If you are tired of watching present-day Hindi films and stars, get ready for a dose of retro. In the next few months, everyone from Nutan to Dimple Kapadia, Meena Kumari to Madhubala and Rajesh Khanna to the Amitabh Bachchan of the 1970s will be lighting up the screen via their current generation avatars. After the last big bite of retro three years ago with Om Shanti Om , Bollywood once again revisits the past. While Parmeet Sethi's recent release Badmaash Company dealt with the hitherto unexplored pre-liberalisation era of the early 90s, upcoming films such as Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai and Action Replayy are rediscovering the 70s era. Later this year, Kareena Kapoor begins shooting for Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine inspired by the leading ladies of the 1960s — Madhubala, Nutan and Meena Kumari.
Milan Luthria's Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai traces the path of the Mumbai underworld from the 70s when the supremacy of the dons is supposed to have started. The film follows the rise of Sultan (Ajay Devgn) and the conflict arising when his protégé Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi) challenges his supremacy and usurps his power. Kangna Ranaut plays a famous actress from the era who falls in love with Sultan, while Prachi Desai plays Shoaib's love interest.
Rushi Sharma and Manoshi Nath of Fools' Paradise, the designers who have styled the film, reveal that their brief was to combine the grit of the 70s underworld with the glamour of the 70s Bollywood. “We have included the whole West side story in our styling, right from denim bell bottoms to jumpsuits to cowl necklines to crocodile leather boots. For Kangna, we went with inspiration from Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, supermodel Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn because our Bollywood then was inspired by the supermodels and actors of the West,” says Rushi.
Research for film
The duo met a lot of people who were young in the 70s to research for the film and fabricated every accessory as they couldn't find any semblance of the era available readily. “We made everything from scratch, from the shoes to the watches used in the film. Kangna has cat eyes with the liner reaching right up to the eyebrows and hairstyles such as the bouffant inspired by the hippie movement and straight hair with a fringe in the front,” says Manoshi. For Ajay Devgn's simple and clean white-on-white look, the team reportedly had to go through a gruelling 37 costume changes before settling for an Amitabh Bachchan-inspired look from Deewar . Director Milan Luthria says, “I happened to see Deewaar and loved Amitji's all-white look when he goes for his father's funeral in the film. I realised it would work for Ajay as he looks good in white. Ajay wears white throughout the film. It gives him a different identity.” Emraan gets to play the flamboyant and angry dude with two changes in look, ranging from a white vest, denims and leather chappals to structured clothes with crocodile boots, while Prachi, a simple middle-class girl, dons tight chudidars with embroidered kurtas and laced duppatas as also a Bobby -knot top and short skirt a la Dimple Kapadia for a dream sequence.
Vipul Shah's Action Replayy , starring first-time pair Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai, is about an old couple (Kishen and Mala) married for 33 years whose fights never seem to end until their son gets them nostalgic about their days of romance on their wedding anniversary. Besides getting to watch the two actors as an aged couple, a generous dose of the 70s is on the menu here too with them travelling on a classic Vespa and Akshay doing a John Travolta act. Ace designer Manish Malhotra has styled the look of this mega-budget film expected to release in a couple of months. Akshay has said that he is super excited about the film as he is entering a period when his father-in-law Rajesh Khanna reigned as superstar.
Kareena's preparations
Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine with Kareena as the lead is expected to go on the floor in December this year and the actress is preparing herself reportedly by watching a three-hour documentary film featuring Hollywood greats Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh put together by the director himself. Though her character is inspired by an Indian actress, Hollywood stars had to be her reference as there is not much material available on the personal lives of Indian actresses such as Nutan, Madhubala and Meena Kumari on either of whose lives Madhur intends making the movie.
And if you thought only Bollywood is smitten by retro, look around. While the influence of this upcoming trend is being noticed in television commercials (Vivel Deo Spirit soap inspired by Jeetendra-Leena Chandavarkar and Salman-Bhagyashree and Cadbury chocolates ‘Pehli Taareekh Hai'), fashion stylists and designers have recurrently harked back to retro fashion. Ah! For the good old days.
