I got back home by 6:30 today and for want of anything better to do, switched on Sony. It was showing some recent hindi movie which I don’t really think I would have seen in a better frame of mind , but when you are acutely bored –anything goes. So I ended up watching this flick.

Now it was another of those usual formula hindi movie – Mr. Hero and Ms. Heroine falls in love in first 60 mins, sing songs, exchange vows of true love. Then some misunderstanding crops up and they get apart in next half an hour. Enter Mr. Nice Guy, he supports our Ms. Heroine for next one hour. Mr. Nice Guy gets into good books of Ms. Heroine though our Ms. Heroine still cries all night for Mr. Hero in one or more of those sad songs. With half an hour to go, she comes round and agrees to marry Mr. Nice Guy. Now we enter the climax, just as they were about to get married, misunderstanding between Mr. Hero and Ms. Heroine gets resolved by some twisted stroke of fate. But all this happen almost always on the wedding day. Now Mr. Nice Guy is left with no choice, he steps up and lives up to his name by bringing together Mr. Hero & Ms. Heroine and walking away himself. And without fail, he does this with a perfect smile playing on his face at the end. Result – everybody is happy at the end of three hours. .

I have seen this plot numerous times, two movies I can immediately remember are Kuch Kuch Hota Hain and Mere Yaar ki Shaadi Hain and I seriously felt bad for characters of both Salman Khan & Jimmy Shergill. I mean poor Mr. Nice Guys, why should they always step aside. Why should fate be cruel on them? Why can’t all these misunderstandings get resolved well in time before these poor chaps make an entry? Now you can’t sympathise much with Uday Chopra but u can’t fault SRK for falling in love with Ms. Heroine at first place and we all want things to work out between the leading pair which eventually does. But someone must spare a thought for our poor Mr. Nice Guys. That way Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was a little different, while Mr. Nice Guy, as usual, decided to step aside but in the end Ms. Heroine came back to him. But then that happened because Ms. Heroine was already Mrs. Heroine by the time movie entered its climax. Now in almost all hindi movies if Ms. Heroine ends up marrying Mr. Nice Guy then we all know happy ending requires our leading lady to stay put in the marriage. That’s why I think Mr. Johar came up with an excellent story for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna though he spoiled it entirely with frivolous execution of that movie. Now that’s more or less the only movie I recall where Ms. Heroine walks out on a seemingly perfect hubby to pursue her heart’s calling – guess it was too mature and complicated a story for Mr. Johar to handle but I just hope somebody more competent tries a remake of KANK. Am sure this is one script that has immense potential to change the standard formula of hindi movies.

But coming back to tried and tested love triangles of hindi movies (which upon applying rules of geometry should be isosceles in my opinion), I was just wondering could these stories have any other ends? Probably not. On careful thinking, the very reason why the third angle of this triangle is called Mr. Nice Guy and not Mr. Hero 2 is because he is never supposed to be the hero. He is just there to fill in for Mr. Hero till fate plays one of its tricks and set right all that was wrong so far. I mean while all Mr. Nice Guys are immensely likeable but they are not really supposed to be loved or are they? Not really, if any of the hindi movies are to be believed … I don’t seem to recollect any flick where Ms. Heroine (and not Mrs. Heroine) chose to prefer Mr. Nice Guy over Mr. Hero (and not Mr. Anti-Hero).

Frankly, if you ask me if I would like the original formula changed so that Ms. Heroine forgets Mr. Hero and fall in for Mr. Nice Guy, I myself would have serious apprehensions. One or two offbeat movies ok but always …ummmmm no please. Reason – if misunderstandings did them apart in first place then it would be really hard on Mr. Hero as well as Ms. Heroine, if they are kept apart just because it was too late by the time it all got cleared. Guess that’s why our directors prefer to play the game of brinkmanship and chose to clear air just in time i.e. on wedding day ;-) And so if there got to be one sacrificial lamb in the whole thing, its only fair that it is Mr. Nice Guy. After all, Ms. Heroine was never meant to be with him at the first place.

But then, just for the sake of being different. I really wish to see one movie where our Mr. Nice Guy is both liked and loved. And it’s not him who is required to make way at the end. I mean even by the law of large numbers Mr. Hero should run out of luck at least once after repeated success in all the hindi movies in walking away with the bride. Some bright guy somewhere should come up with a believable excuse why Ms. Heroine can live happily ever after with Mr. Nice Guy instead of going back to Mr. Hero.

Now only guys I can trust to do justice with something like this are either Vishal Bharadwaj or Sanjay Leela Bhanshali. But given Shakespeare never thought of a drama like this so Mr. Bharadwaj might just be long way off a movie like this and as for Mr, Bhansali, well…does anyone know what’s the story of Saawariya ? ;-)



Song recommendations:

Now that I have established my knowledge of hindi movies beyond dispute. Let me recommend my favourite tracks from Saawariya. Excellent album and it was really tough to choose one song as favourite over rest and actually I couldn’t do it in the end.
So, two of my fav songs from this album are:

1. थोड़े बदमाश हो तुम, थोड़े नादान हो तुम….. sung by Shreya Ghoshal; &
2. माशा अल्लाह….. by Kunal Ganjawala