Hum Saath Hain, Hamesha

The Raichand family saga has already grossed $5 million outside India and its tickets are still hot selling propositions in the black market in India. Easy to understand why. Karan Johar's 'Love your parents' peaen to the Great Indian Family peddles the perfect dream of the undivided parivaar and things like that. There, under the larger-than-life gilded family portrait of the brothers Raichand, the extended parivaar of father, mother, sons and lovers weeps together, sniffles together, hugs each other and finally makes up after reels of temporary misunderstandings.Families aren't meant to break apart. Family ties can't be torn asunder. The family unit does live happily ever after. This is the dream that director Karan Johar peddles. And this is the dream that has always found avid takers amongst Indian viewers. The '60s-'70s boasted of umpteen Ghar Ek Mandirs, Do Raastes, Ghar Ghar Ki Kahaanis where the 'modern' bahu (Bindu and ilk) began her married life by dismantling the old-fashioned ancestral portrait in the living room and replacing babuji's antique armchair with rexine sofas and plastic flowers. Didn't work. Seventeen reels later, there was a resounding slap, the 'modern' bahu became 'traditional' and everything fell back in place, including the sepia-tinged family portrait. The '80s in popular culture was all about Hum Log, Hamare problems and Hamari unshakable Buniyaad. The edifice of the Great Indian Family could never crumble even if Badki had to sacrifice too much, Manjhli went a bit wayward and Chhutki could barely fulfil her 'chhoti si aashas' (smalltime wishes). Why? Because it was a trans-generational Buniyaad (foundation) laid through years of toil and hardship by venerable family elders like Master Haveli Ram and his wife Lajoji. These were the golden years where the paterfamilias towered above like the proverbial banyan tree and prodigals always returned to the family fold, having realised that east or west, home was indeed, the best. Come '90s and the family saga entered the platinum years with familial phantasmagoria like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge breaking box-office records. The song remained the same, only the backdrop changed. The middle class milieu of crumpled cottons and constricted consumerism was tossed aside for the Manhattan-in-Mumbai look. It was the united colours of Indian familydom, albeit on a canvas liberally sprinkled with foreign brands, foreign locales. From London to Ludhiana, the family returned, rambling about roots, rituals, righteousness. Needless to say, things which were only part and parcel of the Indian parivaar and its parampara. These were the years of Sooraj Barjatya and Aditya Chopra: second generation filmmakers with first generation sensibilities. Circa 2000. Still the years of Sooraj Barjatya, Aditya Chopra along with Sanjay Bhansali (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), Karan Johar. And Ekta Kapoor. Rules of the new millennium family game: Babuji still knows best, so what if he is autocratic and undemocratic. Mummyji may be a bit mean but she remains the Queen Bee. Kyunki, after all, saas bhi kabhi bahu, beti, didi thi. Brothers may be business rivals and squabble about their wives; however, they still stay under the same roof and stand together for the family portrait frame. Daughters-in-law have doctorates in domestic politics and transform the kitchen into cauldrons at the drop of hat, plotting deviously over pots of steaming gajar ka halwa. Daughters still dream about shaadi as the end-all of life. Their grand ambition being a mere continuation of the matriarch's way of life. And finally, Karva Chauth still happens to be the family's favourite festival, even as antakshri tops the list as its favourite past time. Any problems with that? Not if you treat them as simple fantasy. There, in the realm of the unreal and semi-real, cracking ties, fraying bonds and festering relationships can be given the Nelson's eye. Hum Saath Saath Hain can indeed be the family anthem of popular film and soap. But once the Raichand family has kissed and made up (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham) and the Viranis have bonded again, courtesy Tulsi (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi), tangled knots in the waft and weave of the Great Indian Family cannot be wished away.