What makes Holi such an essential festival for Bollywood?
Holi is arguably the most filmed festival for Bollywood films and more specifically, the songs (photo-DailyO)
From Rang Barse to Balam Pichkari, the North Indian populace that celebrates Holi have several Hindi tracks to play on blaring loudspeakers like every year. While Diwali, Dussehra, Eid, and Christmas are all essential holidays for Bollywood to capitalise on all the time, it is Holi (and arguably Ganesh Chaturthi given Bollywood’s Mumbai connection) that is probably the most filmed festival for B-town’s massy entertainers, particularly the song and dance sequences.
Sholay made Holi a major plot point
The arguably greatest Hindi film also has some of the greatest Hindi dialogues, courtesy of Salim-Javed’s screenplay. The desi Western finds Amjad Khan’s iconic dacoit Gabbar Singh planning on attacking the village of Ramgarh on the day of Holi, which leds to the quintessential Sholay scene where Gabbar repeatedly asks his minions,
On the day of the festival of colours, not only did the audiences get to hear the Kishore Kumar-Lata Mangeshkar duet Holi Ke Din but they also witness the first time Jai and Veeru cross paths with Gabbar. The bandit’s plan is foiled when Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra’s protagonists show up and chase Gabbar and co away.
The 1975 blockbuster proved how a colourful festival can serve as the perfect backdrop for not just a song but a major plot shifting moment. And with shades of pink and purple adding some freshness to the barren landscape of the sun-scorched Ramgarh, Holi served as an interesting creative choice to add some diversity to Sholay’s colour palette.
Amitabh Bachchan: The poster boy of Bollywood’s Holi
Sholay wasn’t the only Amitabh Bachchan-fronted film with a Holi montage as Big B went on to appear in several more iconic Holi songs during his career. The decade after Sholay, Bachchan had his fill of chugging bhaang and playing with colours in Yash Chopra’s Silsila in which he also sang Rang Barse Bhige Chunar Wali.
With lyrics penned by his acclaimed poet father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, the actor brought out the festive fervour with a song that is now synonymous to not only his name but also the very festival it is set in.
Even when Bachchan’s hair started turning gray in the 2000s, the man again played Holi with his Sholay co-star Hema Malini for Baghban’s Hori Khele Raghuveera, another essential pick on the annual Bollywood Holi playlist.
In that decade, Bachchan also starred as Akshay Kumar’s strict father in Waqt: The Race Against Time, another Hindi drama to feature a Holi song. However, this time, the track Do Me A Favour (Let’s Play Holi) was only framed around Kumar and Priyanka Chopra. Bachchan might have been too tired to do yet another Holi song!
Darr and Kabir Singh showed how Holi can be creepy and aggressive
Holi is a festival of crowds applying colours and throwing water on each other. Amidst all this chaos, there are unfortunate chances when some can cross someone’s personal boundaries. In one of Shah Rukh Khan’s earliest films Darr, the actor plays an obsessive stalker who is infatuated with Juhi Chawla’s heroine Kiran.
So, even though Darr’s Ang Se Ang Lagana is yet another festive song, it only adds more perspective on its villain’s stalking tendencies. As Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla’s characters dance romantically, a creepy-as-ever SRK stares at the lovebirds from a distance. While playing a dhol and staring intently at the girl of his dreams, Khan’s Rahul makes his intentions clear with his piercing gaze. If this wasn't enough, he even goes to the extent of forcefully applying colour on Kiran. One can only hope that no one finds such weirdos in their Holi festivities.
On the other hand, there is Kabir Singh which much like its Telugu original Arjun Reddy, dealt with the life of an extremely passionate yet possessive and violent lover. With some college boys getting in their non-consensual “bura na maano Holi hai” mode and applying colour on Kiara Advani’s Preeti, Shahid Kapoor’s Kabir turns into a raging bull.
He gets the news on call and quickly charges towards his Royal Enfield Bullet. Infuriated by how anyone dared to touch his girlfriend like this, the gulaal-stained Kabir bashes the living daylights out of his fellow students. It’s a confusing moment for audiences. While it shows that Kabir can protect his significant other from the hooliganism of Holi, his temper issues might come off as red flags (more so when later in the film, Kabir ends up slapping Preeti).
Regardless of the morally grey areas, Kabir Singh’s Holi scene showed that the festival can have its intense moments too (especially by some who might end up mixing too much alcohol with bhaang!).
Holi songs and 50 shades of love
From the start, Holi has been used to set up romantic characters and provide cheery scenarios when the two leads can just dance and bond together in a colourful background. And yes, this applies to not just Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh in Kati Patang’s Aaj Na Chodenge and Anil Kapoor and Rati Agnihotri in Mashaal but also Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in War’s Jai Jai Shiv Shankar (yes, War is a lovely homoerotic story if you look at it from a certain angle).
Apart from the War track, another Holi essential song is obviously Balam Pichkari from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone end up playing with colours in denim jeans insead of white kurtas, setting the precedent for new-age Holi scenes in the film industry.
Padukone is no stranger to Holi songs given how she and her now-husband Ranveer Singh romanced each other in Ram Leela’s Lahu Munh Lag Gaya. Given that Ram Leela was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, it is obvious that every frame has no dearth of colours much like his other films with exquisite “Fabindia-style” production design.
So, without a doubt, the Ram Leela song turns out to be a beautifully choreographed and visually striking Holi song. The chemistry between the leads along with Bhansali’s music composition also makes Lahu Munh Lag Gaya a way more sensual Holi track.
Now that Bhansali has come up with a bolder Holi track, it is interesting to see what Bollywood cooks up next with this festival…