The 80's Are Back..But Why?

The trailor of the new Himmatwala is doing the rounds on television these days. Judging from the promos, it looks like the film has two basic selling points: testosterone-fueled action sequences and a reboot of the song "Nainon mein sapna". Right at the end the trailor proclaims gleefully "The 80's Are Back". Now, I found this a bit strange - why would the 80's want to be back in 2013? In fact, there are several very good reasons why the 80's most definitely should not be back now.

The 80's were an exceptionally disastrous decade for Hindi cinema. Most of the films made in this decade had unimaginative plots, regurgitated storylines and very poor music and song picturization. The original "Nainon mein sapna" is as ludicrous as it gets - the song screams larger than life through each of its frames and the dance moves are exaggerated. There were a total of, maybe, three storylines doing the rounds...

Storyline 1: Poor hero falls for rich snobbish girl-rich girl's father does bad things to the hero-rich girl is locked up in her room by daddy-love triumphs all-happy ending.

Storyline 2: Bad guy kills hero's father-hero's only life-purpose is to avenge his dad's death-hero beats up several goony-looking men on the way-couple of songs with heroine-kills bad guy-happy ending

Storyline 3: Virginal boy and girl are madly in love-Yeh paapi duniya can't see them happy-bad things happen to girl and boy-love triumphs all-happy ending (or sometimes love cops out and both boy and girl die as in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak or Ek Duje Ke Liye)

There were, however, some film-makers who were willing to take a risk with unusual stories, full-bodied male and female protagonists, and songs that did not come with in your face picturization. Unfortunately, these people got slotted into the category of "parallel cinema", which meant that even though their films were hailed by the critics and recommended by intellectual types, they almost never drew crowds and were not box office hits.

Coming back to the new Himmatwala, there was something else that struck me while watching the song "Nainon mein sapna" about the performers Ajay Devgn and Tammanah. I'm not sure they are the right people to re-do the song. Even though I've referred to the song as ludicrous here, there is something about the sheer madness of the original that I love. When Sridevi and Jeetendra do those Mass P.T. inspired steps, I know they fully believe in them. There is no hint of the silly on their faces; they dance in full earnestness and joy. Not the case with Ajay Devgn and Tammanah, though. She is coy, not super-confident like Sridevi was in her performances; he looks plain silly and has a smirk on his lips like he is thinking "What the twinkle-toes am I doing? The film better make a 100 crores and then some!"

I don't have any plans to see this new and improved version of Himmatwala because I suspect it will simply be a new and improved version of Devgn's earlier blockbuster Singham. I know it will join the "100 crore"club - and that, perhaps, will be its only claim to fame.