In Pursuit of the ideal family: A case study on the 90s.

Bienvenu, lovely ones! I hope you are finding the positivity to get through life like butter on a heated skillet (yes, that sarcasm is intended. I guess you cannot really be witty and too warm at the same time). Moving on, as things start to close off into remoteness amidst the surge once again, we curl up into our own dens. I guess that brings us closer (in both good and not so fine ways) to our families. 

So, as I sit here on a rainy evening with an empty mind, the Prada sporting devil lends me their workshop to wander into some aspects of cinematic depiction of families in our beloved Bollywood. 

Bollywood has always been a staunch representative of what a family in an Indian setting looks like or should look like. Be it a film about Tacos (just read that as paanipuri for my sake) or someone’s hard-earned career, the aspect of an ever-present family has never been reconsidered or meddled with in the last few decades. In this article, we shall peek into the depiction of Indian families and ideologies with a few prominent examples from Bollywood over the years. (Quick disclaimer: Gen Z kid opinions ahead)

90s Bollywood and families:

Bollywood, as an industry has set new bars in cinematic arts since it’s origin. It has given the world wonderfully cultivated Genres and exclusive styles. If we talk of the early 90s, one can clearly see (without glasses) the focus on Romances and crime actions with films such as Ashiqui (Mukesh Bhatt), Baaghi (Deepak Shivdasani), Ghayal (Rajkumar Santoshi), Agneepath (Mukul S. Anand). This streak of romances and lighthearted thrillers has been the ruling source of content with exceptions of Comedies like Yes Boss, Aankhen, Raja Babu, etc; Social films like 1942: A Love Story, Fire, Sixth Happiness; adventure fantasies such as Ajooba and Chamatkaar (If Naseeruddin Shah is not your Casper, we’re not the same bro..) acting as sprinkles on a bland ice-cream. Horrors were partially forgotten in this era with the last prominent horror film being Veerana released in 1988 (The nun who?! only things that scare me are Nikita coming back from the dead and delayed orders.)

Now that I am done with a short overview of how Cinema looked like in the 90s, let us hop onto family dramas. The 90s has seen the emergence of what I like to call “The Cult of Perfect Families.” This deals with depiction of Indian families as this loud, happy go lucky crowd of people who co-own large houses and factories and drag their lives from one rich event to another. We see a rise of the “Hindutva” ideology in these films that stood at the face of secular and diverse representation in Cinema at the time. The depth of concepts was narrowed down to a mere two-dimensional facet highlighting Hindu beliefs, patriarchal values, blind wealth, and unalarmed positivity over everything that needed addressal. We can call this era of Bollywood, a period of concussed classics that rose to popularity by sugarcoating and manipulating superficial aspects of Religion, Norms, patriarchy, and morality. These aspects were often whipped into fillers of Patriotism to create a new image of a ‘True Indian.’ This garnered views from nostalgic NRIs through comparatively acceptable characters representing them and creating a contrast to the Indians back home. To the ones residing in India, the concepts boosted a new identity inspired by the showcased beliefs and instigated a foggy pride against depiction of the ones who left the country as wealth-driven or selfish. Bollywood has sailed on parallel boats for the longest time by playing the subtle card. 

Let us look at a few wholesome classics to understand the ideal family game a little better:

(A quick secret: I am not at all a 90s kid, so if you aren’t either, we’re on the same page. I’ve got you. Let us just choose and discuss some massive commercial hits that we all must have at least heard of. If not, where is the rock you’ve been living under my love?)

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994)

Many Films produced under the Rajshree banner are a universe of flaky norms, stereotypes, and blatant inequality in themselves with slight exceptions here and there (such as Saaransh). 

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, directed by Sooraj Barjatya stars Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit in pivotal roles. It also stars Mohnish Bahl, Renuka Shahane, Anupam Kher, Reema Lagoo, Alok Nath, Bindu, Ajit Vachani, Satish Shah, Laxmikant Badre, Sahila Chadha and others.

If you ask me to provide a true analysis of the film, I would be at a loss because it does not offer any major conceptually intellectual substance except for the question it raises against the norm of second marriages to immediate relatives. It does subtly prioritize the opinions of individuals while taking away the true essence in an attempt to cater to blind stigma. It is the story of two orphaned brothers, Prem and Rajesh who live with their uncle and aunt in a large mansion and smoothly handle a wealthy family business. Their lives are further adorned by the arrival of Pooja and Nisha. While the former falls in love in one arranged meeting and gets married to Rajesh, the prior is mesmerized by Prem’s cringeworthy and borderline creepy attempts at flirting through the course of the marriage. The narrative continues flat with songs and events like pregnancy, childbirth and family gatherings until Pooja accidentally falls off the stairs and dies (there should have been a filmfare award for the most futile conflict). The families choose Nisha as the second wife for her Brother-in-law for the sake of the infant that Pooja leaves behind. The film comes to an end with Rajesh discovering Prem and Nisha’s true emotions for one another resulting in their marriage. (I shall not talk about how Nisha tries to use a dog as a Postman to deliver the most prized, last love note to Prem.)

The depiction of a family seems so vague and imaginary in the film that it is difficult to not refer to it as an upper-class fantasy. The characters are unreasonably whitewashed beyond humane quotients. The females in the film are deemed to be bright and intelligent, yet morally disabled for the sake of fitting into the typical Indian Ideology of a ‘Perfect Woman.’ They respect and obey the men in the family and submit to the advances of the male characters as beacons of modesty. Thus, the film provides a view into a twisted sense of morality and responsibility that has ruled Bollywood in the 90s. It also brings us closer to fake ideals of a joint family (I believe and respect the ideals of both joint and nuclear families; but you cannot convince me that you sing and dance around in a frenzy like they do in the film). To wrap it up, we also witness a dampened dig at the concepts of marriage and happiness in general. 

DDLJ (1995) 

Directed by the lengendary Yash Chopra, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge stars Shah Rukh Khan as Raj and Kajol as Simran in a romantic escapade of errors. 

We see partially progressive characters like the nostalgic and patriotic NRI played by Amrish Puri contrasting against the lovable and carefree man played by Anupam Kher. Amrish Puri is depicted as a man who wants the best for his daughters but is governed by his own faulty ideas of moral modesty and responsibility. He owns a store abroad and, in my opinion, treats the women in his family like a bunch of commodities as well: determining their fate at his own will and binding their beliefs and desires at his staunch disposal. The worlds shift at his feet when his daughter, Simran, falls in love with Raj and is discovered pursuing him at all costs amidst her own wedding festivities. The film takes a leap in the depiction of a strong and almost unfeeling man being preferred as the sole decision maker of a family. 

Do you remember the iconic green attire on Kajol? I was as green with anguish at the end of the film to see an internationally educated woman begging a father to let her marry the man of her dreams. 

I cannot even get started on the concept of the ideal man of dreams that literally bullies you into love in these films. Raj played by Shah Rukh, is a careless young man. He has little to no respect for fellow humans and boundaries and thus, matches the perfect description of Sensibility that Simran writes poems about. Raj might just be one of the reasons why many Indians still believe wild loves must be crazy enough to get you drunk and make uncomfortable jokes after a black out; play mandolins on trains and make a fool out of so many people for secrecy’s sake. Regardless of all the ill manners and habits, he is an ideal man and a true Indian since he humbly decides to keep his hands to himself while Simran lashes out drunk. The film is rooted in ideas of misogyny and hypocritical patriarchy in all senses. The contorted ideas of an ideal father, husband and submissive women being the obliviated highlights of this heartwarming blockbuster. 

Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999)

I assure you this is not the last time you will read my rants about the Rajshree Universe. Even though the initial years of Rajshree has seen profound films such as Chitchor(1976), Dosti (1964) and Saaransh(1984), the later era has been a train wreck of grandeur, blotchy writing and prejudiced concepts of marital and familial values. 

Hum Saath Saath Hain, directed by Sooraj Barjatya stars an array of actors: Salman Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Mohnish Bahl, Karishma Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan in pivotal roles; Reema Lagoo, Alok Nath, Satish Shah, Rajeev Verma and Himani Shivpuri playing blatant typecasted characters since the director’s debut; and Shakti Kapoor, Ajit Vachani, Mahesh Thakur, Zoya Afroz, Sheela David, Dilip Dhawan, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and finally, Dinesh Hingoo. (I might’ve missed my children’s lives writing this long credit list)

Moving on, the film revolves around the lives of Ramkishan who marries Mamta after the demise of his first wife. Mamta gets along well and is respected by her stepson Vivek and gives birth to Prem, Sangeeta and Vinod as well. There is love and peace in the large family, grandeur and wealth being the eye candy in these films. Things go on well as the narrative jumps from one family gathering to another as the characters keep falling in love with one another more and more (Romeo would be alive if he were a Rajshree character, Alas!)

Rajshree films generally have a single conflict narrative. The conflict in this film occurs when mamta, after years of togetherness, doubts the terms of inheritance and tries to secure it all for her own children. The problem lies in the fact that this conflict is triggered by a dispute in her son-in-law’s family. But while securing inheritance, Mamta excludes her daughter from the discussion because women do not inherit property according to patriarchal familial beliefs. The dispiute leads to a crack in the relationships that is later mended by Prem who refuses to take his elder brother’s place in the family as well as the business empire. Mamta realizes her paranoid mistake, every manipulative character magically learns moral values and apologises and the film ends with the reunion of the family. 

Pardes (1997)

As the last addition to the article, I would like to talk about this little gem of a film by Subhash Ghai starring Shah Rukh Khan and the ravishing Mahima Choudhry as protagonists along with Amrish Puri, Apoorva Agnihotri, Alok Nath and Himani Shivpuri in pivotal roles. 

The narrative revolves around the life of Ganga and Arjun who unsuspectedly fall in love by being thrown at one another by destiny. Kishorilal, an NRI, decides to arrange a marriage between his son Rajiv and his friend Suraj’s bright and beautiful daughter, Ganga. He sends Rajiv and his foster son Arjun to India to meet the lady where Arjun acts as a matchmaker. They get engaged and fly off to USA where Ganga starst discovering the hoarse and unfaithful character of Rajiv. He abuses, insults, and openly reproaches her values in front of family and friends. This brings Arjun closer to Ganga as an only beam of support and friendship which blossoms into platonic love. Ganga puts up with Rajiv while Arjun is removed from her because of their increasing emotional intimacy until he tries to get physically intimate against her consent and gets violent. Arjun finds Ganga and brings her back to India where their relationship is questioned and demeaned. In the end, Ganga speaks up about the abuse and attempted Rape. Kishorilal shuns his son and accepts Arjun and Ganga’s love for one another. 

The film talks about abuse, state of women in families, adverse effects of westernization and the mischievously persuasive nature of society towards unjust settlements. It indeed is a gem, but, proves to be an uncut and unpolished one. The behavior of Kishorilal on Ganga’s abuse depicts a state of complete oblivion. He forces his son to verbally apologize to Ganga after he physically abuses her. The women in the family constantly put up with the abuse and shut other women down when they try to stand up for themselves. The friendship and innocent love between two people is justifiably scrutinized under the microscope of baseless social norms. And lastly, what I find the most heartbreaking fact, is how unsupportive and ruthless Ganga’s family is towards their abused and emotionally wrecked daughter. The father-daughter dynamic starts on a high note and disappointingly fades into unfeeling coarseness out of nowhere. 

The film tries and successfully highlights all the wrongs people might be subjected to. It is the setting and the long empty patches of uncomfortable time that makes me disagree with the backdrop of the family that the film is set in. In the end, the film is a hero in terms of production, music, performances and intellectual content but a complete freak show with it’s depiction of western morals, familial courtesies and internal relationships. Despite the slight issues, it is a film worth watching and cherishing for all the value it has to offer. Once again, can I just mention how incredible the music was?! (Do not tell me you have not sung “Zara tasveer se tu” while eying your crush on social media or grooved to “Do dil mil rahe hain” with the notification ding of a text.)

In my young opinion, misunderstandings and harshness amongst family members have their own course. They cannot be magically dissolved through sudden realizations. This deems the characters to be extremely shallow reflections with no specific arcs. The dream family is rich, always at peace and in love. Yet, the twisted ideology of a stepmother not being equal to a birth mother, educated women waiting around for a suitable groom while learning how to bake perfectly circular flatbreads and sensibly educated Men promoting misogynist morals astonishes me. 

With this, we come the end of an Era that shaped several opinions and values throughout the country. The only reality being --- the ideal family in 90s Bollywood, does not exist. The concept of perfectionism is as tricky and imperfect as it can get. A perfect family is an idea that can only be achieved through immense acceptance and mutual compromises with due respect to individuals and imperfections. Most of the family dramas, fail to honor or showcase this very fact to this day. 

Nonetheless, Cinema is a vast universe. It would be a one-sided rant if I do not refer to certain works of art that did try and make a mark with the power of influence that cinema has always had on viewers. There have been pathbreaking films like Mehndi (1998), Damini (1993), Bandit Queen (1994), and once again, for the sake of making amends to any hurt that I might have caused to Rajshree fans, Piya Ka Ghar (1972). In these films, we get a glimpse into the inner worlds of characters as they swirl along their arcs while unveiling the norm of hypocrisy and familial boundaries. The attempts of making such cinema have been scanty, but they still remain sadly relevant to the Indian Society to this very day.