Punjabi Lajpat Nagar, a favourite among Bollywood makers

From the youngster who revels in the middle-class tag yet flaunts his branded clothes, to the short kurti-clad auntyji who will cut the neighbour’s water supply if they mess with her, when Bollywood filmmakers set their films in the “very Punjabi” Lajpat Nagar, they get the quirks and nuances of the locality just right.
'That ‘aaiyo’, ‘jaiyo’, ‘kariyo’ usage is so typical of this place'
Shoojit Sircar, director, Vicky Donor: What Juhi (Chaturvedi, the writer) and I incorporated into the film was years of my living in and breathing the Delhi air.Of observing the quirks and nuances and the uniqueness of Delhi. In Vicky Donor, the focus was on Lajpat Nagar and a family living there. And everything was set up to lead to that. Everyone in that specific area of Lajpat Nagar, if you notice, lives in those 75 gaj plots. Mostly three-storey buildings, built in a certain style – the small colonies, the interconnected terraces. The people are very Punjabi. Almost every house has a biji or a Dollyji. The boys and girls – basically rooted to family, parents. In terms of clothing, these youngsters are absolutely modern, obsessed with brands. Always well-dressed. Good college in DU is a must. Aspiration drives them. And now, they no longer find excuses to be ‘Hindi’. They love Bollywood songs, love Hindi films over western ones. And the aunties – Dollyji, if you notice, is always wearing those loud kurtis and Biji wants that iPhone and a Facebook account. The language is blunt, saying it like it is, that undercurrent of sarcasm with everything, that ‘aaiyo’, ‘jaiyo’, ‘kariyo’ usage is so typical of this place – I strongly feel the rest of Delhi got it from here only. Everything is underplayed with words, but that sarcasm is never left behind.
The residents of Lajpat are mainly middle-class refugees, with someone or the other in the family down a generation or two having come from across the border. There is that beauty parlour downstairs - typical of Lajpat Nagar houses. Colony mein chori ho jaati hai, kisi ko pata nahi chalta. Phir woh chhatt se taap ke doosre ke ghar chale jaana – the shortcut that keeps romances thriving. This is the Lajpat of Vicky Donor.
The terrace is a hub of activity. The clothes lines, the paani ki tanki, which is a main issue of contention in this place. Like Biji says, ‘Paani ki line kaat doongi’. So, the house with the pipes network beneath it is sort of always accorded that slight ‘upper’ status.
'The instant you hear this phrase, your mind translates it to, ‘conservative, middle-class mindset’
Imtiaz Ali, who wrote Cocktail, says, "It is a joke anyone in Delhi would understand. Especially people like me, from the middle-class or even smaller towns – even I keep telling my mom, ‘modern ho jao, get out of this middle class mentality’. It is something very ‘Punju’, as we call it colloquially, but would never put this word in films, because it could sound bad. So, instead of that, it became the “Lajpat Nagar wali soch” in Cocktail. The instant you hear this phrase, your mind translates it to, ‘conservative, middle-class mindset’, if you know Lajpat Nagar. And if you don’t, for example the rest of the country, the place’s name itself denotes a certain class, a certain mindset, the name is like that, and hence, “the Lajpat Nagar mentality” is something everyone can identify with."
'Wanted to explore beyond the ‘puttar’ and the ‘pairi pauna’ metaphors'
Habib Faisal, director, Do Dooni Chaar, says, "My family was based in Jangpura Extension, so I have grown up there. And in terms of middle-class upbringing, Do Dooni Char, about a family’s journey from a scooter to a car, was almost nostalgic for me. The house in DDC is based in Vinoba Puri, Lajpat Nagar. When my brother saw the film, the first thing he said was, ‘Oh teri, apna ghar hi recreate kar diya tumne toh!’ I drove my production designer, Mukund Gupta, nuts with wanting that specific print of the curtains in the house, and a specific upholstery for the sofas. The layout of the house was the same as any middle-class Delhi house. And of course, that omnipresent desert cooler – you’d find it in every house."
"I wanted to set this film in Lajpat Nagar for its easy acceptance, and even, I’d say, revelling in the middle-class tag, because I loved the pluralism and tolerance of the place while growing up. Frankly, I wasn’t even consciously aware of being a Muslim living in a Punju majority area – we’d go to the gurudwara in I-block, and have the daal at the langar. That, in my mind, was true freedom. So, I wanted to show the ‘Punjabiat’ of the place without the caricature that Indian films have made it for a long while. I wanted to explore beyond the ‘puttar’ and the ‘pairi pauna’ metaphors."
"There is this dialogue that Rishi Kapoor (who played Duggal) says in DDC, “Flyover pe flyover bane jaa rahe hain, Metro ki speed se Dilli daud rahi hai, lekin hum wahin ke wahin.” This dialogue sets the film in a time when everything in Delhi was dug up, the other side of Lutyens’ and Mughal Delhi, of a mindset that compares life with larger issues, because it had to do with my own background."
Compiled by - Jyothi Prabhakar