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This story is from February 27, 2008
Filmi porter no longer spells magic
Coolies of the dockyard will not benefit from railway minister Lalu Prasad's generosity.
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Life of coolie no more attracts Bollywood filmmakers (TOI Photo)In the history of Hindi movies, if there is one job instantly identifiable with an actor, it's the coolie. The actor, of course, is Amitabh Bachchan. It was, after all, during the shooting of Manmohan Desai's 'Coolie' (1983) when Bollywood's greatest superstar suffered a life-threatening injury that sent a nation in prayer.
India thronged to see the movie, especially for the shot where the actor had suffered the dreadful accidental blow in his stomach.
Coolies of the dockyard will not benefit from railway minister Lalu Prasad's generosity. But for most Hindi film addicts, Vijay of Deewar (1975) will be the definitive Bollywood coolie whose rage aptly expressed the sullenness of a generation racked by corruption and unemployment.
But by the time David Dhawan came up with Coolie No 1 in 1995 - which kickstarted the harebrained No 1 series Hero No 1, Aunty no 1 and later the copycat Rakhail No 1 - the coolie had blended with the changing times. The new coolie played by the street-smart Govinda was no fighter waging war against injustice. He was a winner ready to con his way to success and sing, 'Tujhko mirchi lagi to main kya karoon'.
Once mainstream Hindi cinema enacted its own version of class struggle where the hero's modest profession earned him instant empathy with the audience. He was a landless farmer, a rickshawpuller, a tangewallah, a motor mechanic, or, as you like it, a coolie.
But in new multiplexed Bollywood, he has no place. Which is why the coolie has vanished from Hindi cinema. At least for a day, Lalu has put him back in our consciousness.
India thronged to see the movie, especially for the shot where the actor had suffered the dreadful accidental blow in his stomach.
Sadly, Coolie turned out to be among the worst movies that the famed actor-director combine had churned out. Now all one remembers from the film is Big B, dressed in a coolie's red uniform, singing 'Saari duniya ka bhojh hum uthate hain' in the intolerable voice of Shabbir Kumar.
Coolies of the dockyard will not benefit from railway minister Lalu Prasad's generosity. But for most Hindi film addicts, Vijay of Deewar (1975) will be the definitive Bollywood coolie whose rage aptly expressed the sullenness of a generation racked by corruption and unemployment.
But by the time David Dhawan came up with Coolie No 1 in 1995 - which kickstarted the harebrained No 1 series Hero No 1, Aunty no 1 and later the copycat Rakhail No 1 - the coolie had blended with the changing times. The new coolie played by the street-smart Govinda was no fighter waging war against injustice. He was a winner ready to con his way to success and sing, 'Tujhko mirchi lagi to main kya karoon'.
Anger turned post-modern in the rip roaring C-grade flick, Gunda, where Mithun Chakraborty played a coolie working both at the airport and shipyard. Don't ask, how? Directed by Kanti Shah, the movie is remembered for its sadakchhap dialogues that the frontbenchers lapped up: 'Main tum jaise logon se nafrat karne wala, garibon ke liye jyoti, gundon ke liye jwala'. Or how about this: 'Khote sikke ne bhi kya baat boli, boli toh boli jaise bandook ki goli'.
Once mainstream Hindi cinema enacted its own version of class struggle where the hero's modest profession earned him instant empathy with the audience. He was a landless farmer, a rickshawpuller, a tangewallah, a motor mechanic, or, as you like it, a coolie.
But in new multiplexed Bollywood, he has no place. Which is why the coolie has vanished from Hindi cinema. At least for a day, Lalu has put him back in our consciousness.
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