I'm not talking about absolutely king-sized gaffes such as a brain transplant or a body organ being kept in an oven like object before being transplanted into the chest cavity etc. There are other mistakes Bollywood repeatedly makes that tend to escape notice – or censure. Bollywood gets a lot wrong, such as:
Light skinned actors playing a Dalit person, underprivileged person or even South Indian person will have their skin darkened. Cases in point – Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab, Bhumi Pednekar in Bala, Samantha in Family Man 2, Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy and Hrithik Roshan in Super 30. Not only is this offensive before of its racist overtones, the makeup is often quite poorly done and patchy and noticeable.
I think Bollywood filmmakers seem to forget that the Indian armed forces have about 14 lakh active personnel and constitute the world's second-largest military force. Enough people are going to notice when they get this wrong but they routinely do – the uniforms of Akshay Kumar in Rustom and Holiday, Shah Rukh Khan in Jab Tak Hai Jaan are all wrong. Plus, the ‘heroes’ will have beards/ stubble or long hair and so on.
These are often the great big climax scene in the film – ranging from running into airport terminals to actually running on to the runway! The hero/heroine runs in without a security check or being stopped and manages to get off a flight that has started to taxi! Witness how Farhan in 3 Idiots fakes a heart attack and then simply walks out of the airport terminal. As for the train scenes, why is the hero holding out his hand for the heroine to catch? She can just get on the next bogie without endangering both their lives! Perhaps this is just dramatic/ cinematic licence – things would get dull without all the last-minute drama I suppose.
It isn't just that they make up characters and wildly embellish stories as in the case of Jodha Akbar, or Bajirao Mastani etc. Bollywood cannot be bothered to make things historically inaccurate either. Characters will be seen to use things not yet invented, wear outfits that are utterly out of synch with the times they are supposed to be set in. What sort of cricket were they playing back in the day in Lagaan, for instance? Basically, they presume that audiences have absolutely no idea about the past.
Clothes change seemingly magically numerous times in one single song – OK so we can call this a strange and bewildering USP of Hindi film songs and leave it there (legend has it that Karishma Kapoor changed 30 outfits in this song – scroll down to watch Jhanjharia)). But hair styles and lengths change in continuing scenes? Furniture rearranged, going from one corner of Mumbai, to say Churchgate to Madh Island in minutes rather than the hours it would take? In Ra.One, SRK plays a Hindu who gets a Christian burial after he dies and then, his ashes are immersed in water. All this takes too much suspension of disbelief, I'm afraid. There is much that audiences are willing to overlook, but try not to think of us as stupid, Bollywood.
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