What’s with ageing? Ask Hindi cinema, and you’ll find a wary gentleman answering you. Gentleman, because that’s how our cinema functions… as if it were entirely conceived and run by a man. Which is probably why ‘he’ is more considerate towards ageing heroes, yet squirms at the idea of heroines with wrinkles. No, sir, the woman must forever remain pretty and young. Female actors are allowed to be everything as long as the ticking clock is by her side. When age kicks in, her talent doesn’t matter; she will be shown the door, never mind her talent or her own wish to stay alive.
While we deal with such persistent feelings, the teasers of Karan Johar’s next directorial venture, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, are heating up the horizon. Featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in lead roles, the film belongs to the growing list of movies that are putting young heroes opposite their older counterparts. That is, about screen couples with an age gap, sometimes that are palpably visible, and sometimes casually hidden. In Ae Dil Hai Mushkil ’s case, it seems quite evident with Kapoor seen getting intimate with Bachchan in the film’s promotional material.
Welcome change
This is a new and beautiful exception. Are we witnessing some sort of change in gender equation in our films? Look at the recently released time travel romance, Baar Baar Dekho, which had Katrina Kaif wooing the much younger Siddharth Malhotra. InFitoor, Kaif has romanced Aditya Roy Kapoor, who is a couple of years junior to her. And if all goes well, she has her eyes set on Varun Dhawan for the third installment of ABCD . Priyanka Chopra has been the romantic interest of Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor in back-to-back films such as Barfi, Gunday and Bajirao Mastani , exuding a certain confidence that gave her box office hits. Kareena Kapoor, too, matched acting chops with Diljit Dosanjh in the recent Udta Punjab , and with Arjun Kapoor in Ki & Ka : actors younger than her in both age and experience. Also add Jacqueline Fernandez to the list, falling in love with the cub-like Tiger Shroff in A Flying Jatt .
The sceptics would say, older heroines paired opposite younger heroes is nothing new or path breaking. After all Devika Rani, the first lady of Indian cinema, romanced Ashok Kumar, in Jeevan Naiya and Achhut Kannya , as early as in 1936. In fact, the love story between a Brahmin boy and a Dalit girl in the latter was such a massive hit that it turned Kumar into an overnight star and Rani-Kumar became an on-screen pair that sent everyone in a tizzy. But that was the pre-Independent India. With India gaining independence, socialist films made way for star vehicles, and things changed to a point of no return.
As male stars started dominating the medium, heroines cast opposite them turned younger and younger, working as the magic potion that keeps the illusion of the hero’s youth alive. Amitabh Bachchan did it, Rishi Kapoor did it, and the Khans continue to do it with panache, by starring in films featuring heroines decades younger than them.
Looking back
But the same rule didn’t work for female stars. If Rakhee’s pairing with Rishi Kapoor in Doosra Aadmi (1977) was frowned upon, Sridevi coupling with Salman Khan in Chandra Mukhi (1993) and Chaand Kaa Tukdaa (1994) or Madhuri acting opposite Akshaye Khanna in Mohabbat (1997) hardly captured the imagination of the audience.
Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai , which released in the new millennium, was an exception in this case. The intense chemistry between Akshaye Khanna and the much older Dimple Kapadia, though hammered in as an older-woman-younger-man romance (something a Dabangg or Chennai Express don’t have to bother about though the age gaps are perhaps similar), was handled with maturity, and it worked both critically and commercially.
The film did address a taboo that popular entertainment hitherto addressed, but truth be told, it very cleverly refused to alter the status quo by making the woman die in the end, and not give the potential romance a happy ending. It made the audience ponder, but it kept the commercial appeal safe.
In light of such a sexist history, post 2010, the world seems to be a happier place. Of course, the older hero and nipper heroine romance continues to dazzle our minds, but at least our new crop of female stars are challenging the norm and with remarkable results.
The men are alright
Two major factors are at play here for this new change. First, female stars, before reaching their Bollywood expiry age, are taking conscious decisions from early on in their career to pair up with younger actors in a bid to rewire the audience’s mind of their age and appeal. Unlike male stars who never have this issue, female stars make sure that they keep pairing up with actors who are younger. Maintaining svelte bodies and ensuring chartbusting numbers in youthful romances, and half the job is done.
Another major factor is that most of the current crop of male actors have no qualms about acting opposite female stars who are senior to them. Be it Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor or Tiger Shroff, these young heartthrobs in a welcome sign are choosing to work with women who have spent more years in the industry. Whether this move by the young male brigade is conscious or subconscious, it’s definitely pushing the envelope of female stardom in Bollywood.
Last but not least, our social media infested millennial generation is also to be blamed, or rather applauded for this slow breaking of this taboo. As information trickles in from the whole wide world, the new generation is waking up to the idea of feminism, gender bias and other social issues. Perhaps the new audience base wishes to prove itself progressive by paying no heed to the age-old idea of age gap. For whatever its worth, this visible symptom of change in mainstream Hindi cinema is the sign of a new dawn.
The writer is a journalist and a screenwriter who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise; he tweets @RanjibMazumder
