My grandma who is an octogenarian can barely make out whatever is being played on that 32-inched LED display, hung right in the middle of the wall; although she is extremely good with her ears. Last night while I was sharing the dinner table with her; during the break of some ancient saas-bahu serial flashed on the screen, something as ‘Ramleela- 22 farwari raat 8 baje ‘.She heard this and said with expectations in her spectacled eyes that she will be able to watch Ram-leela after years.
I could not say to her that its merely a movie and bears no resemblance to that epic we have grown with.How cheated will she feel if she gets to see the song ‘lahu muh lag gaya‘? She will feel cheated so to say.Such names that have some ethical and moral significance for all of us should not be used this way especially when directors are not able to meet the values that are expected from these movies.
Same thing had happened in 1978 when the movie ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram‘ was released when people were expecting an entirely pious movie but were shocked to see the actress who could not meet the budget of her clothes. Then came the movie ‘Qurbani‘ in 1980 which shattered the hopes the Islamic mob as they were eager to watch the movie whose title meant sacrifice in their religion; holding a sacred nerve to it.And now its Ram-leela.
I can’t deny the fact that there is a majority of crowd that enjoys such displays but there is still in this society a crowd of those old-aged people who are not considered atleast as the audience of Bollywood.For those who are growing with this kind of cinema will not have a problem in the later years of their lives; I guess, as we have started to adjust. As of now for the grandpa and the grannies, their pace-makers can behave abnormally if they get a glimpse of ‘Ang lagaa de re‘ in ‘Ram-leela‘. So dear directors please do consider the fact that even names have meanings and values attached to them while you are on your way to decide the names of your movies.