BOLLYWOOD TYPES STEREOTYPES

 

BOLLYWOOD TYPES STEREOTYPES

Bollywood or main stream Hindi cinema has forever been thriving and surviving on stereotypes- stereotypes of gender, caste, class, region and religion. The term ‘stereotype’ can be defined as something conforming to a fixed or general pattern especially a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment.

Beginning with the overt gender stereotypes, the male lead is the ‘mard jisko dard nahi hota’, at rescue of the female lead who is always a damsel in distress. A fat girl shall be appointed as this damsel’s “best friend” who is always secondary to the heroine, is comic and never ends up with a guy or a promotion or even a real job in few cases.

Be it representing a particular sect or community, Bollywood tends to overdo and extensively generalise. For instance, homosexual male characters or gays are always portrayed as effeminate. Films such as Partner, Fashion, Dostana, Student of the Year portray gay characters almost as a clown, a side-kick, inducing ridicule. All of them are shown in the exactly same manner, speaking in a particular way with gestures almost feminine and a limping wrist. Its only with a few films such as Aligarh and LOEV that bring forth a realistic depiction and highlight the real issues faced by the community.

A recent case study can be that of the film Sardar Ka Grandson directed by Kashvir Nair that released recently on Netflix. The film captures an ailing Punjabi grandmother’s wish to visit her ‘home’ in present day Lahore where she resided before partition, which is finally fulfilled by her grandson played by Arjun Kapoor. Neena Gupta in the role of the grandmother, along with other actors, seems to overdo the character- from accent to vocabulary, the characterisation falters at every step. Stereotypes associated with the community such as being loud, alcohol consumption and uttering the phrase “Balle balle” for absolutely no reason are different markers of ‘being Punjabi’ in Bollywood. Sikh or Punjabi characters are often shown as dumb witted, always ready to fight and are used to provide comic relief.

The presentation of South Indian characters is another problematic issue. The movies represents all of the South as Tamil as it is the only southern state. They mix up Malyali, Kannad and Tamil people all together. The industry shows them craving over Idli or dosa or a Rajnikant fan or weird in nature. One of the example is the character of Shahrukh Khan in the movie ‘RaOne’ where he is shown a person eating noodles with curd having curly hair and weird accent.

Undoubtedly exceptions do exist, but mostly as part of parallel or off beat cinema that aims at realism and realistic depictions. Mainstream Bollywood unfortunately continues to have merely handful of movies or characters that stay away from generalisation and exaggeration resulting from lack of research and lack of inclusive mindset of not just the filmmakers, but the audience as well.

By Hetika Kathuria

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