“Small Town” is back. A bunch of great romantic comedy serials have been released in foreign installments from the same studio just to keep the balance: Take your pick, Abhishek and Rani, or Saif and Preity? Ridiculous comedy has taken over the scene: 2005 saw all this and more. It also had black in it, moving the conversation about disability into the mainstream.
Bunty aur Babli gave the small town a designer upgrade led by YRF.
She wonders if real-life Kanpur boy Shaad Ali will recognize his city in his film, which revolves around these two young men from the small town, jo gula utha ki chali, to the big cities, heading towards bigger things and living their dreams.
It’s also the film that brought “small town” back into the Bollywood imagination, replacing the grunge and grime of the real thing with the gravitas and distinctive weirdness. The colorful outfits that Abhishek and Rani wear in Bunty and Babli, could only have appeared in Yashraj’s design department, which were of course quickly adopted by tailors and their patrons in the same small towns the film wanders through, to complete the circle – stars get dressed – their characters arrive at the venue – cheap imitations flood the market – their wearers become stars too.
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This is one of Abhishek’s best films, and Rani, when she’s not whining, is funny and smart. But the person who steals every scene is Bachchan Sr., who comes in an almost direct part, and runs away with the film.
Bunty aur Babli is also embellished with the item number to end all item numbers, a song that continues to be at the top of the chart as far as dance floors are concerned. Aishwarya Rai (not Bachchan then) swung her waist, followed by father and son. Kajrare kajrare, mere kaare kaare naina, Gulzar’s chant goes: I dare you not to get up and swing it.
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Roaring comedies like No Entry and Garam Masala marked the audience. So did the flop period film Mangal Pandey, a rare early flop from Aamir Khan.
Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan in Salaam Namaste. (Quick archive photo)
One of my guilty pleasures that year was another YRF production, Siddharth Anand’s frothy romance Salaam Namaste, which gave us one of Bollywood’s first live-in couples, as a very pregnant Preity Zinta succumbs to her cravings for a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the middle of a Melbourne night, followed by a reluctant Saif Ali Khan becoming a father.
But the film that stood out this year was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black, which depicts Rani Mukherjee as a girl with a severe disability and her relationship with her teacher, played by Amitabh Bachchan, whose character suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
Several parts of the film seemed to go over the top – the palaces of Shimla as more art deco constructions with European accents – but then that’s the SLB brand. There are a few scenes that I felt uncomfortable with at the time that are still problematic – one of which is a teacher pulling a screaming “problem child” by the arm.
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But what Black did was put characters with profound disabilities front and center, as engines of the narrative, not characters to be pitied or marginalized and forgotten. The impact of this choice was enormous: it started conversations about the importance of acceptance and inclusion.
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For this reason alone, we must pay tribute to Applause Films who produced the film, and gave Rani one of her most challenging roles, which she manages to do with conviction, barring the odd exaggerated gesture or look.
The year also saw Imtiaz Ali’s debut in Socha Na Tha, which featured another debutant, Abhay Deol, whose striking pairing with the vivacious Ayesha Takia heralded a new sensation in the world of Bollywood rom-coms.
(Tags for translation)Bunty Aur Babli
