The new age Bollywood hero is a techie who works for Microsoft and is sent to Italy to develop Halo 3. Let’s rewind and check out how technology has been treated in Hindi films
That famous bracelet in Mr. India which lured the cruel Mogambo with its power to make a human being become invisible isn’t really the most responsible projection of futuristic technology, but it nevertheless seems to have served as an inspiration for a breed of Bollywood film makers to showcase technology and more recently the creator of this technology – the popular Indian ‘techie’ as he is fondly referred to as – to be the hottest material heroes are made of.
Six years ago, a not-so-mainstream film by first time South Indian director Revathi, told the story of a software engineer’s wife living in California, caught between an ambitious husband whose world revolves around his workstation, and a teenaged daughter whose only conversation with her mother is to justify her need for short skirts. So what does an emotionally frustrated and saree-clad Lakshmi do to get away from her inner conflicts? She dusts the desktop PC lying in the living room, and enters the world of Internet chatting, where she finds solace in an invisible ‘Mitr’, whom she confides in, learns a little about the American way of life, and once learns to strike a balance, her marriage becomes a dream one. Mitr – My friend went on to win the Best English Film of 2002 at the National Film Awards.
More recently, The Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra starrer Aitraaz told the story of a modern woman whose husband heads a mobile handset manufacturing company and when she finds an ex flame in the board of directors, he double promotes him, expecting favours in return. A court case is finally solved with a technical glitch in the handset being used as evidence. Probably the first time where mobile technology (so what if it didn’t work) comes to a harassed man’s rescue. In between, there was this wonder car called Tarzan, that became this speedy, futuristic looking machine which ran at rocket speed, just because it had Ajay Devgan’s spirit embedded in it. Technology, nevertheless.
The first ever Bollywood flick that had a technology partner was released this summer. Love Story 2050 saw Boman Irani, a scientist who worked days and nights on his Sun Microsystems workstation to create a time machine which transported Priyanka Chopra with a rather queer hairstyle and a man who tries aping Hrithik Roshan for no apparent reason, to the Mumbai of 2050. True, the special effects are there, but more importantly, the film is an indication that one of the world’s technology companies chose a Bollywood film to ‘place’ Sun machines (and its logos) all over the three-hour ritual.
Cut to August 15th 2008. Yash Raj releases his latest blockbuster – carrying forward the legacy of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The Raj who was the rich spoilt brat of an industrialist has morphed into a Raj who is a self-made individual and a game developer with Microsoft. He is sent to Italy to head a team in developing Halo 3 (pronounced rather cutely by a turban clad 6-year old
called Dimpy as Hello 3). He doesn’t drink Lassi anymore or run around trees. He is hardly seen without his Compaq laptop as his work and after-work companion, he downs four back-to-back tequila shots with his guy friends at a nightclub and comes back to Mumbai to find a killer sports car waiting for him. More interestingly, he chooses the independent B-school student by day, taxi driver by night babe over someone who lives a filmi fantasy life or a small town girl who wants to make it big in Mumbai. The new-age Bolllywood hero tho killer hai, yaar. He is a techie.
Copyright: Living Digital
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