the purdah.
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