Some prefer a no-frills marriage while others want it to be a grand affair with lots of filmy spice thrown in. Many women find similarities between their own weddings and sequences shown in hit Bollywood flicks and the parallels are unmistakably striking
Shabiha Nur Khatoon
Bollywood has always influenced our fashion sensibilities, but there is one other aspect where the filmy influence is apparent: the way marriages are conducted. It is not surprising, and the credit goes to some of our filmmakers, that young Indians across the world are familiar with terms like ‘mehendi’, ‘sangeet’, ‘karva chauth’, ‘roka’, ‘mangni’ and the rituals and practices associated with them. Wedding is a great affair for not only the person getting married but also all those attached to him or her in some way or the other, those who helped him/her become who he or she is. The sparkle associated with the delightful celebrations are captured and packaged in a larger than life frame. Orissa POST speaks to a few women whose marriages were a replica of reel marriages of hit Bollywood movies.
Krushnapriya Tripathy who hails from Cuttack feels her marriage was in many ways similar to the 1976 flick Balika Vadhu because she was 16 when she got married. “I got married at the age of 16 just after my Matriculation. Getting married so early has its own problems and I faced different problems like I didn’t know how to wear a sari. There were instances when I was asked to cook and halfway I left the job and started playing with kids of the locality. At that age girls don’t have any sense of responsibility,” she says.
Priyadarshini Banerjee, a dance trainer based in the Silver City, says her marriage was similar to the sequence shown in the movie Run. “It was at the age of 15 that I met my life partner and after having an affair for six years finally we decided to get married. When we confessed our love to our parents they refused to accept. It’s quite painful to get detached from one’s parents but still we decided to leave our respective houses and I think the movie ‘Run’ was similar to my own case. In the movie we see Abhishek Bachchan falling for a woman (Bhoomika Chawla) who has a violent and overprotective brother (Mahesh Manjrekar). The action movie is filled with romance and adventure and my story is also filled with romance and adventure.”
We ask Priyadarshini whether she was happy with her decision. She replies, “I am very happy with my decision because my husband takes care of me like anything and presently we are running our dance academy and are very happy.”
“I find the character played by Renuka Sahani in the movie ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ similar to mine and my marriage also resembles her in the movie in many respects. Mine is an arranged marriage like Renuka’s in the movie where she is the elder daughter-in-law of the family who takes care of all the family members, fulfills everybody’s demands like me, the elder daughter-in-law of my family,” says Mamta Patnaik from Bhawanipatna.
Neena Padhy preferred a simple, arranged, stylish wedding and she feels her marriage was similar to the one shown in Vivah. Vivah narrates the journey from engagement to marriage – a Platonic love story starring Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao. The film reminds us of small pleasures like the bride and groom’s families sleeping on the floor, playing games together, their friendly banter and mutual respect. Vivah focused on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of commitment in a relationship. Yes, the central romance is naively visualised but the sneaked-in romantic moments between the to-be-married couple and their stubborn resistance to modern courtship games makes you crave for the kind of idealism depicted. So, for me Vivah’s just the kind of marriage that fits my tastes.”
Sushmita Patnaik has a different take on her marriage and its similarity to the movie Sirf Tum. The only difference is that in the movie we see how love between the protagonists is conveyed through postcards while in her case it was through telephonic conversation. “Yes our love bloomed through telephonic conversation and I find similarities to the affair show in Sirf Tum. After we confessed our love to our parents they gave a clean chit and we got hitched. I love remembering those days,” says Susmita.