Considering the wholesome entertainment aspect of Hindi films, the lines dividing genres often blur but some escape this demarcation. If there were ever one genre that never lost its identity over the decades, it would have to be the ‘Muslim social.’ Bollywood’s Muslim socials started with Mehboob’s Najma (1943), a film that unknowingly ended up causing more harm than help to the very genre that it would create. The film laid great stress on the aspect of development, modern thought and education amongst the Muslim community but its celebration of Muslim etiquette and culture is what ended up filtering through. Close on Najma’s heels many films like Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Mere Mehboob (1963) and Bahu Begum (1967) enjoyed great success. There was always an element of a hidden social message in these films, but the greater the success this genre enjoyed, the further it went from the truth. The imagery would be filled with brilliant palaces; birds fluttering around the fountains in opulent gardens; the air would be filled with ittar and there would be poetry flowing from every possible outlet; the men would be only be seen in sherwanis enjoying only a sher more than a paan; the women would adorn burqas or costumes heavier than gold and there was nothing to be unhappy about. The films went on celebrate the whole nawabi culture along with the ghazals, qawwalis and sher-o-shayari to such an extent that it seemed the world depicted by these films wasn’t real.
Thanks God they didn;t portrayed it like that, because in most of the cases its not the reality. In most of Muslim families women follow Purdah by choice and not by compulsion.
Bollywood does not know how a common muslim leads his life thats why I like pakistani dramas…
Rather than sher o shayari we muslim talk about religious issues…tell me about a day when we dont talk about Halal,Haram and Above all Allah and his RAsul Mohammad:saw2:
I just remember how moin akhtar talk about jannat in drama Unki surat nazar aye to…
some times when Groom say Qubul hai…every one follows saying Qubul hai:D
what Ninja said!! its far from what our culture is .. one cant relate to it!
why is that bollywood movies always show muslims as bad guys, wearing taveez, kajal in their eyes and every women is wearing a burqa?
and the most funniest part is when they show muslim weddings … its just hilarious
I think in bollywood people follow the what they heard more than what they saw.
There was a time when many Social Muslim movies were made by Muslim Producers, writers and directors, which portrayed nearest picture of Muslim society. Nikah, Pakeeza, Umrao Jaan were one of those movies which shows the culture prevailing in Muslim families nearest to realities. The phenomenon of showing Muslims with Taweez, etc is based on limited interaction these movie makers had with the Muslim society and their culture.
From Bikini to Burqa women has weirdest of choice:D
They show Purbiyas dance on Munni Badnam hui, half of their life Purbiyas discuss politics of state and remaining half they sing either Alha or Ramcharitmanas:D even ladies discuss about Sapaa and Baspaa there:)
Muslims alone as bad guys?? which movie are you talking about precisely, Taveex, Surma is very common in Hindustani muslims, I think you are confusing between Muslims and Pakistan.
Bollywood to this date have people like Farah Khan, Sanjay Khan, top khan actors, Bollywood always have Eid day release too, muslims are one of the most fanatic movie lovers, their autorickshaw’s are moving proof of it:D, from Dilip Kumar to SRK bollywood always had more influential Muslims than any other category. They opt for theme which is commercially most successful:)
Don’t know.. but as Bollywood doesn’t represent Muslim culture properly, I don’t find Aamir Liaquat representative of civilised UP walas thanks to that ‘aap ne Ghalib movie dekhi hai’ episode.
Samjwadi party, party of Yadavs and upper caste muslims, currently ruling
Bahujan Samaj party of Dalits and Lower caste muslims but who would form government still depends on movement of pundas:D
They don’t represent anything properly, from hindu wedding to karva Chouth they represent everything wrong:). Urdu is entirely hindustani language, specially lucknow where both muslim antiquity and modernity lives side by side
lets not get into that, there is an endless list of Indian movies, where muslim were shown as bad guys and ofcourse Pakistanis as well. so are you saying surma and taveez are very common among Indian Muslims? well, I havent come across one single Indian Muslim here who does that, I’m sure Ninja would agree with me on that! .. it maybe common ages ago, certainly not now! I think they are stuck in pre partition period! … times have changed now.
I dont like the way they show Pakistanis in their movies, They need to move away from this whole excessive use of Suban-Allah, Taveez,surma, shero-shaiyari, paan, ghazals and everyone in shalwar kameez, they make everyone look like oppressed and highly conservative, its really hilarious, according to them, this is what Muslim culture is all about, what they show is a myth, not a fact, but I dont blame them, they have little or absolutely no clue about Pakistani lifestyle, thanks to banned Pakistani channels in India, they remain ignorant!
I am asking for one movie, it would set an example for me to understand:) Surma, Taveez, are very common in hindustani area, KKF can tell better
Ninja is marathi, muslim of different ethnicity behave differently, Tamil muslim speaks only in Tamil. Hhederabdis don’t wear much of Taveez and Surma, but burqa is very common in hyderabad, almost as much as mangalsutra by hindu women there.
If you have seen Sanjay Dutt’s Vaastav, it shows Hindus too as bad guys. Sikhs are perpetual jokers:D
Sikhs are always shown saying “wah ji wah”, wearing burqa isn’t shown as oppression just like wearing turban by sikhs With muslim being so prominent in bollywood, it is not possible to show them as villain. Gabbar Singh, Mogambo weren’t muslim too.
The maximum earning that movies make are from UP,Delhi and Punjab. And they portray it normally.
Pakistan is perpetual villain in nationalistic movies.
What is difference between two varieties of Punjabees, even our swear words are same. I assume same is true for Sindhis.
True. After all movies are based on fantasies. In Pakistani Punjabi movies they show rude gujjars, who don’t even give a damn to dancing mutyaran. They still carry gandasa alongwith Kalashnikov in all the movies
