The melodrama of Hindi movies has eternally been part of our life. Almost every one of us have been crooning the lyrics in various stages and emotions of life -"Zindagi Ka Safar". The songs, the movies and the filmy crap, have been a strong influence on us desis. An essential part of our psyche and the way we think and act revolves to some extent on Hindi movies. Television with many cable networks, Star Plus, Sony, Zee TV, playing soap operas and serials all through the day may come close, but Hindi movie is unbeatable in its reach!

The glamour and glitz of Bollywood movies has dazzled and influenced Indian audiences since time immemorial. People copy fashions and fads from the movies- hairstyles, clothes, and accessories. They even talk the talk and walk the walk. But the extent of influence goes beyond the obvious. The affect of Hindi movies on desi minds is such that, they faithfully believe and follow many of the exaggerated 'filmi' concepts. The flirting patterns to gain the love of their life; the filmy concept of beautiful; the image of the hero as the perfect paragon; are some notions, which get impressed and engraved on people's minds. Of course there are many more concepts advertised and marketed through Hindi films, which trickle down to all the audiences.

In the US, most Indians and Pakistanis find the Bollywood entertainment as the best weekend past time. It binds people together as a social get-away to the movie theatre or as a dinner and movie get-together. The women check latest fashions in the movie; guys check the hourglass figures; the young ones love the songs and dances. Of course for all of them it's a 3-hour recap to homeland, traditions, culture and even the roads and life back home. Parents too encourage ABCD kids to watch Hindi movies since this is the one Indian link that they can easily 'impose' on their kids.

There are a few exceptions to this generalization of undaunted love for Hindi movies. There are some Indian 'elites' (read as 'snobs' by many people) who cannot stand the Indian movies. Their major problems with the Indian movies seem to be about the song and dance sequences and the concept of love.

Songs and music are great anchors to a Hindi movie. People forget the stories, but the songs become eternal in peoples minds and their audio collections. The songs repeated on TV, radio, CD players, car stereos and even people's lips while playing a game of antakshari jogs in memories for a long time. Besides popular love and wedding songs, which form the background music to desi wedding cassettes, are carved for life in people's hearts.

The songs came into movies from stage plays. Hollywood also has a category called musicals. Musicals are far and few now, but they still exist. Indian movies though have not been able to evolve out of this and may never will. The major reason being, songs are a great anchor to the Hindi movies, and are an Industry on its own. The songs in Hindi movies also provide a flamboyant way of expressing emotions, be it love between the hero and heroine, or anger at the villain, dismay at the gods, self pompousness of the hero or just having fun.

Now coming to the concept of love in the Hindi movie- The hypothesis of Love in Hindi movies revolves around boy sees girl and falls in love; sings and dances around the tree; saves her from the goons or uses emotional blackmail to win her love. Some day love may be portrayed in a more beautiful and realistic way, but this product has been sold and will keep selling to 'desis' for a long time till there are fantasizers, believers and even emulators to this concept of love. Till then, for the rest of us there is always the fast forward key on our remotes.

Hindi movies have always been larger than life, in spite of it being an element of our lives. Lets just keep it that way and not live life 'Filmi' style.

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