The death of the formula
ANUJ KUMAR
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After being out of fashion for years, Bollywood is embracing style with chutzpah. Is it for real?
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Styling is the new ingredient in the Bollywood potpourri.
IT's REAL Stills from "The Namesake"
Once upon a time Jeetendra could come out of a jail in all white (including the shoes!) and Jayaprada could enter a swimming pool in a petticoat. Those were the days when Maganlal Dresswala ruled the costume department and the stars could carry their image to the screenplay. A Hema Malini could afford to take a clothed bath while a Kimi Katkar had to slog at a petrol pump in hot pants.
Mira Nair says when she showed the rough cut of "Monsoon Wedding" to singer Sukhwinder Singh, he remarked how the film was just so real. "Even Lillette (Dubey's) night gown is crumpled!"
Still from "Bas Ek Pal"
Cut to 2006, the formula is no longer sacrosanct. A small-budget film "Bas Ek Pal" hits the screen and makes news, for the director has used a colour code for every character according to his or her personality. Yes, styling is the new ingredient in Bollywood potpourri.
New age
The transformation started some years back when new age directors like Karan Johar and Farhan Akhtar took centre stage. "To me `Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' was the trendsetter and `Dil Chahta Hai' took it to a new high. They relied on relevant clothing rather than trendy or period clothing," observes fashion journalist-turned-designer Narendra Kumar Ahmad, who is styling Anurag Kashyap's "No Smoking".
Dresswalas are out of fashion and their place has been taken by the likes of Arjun Bhasin, the man behind the costumes of "Monsoon Wedding", "Dil Chahta Hai", "Rang De Basanti", "Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd" and now "The Namesake". The New York-based designer says he takes inspiration from people on the street. "It is fascinating how street fashion goes to films and comes back to streets."
Perhaps that's why, in "The Namesake" Tabu wears layers of woollen on Dhaka saris, like most Bengali immigrants do. And as Mira says, if we won't show it, nobody else will. For all the new-age tag, it is a far cry from Karan Johar's escapist NRI regalia where characters know everything about winter fashion but propound Stone Age values.
Reasons Onir, who directed "Bas Ek Pal", "There are two extremes. One is the Yash Chopra-Karan Johar camp, which can make everything look real through their strong marketing strategies. Hrithik looks wow in `Dhoom-2' but is it real? And the other is of new directors who want to experiment with the form, which Bollywood has hardly done over the years. I am happy even if one person notices the relevance of colour scheme in my film."
Onir feels the styling should come from the script. Raima goes parasailing in a sari in "Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd" but nobody minds it for the script could not have moved forward without the scene. "Styling should not come from the notion kuch alag karna hai and let's make her look hot, or let's use it for it's in," says Onir. Like "Babul" and "Salaam-e-Ishq" where even the fashion parades before the release could not change the fate of the films. In "Babul" Hema Malini plays a well-meaning mother-in-law who wears everything loud and ends up looking like a Christmas tree. Similarly, the cool John Abraham looks so cold in gold embroidered sherwanis.
Adds Raghavendra Rathore, who designed costumes for Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Eklavya", "The verve comes from the head. We had not heard of things like a visual director in India. Here Vinod and Pradeep would keep on waiting for hours for the sky to turn absolutely blue to contrast with the brownish foreground of the fort. Such dedication inspires you. I had to give several Power Point presentations for each creation and look."
Breaking the mould
Similarly Vishal Bhardwaj could see a Langda Tyagi in a suave Saif Ali Khan while Saif was hoping to be cast as Othello in "Omkara". Vishal's reasoning was Othello was conscious of his looks, which Saif is not.
Narendra feels the credit should also go to the actors who are ready to experiment with their image and looks. "Till a few years back no costume designer could dare suggest a change beyond a point." Today Saif agrees to cut his hair, Aamir happily sports a goatee, Aishwarya works out to get the "Dhoom" look and immediately puts on weight to play a village belle in "Guru" and Amitabh Bachchan happily wears a turban through the length of the film. Says John Abraham, whose body of work ranges from "Jism" to "Water", "You have to identify your audience and then cater to their demand. Having been a model earlier, it is easier for me to get into a particular look." Rathore says more and more films are no longer targeted at `janta'.
"They are being made for those who are at the top of the pyramid." Will it percolate like fashion, only time will tell?
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