Boi boi!

Watched Ladla yesterday. Yes, the same 90s saga that had Anil Kapur (or is it Kapoor?) proudly flaunting his lush fields of... you get the picture... and Sridevi (in a role originally meant for Divya Bharti) as the evil independent woman with all the vices you could imagine in the female of the species gone wrong - ambition, discipline, business sense, not giving a shit to men, and who can forget that snappy - Understand? You better understand.

Like every good pre-Hum Aapke Hai Kaun movie, this one went full on with the chauvinism and pious mother-son stuff. Suit-wearing leading lady would conveniently don a saree for the upcoming rape attempt, the baddies were... well, bad. And then there was Raveena.

Clad in the most modest sarees of her career, Raveena as the wronged girl gives such gems of wisdom to her rival as, "it is natural for a woman to doubt another woman, but you should at least trust your husband!" Ooh la la...

I was wondering what it is about the outrageous and unabashed decadency of the whole thing that is so soothing. Let someone try making that kind of a movie now. Let me see Ranbir Kapur (Kapoor? I'm never sure) tell Katrina (I was going to write Sonam, but for my Kapoo(u)r problem), "Mard ho to aisa jo sar utha ke jiye; aur aurat ho to aisi jo sar jhukana jaane". I'm not going to translate that.

I searched hard for the reasons that make me just sit back and enjoy this stuff without getting offended. I think it is this - that an early 90s film did not pretend. It didn't pretend to be sensitive or intelligent or sweet or innovative or unique. The film is just what it is, and it is proud of what it is. "So, I say that women belong to the kitchen and the man should wear the pants in the marriage," Union Leader Raju seems to say, "and I don't care what you think about it. I'm the pious hero who carries his paralyzed mother in his two arms, who doesn't care for a female boss, who throws a shirt at the half-naked, halfway-molested woman while bashing up her molesters, flaunting my unshaven chest (and back and shoulders and hands). You don't like this, flick the channel. I've built my career, I've had my success. Deal with it."

Audience and critics back then didn't mind, they didn't try to label their movies. They hadn't had a taste of the sacrificing Salman of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or the righteous Shah Rukh ala Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge or the silently suffering Shah Rukh ala Dil To Paagal Hai. The Hero back then didn't wait for the stoic patriarch or the handsome Other Guy to have a change of heart. No sir, he took the situation by the horns and put things right on his own. There was something very comforting about knowing that our guy will figure his way out of any mess, no matter what.