Will Movies Stop Being A Family Affair?

It was in the late 1990’s. My Dad came home with movie tickets for the whole family and suddenly there was a big hullabaloo in the house. The elders in my house planned a late night movie. We got very excited as we all sat in my Granddad’s vintage car and got ready to go to the movie. I come from a very small town. Everyone knows everyone in that town. At least they used to in my school days. So, when my granddad would take out that car, everyone knew that the whole Gupta family is going for a family event. The car was hilarious. An iron rod had to be inserted into the engine and rotated for the car to start. More often then not, the whole family was mostly pushing the car with my Granddad proudly steering the wheel. I swear!

So stuffed like a teddy bear, with all our family fitted smugly in that car, we entered the movie hall. We grabbed many small bags of potato chips and some bottles of coke. Samosas and egg roll will find its way to our seats during the interval. Midway of the movie the children in our family were asked to bend their heads down. Don’t be shocked. We were not being attacked. Smita Patil and Amitabh Bachchan decided to have a rain dance and Smita Patil was really looking sexy in the wet, clinging saree. Our older generation got nervous and the way they behaved it felt as if we were on the verge of losing our virginity. So we all bent our head down till the song was not over. 

 Nowadays everything has changed. That scene of the Bollywood flick, which made us behave like hostages,  is a baby in front of the all the boldness that is synonym with Bollywood Flicks. Girls are called items, bed scenes and lip locks are “artistically needed” for that scene. Sexuality is not any more a closed door affair. Smooching on screen has become a norm. According to the our Filmy duniya, they are portraying what our society is all about. I am not moral policing. But when vamps do the ‘item songs’ it is expected but when our heroines do the same it is almost like we are watching fallen stars. We have idolized our heroes and heroines for so long that to see them fall from their pedestal is sad. But fallen they have. The sensuality that Madhubal’s smile had cannot be seen in Katrina’s  chikni chameli number. But vulgarity or in want of a better word, open sensuality is here to stay. The question is – will movies stop being a family affair?