Tuesday 24 July 2007

BOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES

The hindi film industry. aka BOLLYWOOD churns out hundreds of movies every year. Movies are a reflection of our society, rather they're meant to be. But going by the stereotypes we come across in movies year after year, this is far from the truth.

Allow me to show you some examples.


PUNJABIS

  • No matter which part of the world you go to, if you ever come across a Punjabi, it will always be a Sardarji.
  • All Sardar couples are comical and loud. The whole family are extroverts and can make you feel at home anywhere.
  • Punjabis can break into a Bhangra anywhere, anytime.
  • Go to any Punjabi household, at any time of the day, even in the wee hours, you'll be served 'Makkey di Roti' and 'Sarson Da Saag'.
  • A Sardar has to just say "Jo Boley So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akaal' in hopeless times, and he suddenly turn into a superhero who can pull off almost anything. Some stunts can even put Rajnikant to shame.


SOUTH INDIANS

  • No matter which part of South India you come from, whether you're a Kannadiga or a Telugu or a Malayali, you are a 'Madraasi' in a hindi movie.
  • South Indians eat either Idli or Dosa for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brumch, snacks..........
  • South Indians absolutely cannot speak Hindi well.
  • Southie males are all dark and wear mundus and chandan teekaas, while the females wear kanjeevaram sarees and gajraas 24x7. They all have thick accents.

CATHOLICS

  • Catholic males have only 3 names to choose from - Tony, Robert and Johnny.
  • Catholics are heavy boozers and spend 30 hours a day out of 24 drinking fenny or rum or gin or scotch or whiskey or beer or a cocktail of all the above [:P]
  • They all wear huge crossesround their necks.
  • Females always wear frocks or short skirts and sleeveless tops.
  • Catholic aunties are all widows whose husbands have died due to booze overdose. Ironically, the widows go on to own a Desi Daaru bar and drunkards all over India insist on going to 'Aunty's Bar' only.
  • Their Hindi is terrible. They say 'Karta' for both males and females.
  • Catholics address every thing that has ever walked on the surface of the planet as 'Man'. for eg: "Aye Man, kya karta hai?" can be said to a man, woman or a kid.....or even a dog.

MUSLIMS

  • Muslim men have only 3 names to choose from - Abdul, Ali or Salim.
  • Every village or mohalla has atleast one respected elder called 'Khan Chacha'. He's eternally dressed in white, has a white beard and holds a rosary.
  • Saying 'Ya Ali' makes a Muslim Superman and Batman combined.

OTHERS

  • All Sindhis speak in the same Sindhi accent. Its as if the same dubbing artiste has lent his voice to the actors over a period of more than 50 years. And they say 'Addey Babba' once in 2 minutes.
  • Bengalis say 'Korta Hai', 'Hoodi Baba', 'Babu Moshaai' and 'Roshogolla' million times a day.
  • Nepalis will never lose their Nepali accent, no matter how many years they might have spent in India. Also, they're doomed to be the building watchman or Gurkha. All of them are called 'Bahaadoor'.
  • All people from UP and Bihar are country guys who can speak only in Bhojpuri. And they all rear cattle.

49 comments:

  1. Alls fair in the entertainment world. If not for these typical characters Indian cinema would have been so boring. Every hero needs a Sardarji or a Madrasi sidekick with a great accent and comic timing to make him the hero that he is. Every villain needs a Robert and The Muslim Granpa of the area who sees all and understands all and Knows all..

    Movies don’t necessarily have to reflect the society. It’s ENTERTAINMENT. I personally don’t have any problems when people say “oh! You’re south Indian!!! But your Hindi is so fine!!” If not for these characters Bollywood would have been as bland as Hollywood. :)

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  2. interesting! :)
    and thanks for ur comments on my blog..buddy..

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  3. hahahaa very well inferred... Punjabis are most typically branded in bollywood movz i feel... u missed the most common features of hero's mom, dad n lover offcourse... those wud hv made da post moe saucy.. lol.. xpecting to get dose in a coming post :)

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  4. Ya...Really good one dude. Keep it up.
    My blog: http://onepuzzleaday.blogspot.com

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  5. that was killer man...
    read a few of ur posts.. u hav an opinion and that is good.. keep the good work up!

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  6. Nice research. But your piece is titled "Bollywood Stereotypes" which is quite broad and should've included a lot of areas. Instead, you have stuck to communities. The article, thus, should've been titled "Bollywood Indian Community Stereotypes". Right?

    So, you can give us a Part II by dwelling now on other stereotypes... as in professions (the obnoxious court scenes, college professor scenes, taxi-drivers, waiters, stewards, hotel receptionists, our fav policemen and more) or situations as in stereotype rape scenes, eve-teasing scenes, happiness on passing in exams scenes etc. etc. etc... You can go crazy with a topic like Stereotypes.

    By itself, the article is good, although you have chosen a short-cut of writing in points. But it does make for easy reading. So, continue writing and continue making us laugh.

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  7. @julius - hey thats a nice idea. point taken.. watch this space for more then..to be titled "Bollywood professional stereotypes" :d

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  8. Good work... this shows ur keen observation.... it is funny....

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  9. Well true but then can u imagine an indian film without all these ppl...i mean first of all we hardly hav good scripts and then if such characters arnt there it would get damn boring....u knw somethn like a shitty holly movie.

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  10. Funny Post...
    nice observation...
    the new gen. of directors need to take a step forward in eradicating these sterotypes...
    it creates an impresssion about a particular society.

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  11. the folowing lines are hilarious like the whole post---
    A Sardar has to just say "Jo Boley So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akaal' in hopeless times, and he suddenly turn into a superhero who can pull off almost anything. Some stunts can even put Rajnikant to shame..

    Catholic males have only 3 names to choose from - Tony, Robert and Johnny

    Every village or mohalla has atleast one respected elder called 'Khan Chacha'

    i had a goodlaugh..bt amatter of concern as well...just look and compare where the indian film industry is relative to its competitors..pitty!

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  12. Hehe!!! Damn goood!!! So many stereotypes...and they keep on reinforcing!! Sad! what sometimes funny

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  13. he he...but jokes apart, it is a sad reflection of the mindset of people in general. like it was shown in chakde - to the andhra girl, they ask - madrasi and she replies no andhra. and he says wahi...andhra madrasi everythings is same.

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  14. You forgot Miachael for the common names of catholics.

    and you simply ignored parsis.

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  15. reaaly amazing blog keep it up and keep writing...

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  16. Wow Nice Observation !! Have you travelled for all the places ! Or Just collecting the info's and blogging !!

    my blog : http://mohanitguy.blogspot.com

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  17. heh, i guess movies typify the stereotypical dream India, or the India that the rest of the world sees....or the rest of India sees...

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  18. HA HA HA...rolling wid laughter after reading this one...
    bollywood is another synonym for stereotypes...nd yea i noticed another 1 too..
    all the big businessmen are Malhotra's and their eldest son's name is always Prem..:P
    gr8 one..should read all the others too..:)

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  19. not thst old post..

    I remember reading it and commenting on it too.

    I see that you didn't appended the post. You could have make it better by reediting.

    Anyways, you can do it even now.

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  20. @confusion confounded - well, actually in india, films influence living as well, whether we like it or not. And so people tend to associate what they see on TV with the real thing. Which can really turn out bad in real life sometimes.

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  21. @anwer - Thanks a lot dude :) And you're welcome :)

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  22. @littlewriter - oh yea, lotsa things to talk abt..but dude to space constraints..anyway, lets see, sometime in the future mebbe :)

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  23. @suman - thnk man. Will visit :)

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  24. @maneesh - thanx a lot :)

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  25. @Deathfrag - Thanx a lot :)

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  26. @whizkid - oh yea, but lets not credit my observation dude. its so 'in-your-face' :P

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  27. @Tentacles - dude, on the contrary its OUR movies that have turned all shitty coz of such stereotypes. :P Think about it

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  28. @Shiva - very true. But more than the directors it is us people who ought to change our mindsets. After all, who craves for such movies and cheers for such crap? :P

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  29. @abymittal - yeah dude..its embarassing to say the least :)

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  30. @rashi - yea gal. the latest stereotype I guess is that of all NRI's being punjus [:P]

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  31. @new philosopher - YEp!!! That was exactly what I meant when I said it was pitiable. Good u mentioned this example :)

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  32. @unpretentious - oh yea, the parsis. Mebbe I shud update it right here :P

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  33. @kanika - thanx a lot :)

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  34. @mohan kumar - dude :O The movies :o

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  35. @ash D - true dude. Imagine this! A foriegn lecturer had come to my college and said he was appalled at what happens in india, after watching slumdog millionaire

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  36. @Shruti - LOL @ Prem malhotra. oh yea, and Raj and Rahul too :P

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  37. @unpretentious - okay jee.

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  38. Wow!!

    Hehe, this was so obvious and so funny!!

    The madraasi thing was so true... M a tamilian settled in Delhi, so I know what happens here!! :D

    Cheers

    *PEACE*

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  39. dis one was so kewlll..awesome fun...njoyed it! :)

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  40. lol, so cool! this is so true.. :D :P i am a south indian living in delhi..so everyone expects me to be kaala, with accents.. :P

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  41. this was one of the most hilarious pieces I have read in a long long time.. wonderful! :D

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  42. @aarthi - hehe. I had a mallu friend who kept being called madrasi. :P

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  43. @maverick - thanx a lot dude :)

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  44. @miss sunshine - oh yea. lotsa stereotyped thoughts lingering around here. ironically, it should least happen in a country with such diversity as ours.

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  45. @pink orchid - HEy, thanks a lot :)

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  46. this is gr8 stuff!
    But mind it, nothing can put rajnikant to shame!

    In fact shame is ashamed of coming in front of rajnikant!

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