Sunday, October 19, 2008

The lost era of lines

It has been on my mind over some time and somehow today just seems perfect to write about it.
The lost era of lines in hindi movies.
Remember the 70s-80s era of movies with its lines that were there on everyone's lips. Like "mere paas maa hai", "yeh haath humko dede thakur", "kitne aadmi the", "don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai" etc. Sholay has innumerable lines that were given cult status. Even in 90s this trend followed with the classic Sunny Deol line: "Jab yeh dhai kilo ka haath kisi pe padta hai toh aadmi uthta nahin, uth jaata hai".

But with the coming of Karan Johar era and its followers, we dont see any movie whose lines stand out and make an impact. Dil Chahta Hai came with few one-liners but none made it through. The only one that i can remember is from Jhankaar Beats - "Chance pe dance kar".

However, in hollywood, the trend still continues. Previously we had classic lines from Godfather, and other Al Pacino classics like Dog day afternoon and Scarface - "I always tell truth, even when i am lying". And even recently, Spiderman came up with the line "With great power comes great responsibility", and reccently Dark Knight gave "Why so serious?", the trend still continues.

So, now the question is - Who makes a line go down in history books as classic? Is it the writers or the audience?

In Hindi, this trend is also observed in advertisements. Everyone growing up in my era remembers those Pepsi ads - "Mera number kab aayega?" , or "Nothing official about it". Recently coke came up with "Thanda matlab cocacola" which hung in people's lips for some time but soon lost its gleam. But recently, i do not know of any ad that is creating that level of impact.

I want those lines back. I want that trend back.

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