Earlier till 70s the Heros used to be emotional, family centric, soft with a very faithful and lovely wife waiting at home. If there is some fight on the way for the hero, It will be finally solved in some way and Hero would meet his wife waiting eagerly for him at home.
But now in 21st century, the scene has changed. The hero takes her girl-friend whenever and wherever he goes for a fight. She sits behind him in his bike. She supports him morally and sometimes physically too. And finally she shares the dais after win with a Hollywood kiss.
Rajesh khanna was most probably the last most famous emotional Hero. The cult of emotional hero had started with K L sehgal and shyam kumar in 30s and 40s. Heroes like Dilip Kumar, Devanand, Raj kapoor, Rajendra kumar all had taken it further and immortalized the image of a very caring, emotional and chocolaty hero. Their heroines used to cry, long for them and dream of being with them. The Hero went sometimes for war, engineering project or abroad but finally returned back to meet his wife and family at large. There was naughtiness in movies too like those of Raj kapoor, but it never crossed the line of faithfulnees from at least wife’s end.
Not to forget many warrior heroes of the past. The best among them till 70s was prithviraj kapoor (acted till ‘50s) with movies like Alexander, Rustam-sohrab. But these movies were mostly historical ones and showed the power rather than muscles.
Then came late 70’s and it was time for a married Hero. With actors like Sanjeev Kumar, Amol palekar there were comedy family drama like golmaal, Angoor. With Naseeruddin shah and shabana several meaningful movies like Masoom, Ghar, Arth kept the audiences surprised.
In between came Amitabh and things changed for a decade and half. As we all know the angry young man was here to stay. His movies showed the general apathy of indian public from government and whole system. Issues like Unemployment, Poverty had been so well entrenched in indian society that masses were happy to see a superhero in the form of Amitabh bringing all the rich down and Poor up in his movies. Movies like Mard, coolie, Deewar showed common man’s and labour class people’s dreams being satisfied at least on the silver screen.
Late 80’s saw the rise of chocolaty heros again. There was a simultaneous rise of powerful heroines with the likes of rekha (as Hunterwali), Sridevi. The ladies had grown stronger. A strong man like Amitabh, Shatrughan sinha needed a comparable strong girl friend and there were jeenat aman, parveen bobby and all.
90’s saw the rise and rise from sensualism to eroticism in Indian movies. The chocolaty hero was turning into a sexy man trying to woo the sexy girl in his college. It’s quite possible that it signalled reaching the maturity level for Indian viewers. By end of 90s audiences got bored with all this double meaning movies and songs and found them to be part of movie and finally the hoopla around them seemed to be settling down.
Now came the much awaited 21st century, and I must say the Indian cinema had transformed. Sometimes it definitely missed to reach the heights of mid 80s with movies like Arth from actors like Naseer and Shabana etc. But as a whole it was starting of an era of movies that were less of a social drama but more for the youth(mind). It was for youthful mind, by youthful mind and of youthful mind. The changes were and are fast. What will survive in the long run, no one can say as of now.
