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Silly Lily: Bollywood drops stereotypes

THE FIRST time a Christian character rose to a hero status was in Manmohan Desai's film Amar Akbar Anthony.

Now, there is no Michael to carry out daaru peeke danga routines or Mrs D'Sa to mollycoddle the down-and-out orphans. Lily, with her plunging necklines, is no longer asked to "stop being silly". The 'Christian' stereotype, it seems, has slowly disappeared from Bollywood's screen.

In their place has emerged the new reel Catholic who is no longer a drunkard, vamp or secretary. Jaya Bachchan's Jennifer in Kal Ho Na Ho released a few years back is the leading light here. Says writer Sanjay Chauhan, "There have been instances in the past when Christian girls were portrayed as being 'advanced'. Wearing a frock or drinking does not tantamount to someone not having character. Unfortunately, our films used such stereotypes in the past, but that gone completely now."

Neeraj Vora, who wrote the dialogues and screenplay for producer Mansoor Khan's film, Josh, concurs. "In Hindi filmdom, we have the habit of following blindly things that have worked well with the audience in the past," he points out. In other words, a hit formula is followed time and again in plots such as Julie which portrayed a Christian girl involved in pre-marital liaison.

So, after filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee created Mrs D'Sa, the tough-talking landlady with a heart of gold, every Christian character wore a huge cross and spoke in the apun ko lingo.

There have been sporadic films that tried to do justice to the community. A notable exception was filmmaker Basu Chatterjee's Baton Baton Mein. It received critical acclaim and praise for not resorting to stereotypes in portraying Indian Christians.

The first time, a Christian character rose to a hero status was in Manmohan Desai's film, Amar Akbar Anthony. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan played Anthony with the song, 'My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves' becoming an evergreen hit. Raj Kapoor's Bobby did give the Christian girl a heroine's status, but it's hard to overlook the fact that a teenaged Bobby wore bikini more than 25 years back. One also cannot forget the teacher (Simi Garewal) who's responsible for an adolescent's sexual awakening in Mera Naam Joker.

Is it a coincidence that she, too, is a Miss Mary? Years later, Ramesh Sippy got Dimple to play Maria in Saagar, and shot an almost nude shot and smooch that had the nation agog.

The community has sat quiet through all this stereotyping, but it came out on the streets when Julie was released in the seventies. The Christian family was portrayed as dysfunctional, with Julie easily led into a pre-marital liaison. The Hindu hero turns out to be a cad, but his sister is the epitome of womanhood.

Fortunately, Karan Johar's Kal Ho Naa Ho made a big impact. His film made a modern statement, when his heroine (Priety Zinta) walked around with a name like Naina Catherine Kapoor. Religion was done away with in one stroke.