Why Bollywood still can't get over cultural stereotypes

The audience was in splits when Deepika Padukone, dressed in a half saree, her hair adorning a gajra, mouthed Hindi with a heavy south Indian accent in the recent blockbuster Chennai Express. Deepika's bokwaas Hindi, haallwai, mai idhar aati tum kidhar jaati lingo was meant to infuse humour in Rohit Shetty's over-the-top action comedy.

The humour, however, did not please everyone and once again brought to fore the long-standing debate of Bollywood's love for language and culture stereotypes.

Bangalore-bred Deepika is a south Indian. She said she would never spoof her own culture. Apparently, she had to put in some preparation into her role of Meenalochni Azhagusundaram. She mastered the Tamil-Hindi tone.

Deepika in the recent blockbuster Chennai Express. The actress, who is a south Indian, said she would never spoof her own culture

"I don't understand why people are jumping to conclusions. We all are south Indians - Rohit is a south Indian and I think except for Shah Rukh Khan, most of the crew was from the South. Why would we spoof our own culture?" she questioned.

"For years, our films have been based in Punjab but now a few films have started setting their stories in south India. I think people are not yet used to it. Chennai Express is a comedy and a largerthan- life film so the dialogues were meant to be funny," she added.

Deepika is trying to insist Bollywood films are making a gradual shift from an overdose of the Punjab flavour but she seems to miss the point that the films are not looking beyond accent and peculiarities while depicting different communities.

Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani tried to present a slice of Kolkata through its characters, bylanes and local lingo. All through the film, heroine Vidya Balan's character Vidya Bagchi is called Bidya Bagchi (the letter V doesn't exist in Bangla and is pronounced as B), despite stressing her name begins with a V. Sujoy, a Bengali, was successful in capturing the linguistic malady without poking fun. Shoojit Sircar's Vicky Donor, a light-hearted comedy on sperm donation, has sensitively depicted the idiosyncrasies of Bengali and Punjabi cultures.

"The film depicts the clash between the two communities, yet we sensitively narrated the quirks of the communities," said Shoojit, about the portrayal of two families from distinct communities coming closer by marriage.

"Bollywood has been open about merging cultures and ethnicity. However it has always failed when it comes to blurring the northsouth divide," said Shiv Vishwanathan, prominent sociologist.

Films such as Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi set the comic tone but minus the caricature clichés

It has always been that way. Mehmood's clownish portrayal of a Tamil musician in the 1968 hit Padosan comes to mind, as does Kamal Haasan's struggle with the Hindi language in Ek Duuje Ke Liye. Johnny Lever's Pillai in Khiladi and Omi Vaidya's Chatur Ramalingam in 3 Idiots are other bizarre southern portrayals.

"The idea of stereotype is largely to present it playfully in films. However, the way most communities, rituals and languages are shown, it creates differences," added Vishwanathan, adding Bollywood has always worked at creating strong stereotypes related to language, accent, pronunciation, look and other idiosyncrasies of a particular community.

"A Bollywood film will invariably show a Tamilian as having a strange accent, a Goan as a habitual drinker while a Muslim is mostly a terrorist," says Vishwanathan.

Comedy in Bollywood is often created by poking fun at ethnic groups and their distinct mannerism. Chennai Express is only the latest in the long line of films to do so.

SOUTHERN SWING

Deepika Padukone's Meenamma and her extended family in Chennai Express, besides the film's Tamil Nadu background, is a recent example.

QUIRK FACTOR: Culture clash between north and south has always been a favourite idea for Bollywood filmmakers. However, barring a few most filmmakers fail to present it well. Mehmood's character of a southern music masterji in Padosan invited a lot of criticism when it released in 1968 for making a caricature of Tamils in order to induce humour.

The Kamal Haasan-Rati Agnihotri starrer Ek Duuje Ke Liye tried to ride high on language stereotypes to narrate the romance between a Tamil boy and a Marathi girl. Johnny Lever made a name in most of his films lampooning southern mannerism. One of his most memorable roles remains in Khiladi where he played an over-the top Malayali nariyal paaniwala. On the other hand, Abhay Deol as the Tamil bureaucrat Krishnan brought alive the nuances of the community without caricaturing the same in Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai



PUNJABI BY NATURE

Almost every Yash Raj and Karan Johar film since the nineties has cashed in on Punjabiyat and has spawned me-too productions.

QUIRK FACTOR: The Punjabi community has ruled Bollywood scripts mostly because it allows room for lavish masala entertainment. Over-the-top Punjabi humour, extravagant weddings, glittering Karva Chauth ceremonies, Punjabi rap, Patiala peg, Patiala salwar, lassi and sarson ke khet are but a few musts in our films, all of it thanks to the success Yash Chopra and Karan Johar productions have seen. Imtiaz Ali tried giving Punjabiyat a quirky touch with the Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor starrer, Jab We Met.

The overwhelming Punjabification of Bollywood is evident from the fact that north India is mostly represented in our films by Punjabi characters and characteristics. Words such as mauja, munda, oye, rabba, and kudi are a few common ones that have become favourite with our lyricists.

PARSI BASICS

Bela Sehgal's Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi and the Vidhu Vinod Chopra-produced Ferrari Ki Sawaari have lately shifted the spotlight on Parsis.



QUIRK FACTOR: Bollywood has always portrayed Parsis as Bawa, Rustom or Batliwala. Our films have mostly cracked joked about their appearance, nature and style of talking.



Pearl Padamsee became the familiar face of the community in films of the seventies, with middle-ofthe- road Basu Chatterjee hits such as Baaton Baaton Mein and Khatta Meetha.



Chatterjee's films apart, crossover fare such as Pestonjee, Percy, 1947: Earth and Being Cyrus overcame the clichéd comic punch associated with the community and explored serious subjects.



Recent films such as Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi and Ferrari Ki Sawaari once again set the comic tone but minus the caricature clichés, though in the two films Boman Irani and Sharman Joshi respectively stuck to the hackneyed depiction of Parsi men as sissies who blindly obey their parents.

BONG CONNECTIONS

Seen lately in Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani, Anurag Basu's Barfi! and Shoojit Sircar's Vicky Donor

QUIRK FACTOR: Kolkata's trams, bylanes, ubiquitous slums, Durga puja fervour and distinct Bengali pronunciation added to the mood of the thriller Kahaani. Sujoy Ghosh incorporated the flavour of the city in a manner that it elevated the film's drama quotient.

Similarly, Anurag Basu shot his film Barfi! in Darjeeling and Kolkata, and the Bong factor was appreciated by the audience. Saurabh Shukla as a police officer emerged as the most endearing character in the film because of his authentic Bengali accent.