Bollywood this year clearly rode on bold content and bolder language with expletive-ridden films like ‘No One Killed Jessica’ and ‘Delhi Belly’ getting the green signal from Censor and the audience. Filmmakers successfully experimented with bold real-life stories like in ‘The Dirty Picture’ and invective-infused dialogues to give a real drift to the film’s terrain and its characters. They took the ‘offend and abuse’ trip to be in sync with the youth.
Rani Mukherjee began the year’s trend with her portrayal of a competitive TV journalist in ‘No One Killed Jessica’. The erstwhile ‘Babli’ of Bollywood underwent an image makeover in the film puffing cigarettes, mouthing cuss words and showing the middle finger. Her favourite dialogue in the movie was: “I am a bitch.”Director Rajkumar Gupta maintained that using abuses in everyday conversations has become a norm and it was harmless keeping in mind the changing landscape and characters in Hindi cinema.
The “irreverent” ‘Delhi Belly’ found many takers for its toilet humour. Its bouquet of bad words and the drumming ‘Bhaag DK Bose’ became hugely popular for its profane loop.The abuse-oozing crime comedy, produced by Aamir Khan scored high with all, barring a few, setting new a definition of ‘fun’ in the industry.”‘Delhi Belly’ is a very irreverent film. It does not have any skin-show but ‘ashleel’ (obscene) language has been used. Its a ‘kameena’ comedy. There is no sex in the film. I think the movie will change the definition of bold films in the industry,” Aamir had said. And sure, it did.
True to its title, The Dirty Picture’s brave and bold content coupled with innuendo-filled dialogues by scriptwriter Rajat Arora, closed the year on a high note.Vidya Balan’s acting and abuse hurling skills, inspired by the life of late south sex siren Silk Smitha, topped by ample skin-show, successfully sailed through troubled waters.
This year, use of ‘desi’ expletives and dialogues (some in regional Marathi language too) albeit in a humourous way, went down well with the audience in blockbusters like ‘Ready’, ‘Bodyguard’ and ‘Singham’.
Also to some extent, Kangana Ranaut in ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, Gul Panag in ‘Turning 30’ and Irfaan Khan as well as Saurabh Shukla in ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’ raised a toast to the foul language spoken by people in daily lives. Luv Ranjan, director of hit adult comedy ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’, also used swear words and managed to get a U/A certificate.
Although getting the cast to mouth offensive words and vulgar dialogues does not ensure successful films, it does create some buzz initially through trailers, making the required noise before the release. Diwali release ‘Ra.One’ saw Kareena Kapoor’s character doing a thesis on Indian abuses. She rains abuses on Shah Rukh Khan, who played her husband in the film, and her onscreen son repeatedly asks her to mind her language. But other than creating a hype, this characteristic did not make any addition to the film.
But foul language has proved to be a demand of the script in many films earlier. Saif Ali Khan and Ajay Devgn were at their abusive best in ‘Omkara’; Vidya and Arshad Warsi hit the slang note in ‘Ishqiya’ and it worked in Kareena’s favour in ‘Jab We Met’ and ‘Golmaal 3’.
Hey, subtle must be your mdidle name. Great post!