There are many things to like about Bollywood, India’s premier film industry and the world’s largest by far. In fact, Bollywood is so huge that it is three times the size of France’s film industry which comes third for the number of films released every year.
But quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality, we know that. This is why most of the movies that Bollywood churns out every Friday are unimaginative cash-grabs, while the number of groundbreaking, thought-provoking, or just genuinely entertaining movies can be counted on the hands of one finger. In fact, most of them ought to come with the disclaimer in the ticket stub itself: Leave your brains at home. You know who we are talking about.
Item numbers or songs are one of these movies’ hallmarks. Featuring scantily-clad models swaying sensuously to some feet-tapping but raucously cacophonic music, these songs are the bane of the thinking man or woman’s movie-going experience.
To be fair, songs and dance routines have been part and parcel of all Indian movies ever since its inception. Be it falling in love or mourning the demise of a loved one, our actors like to break out into a song – if not dance – to clearly show the audience what they’re feeling.
Hollywood isn’t exactly alien to song and dance routines either. It is just that they aren’t a part of mainstream movies and are grouped together as ‘musicals.’
But back home, item numbers take the cake for sheer mindless drivel. The tunes are not just cringe-worthy, they are misogynistic and perverse for the most part. Social mores that are a part of civilized society are routinely flouted in these songs, and it all goes because, c’mon, this is just a song-and-dance-routine, and not part of the actual film’s storyline. Never mind the fact that they bog down the narrative; no wonder Bollywood movies are so long and take so much time to get to the point.
AIB’s latest sketch is a skewering look at this very phenomena. Starring the versatile actor Irrfan Khan, it is not just a caustic look at item songs, but also characteristically hilarious and revealing. Irrfan Khan is also one of the very few actors who can claim to have made thoughtful, genuinely entertaining cinema for the most part. After the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire brought him to the attention of Hollywood, his ascendancy to fame has been propelled further by movies like The Lunchbox and the just-released Jurassic World. The latter now holds the record for the third highest-grossing film of all time in both North America and the world during its theatrical run, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2015 so far.
So yeah, he’s very well qualified to make a song and dance about the side-effects of song and dance.
And in case our international readers don’t know them so far, All India Bakchod or AIB is one of India’s most famous comedy groups, with the majority of their fame coming from their YouTube sketches and their stand-up acts. The four-and-sometimes-five men group shot to fame, or notoriety –whichever way you look at it- when their sold-out roast of some Bollywood personalities raised the ire of self-righteous moral policemen who demanded not just a ban but even field multiple FIRs against them. Things went so far that the group was forced to pull down their video from YouTube eventually.
But as they say here, “if you’re so tough shut this one down.” We don’t know if they’re talking about this sketch or item-songs, but it works either way.
By the way, the ending of the six-odd minutes video also sagely predicts the following:
“Phhir websites isse uthayegi
Sponsored posts banayegi
Clickbait wali headline deke
Tumse click karaayegi”
Basically, they mean that websites will swiftly pick up their sketch, write articles about it, and then slap a clickbait-y headline to it to make you, our reader click on it.
We’re guilty as charged, but we sure do think this sketch deserves more exposure, not that they are wanting for it much, hence this article.
Enjoy the video embedded below:
Images: AIB on Facebook
