Okay, get this. In the movie, Saajan, Madhuri Dixit aka Pooja is a bookshop owner in Ooty. Cut to her sitting at a piano on stage, with some 250 people seated there to watch her dance, sing, play the instrument, and off she croons: “Bohat pyaar karrrrrte hain tumko sanam…”. WTF!!!@@@@!! When did she switch professions??!!
Haven’t you ever wondered (I went beyond wondering and pulled my hair out a time or two) how movies of the ’90s had lead actors and actresses who were cast as doctors, lawyers or even bloody businessmen, landing up PERFORMING on stage out of nowhere, with an audience to boot, and preferably with their better halves in the audience who fall in love with them because of their STAGE PERFORMANCE??? I am yet to come across such random stage shows hosted by artistes who aren’t that — they’re NOT artistes! I mean, can you imagine your dentist Dr. Anand Jejurikar excusing himself in the middle of drilling your teeth and bam! Landing in some Tejpal auditorium, taking his tie off, putting on a leather jacket and doing the whole drill (excuse the pun)?
How random is that!
Consider this. Dulhe Raja had Raveena Tandon break into ‘Ladka deewana lage, vaah vaah ji vaah vaah’ for no sane reason; we all saw Shah Rukh turn into a rapper with ‘Ye Kaali Kaali Aankhein’ (Dude, he had gone to this restaurant in the movie to have dinner with his wife, Kajol. You dont just randomly start performing in a synchronised way with seedy looking dancers to flank you. Ever heard of permission at the premises? Nah. The world’s a stage!); aaah….the examples are many.
And let me not even begin with movies like Imtihan (Saif Ali Khan), Deewana (Rishi Kapoor), Dil Ka Kya Kasoor (who cares who that actor was) etc where, heaven forbid, the actor is actually a pop artist and his lady love falls for him after seeing his performance. Stage performance, that is, sillies. Which primary school did the scriptwriter come from again?
Think of more examples people, please!! This is not the time for stage fright. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to rush to Sophia Bhabha Auditorium —- you see, I have to fall in love with the billboard sign painter who’s going to perform there.
