Divided by drama, United By Colors: Bollywood’s eternal Holi blend
The love affair of Hindi cinema with Holi: Filmmakers have shown Holi on screen as long as Hindi cinema existed. While many times, it has been shown as a turn where love is accepted, thus adding a new color to the life of the characters, on others it has been used as a background for an important sequence to move forward. On this cinematic Saturday, there is a look at how Holi is shown through years.
The best way to represent India on celluloids is to hold different colors of its many cultures. Its colors of its people, traditions and ceremonies. Fortunately, for filmmakers, and who are trying to measure the clothes of our very vibrant country, festivals are used. While Diwali makes you feel a sense of glory, Holi adds a little fun to your life. Filmmakers in India, over the years, used the festival to establish a change in their narratives, carried on the story forward, and sometimes, and literally, to add colors to the screen.
Like Diwali, Holi finds its roots in one of the most famous legends of Hinduism, where it is associated with the story of Lord Narasimha, the fourth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The country’s film-looking population has rarely found any Holi song or Holi related trop in a film. The festival has never been colored on the screen, depending on the festival of colors. Either it is used to add romance to the story, or contributes to a thrilling experience, becomes a symbol of an emotional turn, or acts as the right breath between melodrama and action.
Holi also means grandeur on the screen. This has always been a collective, big-life experience for the audience. Of course, today we have no match for big settings incredibly in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films. However, if you find out the representation of Holi in Indian cinema for the 1959 film ‘Navrang’, the festival still looks as grand as it can expect in a new-free India.
This is the magic of the festival. And when it combines with the magic of 70 mm, it becomes a pleasure experience like any other. There are no rules here. The idea is that fun, in abundance, carefully but so far in fashion. Holi gives you the license you want, whatever you want for one day. And cinema has used time and again the spirit of this festival.
In V Shantaram’s ‘Navrang’, you see a great ‘Ja Re Hat Naught’, where you see a woman teasing your lover. The classical beating of numbers and vibrant dance makes it a kind of cinematic festival of the festival. In the 1971 film ‘Katti Patang’, Rajesh Khanna uses the festival to express his love, and breaks the stereotypes around a widow who has not allowed any color to wear, but white. It comes as the final confession of her feelings, to see the woman he appreciates and appreciates her life filled with colors.
In 1975, ‘Sholay’ director Ramesh Sippy used Holi colors to establish a tragic turn in the story. As soon as the colors decrease, bloodbeath begins. The festival, which is considered to add colors in life, takes the same from the characters.
Then, in the 1981 film ‘Silsila’, ‘Rang Barse’ provides the biggest struggle in the storyWhich sets the story separately on the verge of correct and wrong. You understand the freedom that comes with Holi, but also the result of taking it.
In the 1982 film ‘Nadia Ke Paar’, you see a young village boy to see that he will be able to play Holi with the woman he loves. The ceremonies are about to find happiness in craving for one, and hope you will meet to celebrate with her next time.
There is hope in these colors and cinema has never failed to capture it almost. What is cinema in any way if there is no canvas of Hope, happiness and heart?
In the 90s, filmmakers began to use Holi to introduce convenience points in their stories. This is the turn that makes or breaks their stories, feels restless about a point that either conspires the audience or what they are coming. In ‘Damini’ (1993), the festival determines the platform for the big tragedy in the film, which becomes a fullcrass of the whole story. The festival is raped with a domestic help, and a woman, despite seeing the crime, is forced to live.
The same year, Shah Rukh Khan brings ‘Dar’ and becomes the most frightened hunter that Bollywood has ever seen. With a face in colors, he visits the woman’s house with whom he is crazy, and burns to see her celebrating Holi with her husband. He will be the same man who teaches us all the importance of love and how it makes your life colorful, where the cinema is at the peak in the representation of the soul of Holi.
SRK proposed an unconditional love in the 2000 film ‘Mohabbantin’, and healed an entire generation, which began to connect Holi with fear and crime. When he imagined his dead lover’s songs, dancing and playing the role of Holi with him in ‘Sony Soni Ankhion Wali’, we filled a collective sigh of relief. There was love in the air with the fresh fragrance of colors.
Amitabh Bachchan also found his way back to Holi after ‘Silsila’. This time, he showed that color does not discriminate and there is no age to feel fickle. In the 2003 film ‘Baghban’, Bachchan along with Hema Malini worked to bring a folk Holi number, ‘Hole Khel Raghuveera’, one of the most enthusiastic versions of Cinematic Holi.
It was only a coincidence that the next Holi song which joined the Holi Playlist of the audience was also from one of his films – ‘Wact: The Race Against Time’. The song ‘Let’s Play Holi’ was shown in a very stylish Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar. This is where Swag entered the Holi ceremony.
Later, Bhansali carried forward ceremonies using Holi to add more aesthetics to his cinema. In his ‘Golian’s Raslela: Ramlela’, he used the festival to establish attraction. The characteristic of Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s scintilting chemistry, ‘Lahu Muh Lag Gaya’ gave the audience a taste of seductive beauty on the screen. Subtle but beautiful beauty!
In the same year, Deepika appeared in another special number of Holi, which is a hit with all generations – ‘Balam Pikachri’. A revised folk number, the song became a fierce symbol of the celebration among the youth, and was used for character growth in the film ‘Yeh Javani Hai Deewani’. This is the place where a timid and reserved Naina finds its inner crook Diva, and all goes out. This is the point where the girl gets her confidence, embraces colors, has fun, and agrees to live her life completely.
In 2015, Deepika again captured the screen with Grace in the Holi song ‘Mohe Rang Do Lal’. This was also the time when Bhansali continued to express his hobbies for the festival. He once again used the puzzle that Deepika is to highlight the color of beauty, grace and temptation. ‘Mohe Rang Do Lal’, a classic number, became a setting for title characters to fall in love with deep gaze in each other’s eyes.
If you see it, Holi has always been special for Hindi cinemaWhile our producers are still learning about ethnicity and representation of cultures in cinema, they have got the festival a bit right. They have got the colors of relationships, aspirations and heartbreak. Holi can be a medium of expression in cinema, but it never came out of style. Never going
