This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-42-43, Sep-Dec 1987)
Most Hindi films are placed in a north Indian, urban, upper middle class context. The protagonists are big businessmen or, if the setting is rural, they are big landowners. Even when they are supposedly middle class, their lifestyle is depicted as unrealistically elite. The vast majority of our people, therefore, are almost invisible in Hindi films.
Although few Hindi films focus on the lives of poor people, the protagonist is often shown starting life as a poor person. This is, however, middle class poverty rather than stark poverty. The protagonists are usually “respectable” people going through a bad patch. They retain their middle class aspect in terms of dress, behaviour patterns and attitudes. Their poverty is verbalised rather than visualised. Further, it is presented as a misfortune that has befallen a particular family and that must be overcome, sooner or later…