Holi has been depicted in various colours in Hindi cinema, from the horror of Darr to the tragedy of Damini

There was a time when Holi provided not only an occasion for outstanding song situations in Bollywood films but also a cue for great drama. Today, the festival of colours seems to have lost its knack of producing great song situations or drama.

In the past, Holi was always a special occasion in our movies. It frequently occurred with a solid dramatic motivation. It could signify tragedy or joy. But Holi was always a reason for the plot to peer dramatically into a turning point in any film. Nowadays, Holi songs and films revolving around the festival are as passé as Sharmila Tagore ’s bouffant and Sadhana’s fringe cut.

In the early 1970s, Mala Sinha got pregnant in Holi Aaee Re while playing Holi. By the 1980s, Holi was a time of stress and hooliganism, both in and out of the movies. In Rajkumar Santoshi’s Damini, the employer’s drunken son rapes the maid of the house on Holi.

Move forward to the new millennium, and we see the Holi song becoming almost defunct. In Vipul Shah’s Waqt: The Race Against Time in 2005, the lead pair Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar played Holi while she was pregnant. Priyanka Chopra’s character announces she is pregnant, and then plays wild Holi with her husband Akshay Kumar. This has to be the most foolhardy glamour couple in the history of our cinema. Or maybe they just enjoy the thought of Holi too much to care about the wife’s delicate condition. The pair got a real dressing down from papa Amitabh Bachchan.

One of Hindi cinema’s most memorable Holi sequences is to be found in Shakti Samanta’s Kati Patang [1971>. The heroine, a widow played by Asha Parekh, stands apart from the Holi revelers, led by Rajesh Khanna, who sings, “Aaj na chodenge bass humjoli khelenge hum holi,” while the lady in white sings back in subdued, sorrowful regret about not being part of the celebration. Suddenly, at the end of the song, Khanna puts colour all over the widow’s hair, a daring defiant act that implies he has proposed marriage to the widow. The colours of Holi are used here to signify social reform.

In Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, the song-and-dance ‘Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain’ [Incidentally, it is one of the most badly recorded compositions of  RD Burman ’s career> is rightly celebrated for exuding an ominous energy as the gaon__wale [villagers> celebrate Holi unheedful of the attack Gabbar Singh [Amjad Khan> and the men are planning on them. But there is a much more evocative Holi sequence in Sholay, where  Jaya Bhadur i’s character, a widow in spotless white, is seen in a flashback swathed in the bright colours of Holi. The contrast is chilling.

If Holi is fun in film, it is also an occasion for hectic hooliganism.

The dark side of Holi was revealed in Yash Chopra’s Darr [1993>, where Shah Rukh Khan, with his face smeared with colours to avoid recognition, gatecrashes into Juhi Chawla’s Holi bash, and misbehaves with her. This has got to be the scariest Holi sequence in our cinema.

Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Phagun [1973> was based on a mishap that happens during Holi. Waheeda Rehman, playing a rich businessman’s daughter, dances in ecstatic splendor on Holi to the song ‘Piya sangg khelun holi,’ when her economically humble husband [Dharmendra> sprays her with colour. She first responds with coy delight. When she sees her father frowning disapprovingly, she berates her husband, “If you can’t buy me an expensive sari, what right do you have to soil it?” On Holi, the wife loses her husband forever. This was the most tragic Holi sequence seen in Indian cinema.

Ho(o)liganism, at the most shocking level of debasement, was seen in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Damini, where the family maid is raped by the scion of the family and his friends, who are high on bhang and low on morals. The gruesome rape was shot with remarkable intensity. Santoshi intercut the scenes of Holi revelery — the colours, the boisterousness, music, and dance — with shots of the young girl being ravaged. Enough to put you off Holi for the rest of your life.

When it comes to using the swirl  of Holi colours  in a torrent of passion and romance, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is next to none. Colours have always been important to the cinema of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. In Goliyon Ki Raas Leela: Ram-Leela [2013>, a Gujju take on William Shakespeare’s [Sex Peer in Gujarati?> Romeo & Juliet, Deepika  Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s characters meet during Holi. The way Bhansali encircles the lead pair in a  smorgasbord of colours makes Holi the most erotic festival seen on screen. Colours have always  fascinated Bhansali. He waited for years before dooing a Holi sequence. To him, it was like denying himself a favourite dessert until he earned it.

Bhansali says, “I loved the sounds of those Holi songs. I loved ‘Holi aae re kanhaiayee’ from Mother India [1957> and Mohe panghat pe nandlal in Mughal-e-Azam [1960>. When I made Devdas [2002>, I so badly wanted to include a Holi song. But I couldn’t. But if you see, I’ve used the colours of Holi, and the abeer and gulaal motifs throughout. I finally got to do a full-fledged Holi song in Ram-Leela, and I was delirious drenching my frames in passionate colours.”

Many conservatives feel Holi in cinema is no more than a pretext to drench women for titillation. However,  Shabana Azmi thinks imputing Holi with lasciviousness is too harsh. “Drenching both men and women has been a tradition over centuries. There is abandon and gaiety associated with Holi. It’s all done for fun. And very infectious. ‘Morey Kanha Jo Aaye Palatke’ from Shyam Benegal’s Sardari Begum [1996>, written by my husband Javed Akhtar, is my favourite. The lines: ‘Unke peeche main chupke sa jaake/Yeh gulaal apne tan pe lagaake/Rang doongi unhein main lipatke…’ are very saucy, sensual, and show the woman as an active participant and not a passive recipient of pleasure.”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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