Moving Body Parts and Bollywood

I have gained some gyaan this week. It is what is known as 'Saakshaatkaar'-which means something like realization, in Marathi and probably Sanskrit. The realization is this- that many Bollywood heroes have made a career by simply moving their body, or parts of it, in a particular way.

Take Shashi Kapoor. I was watching the title song from Sharmilee yesterday, and it struck me that I had seen the same movements of his body--arms outstretched, rocking motion forward and back, almost a dozen times in his other films. Pyar ka mausam, for example. Or Namak Halaal.

Or Shammi Kapoor. I have also seen this guy in countless movies of his, particularly in song sequences, moving various body parts in indeterminate directions, at random, and without dislocating any (my presumption). What Michael Jackson was to pop music, we already had in the form of Shammi, (not to mention that his yahoo came before the company did).

Or Dev Anand, my favourite for years. He has this unique style of moving around, crouching and with hands held close to the body, the neck moving up and down, in many sequences.

Rajesh Khanna had the up and down hand motion which has been imitated successfully by many stand-up comedians, along with the eyes going open and shut, with accompanying neck movements.

Moral of story? If you have got the moves- as in moving body parts, flaunt them, use them, and become a STAR!

2 comments:

Harimohan said...

I would like to add the moving (or the non-moving) parts of our Telugu heroes of yesteryear - NTR, ANR, Krishna and Shobhan Babu - because their contribution in this area is immense.

Diamond Head said...

There is also the unique phenomenon of actors standing in strange angles to the addressee - typically in Epic Incarnations like Mahabharaaat - the dude in question says something somber while positioning himself at 40 degrees to the queen dudess in question and speaks while looking towards an imaginary ceiling.

This is then followed by the queen looking askance mind you not directly at the original addressor dude and making another deep dive remark meant to confuse the viewership.

In certain situations there were also legally blind dudes that spoke with authority and they were excused since they did not know where the hell the addressee may be in the room - realize that rooms in the kingdom were also largish nature compared to say Mumbai.

Just my thoughts,

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