Bollywood as a Genre in Rohan Sippy’s Kuch Naa Kaho

A Hollywood film, while sometimes referenced as a “Hollywood Film”, isn’t labeled that in the sense that that’s its genre; it’s simply the industry that’s produced the piece of work. A Bollywood film, on the other hand, is labeled as such not only for the industry that churned it out, but also because it has, over time, become known as a genre itself. A great example of a “Bollywood Film” is debutante director Rohan Sippy’s 2003 film, Kuch Naa Kaho (translated to Don’t Say A Word in English).

It’s quite easy to differentiate a Bollywood film from any other movie; foremost, because they’re usually self-labeled as such. When we think of Bollywood films, we think of pure spectacle – movies without much substance, just to be taken at face-value. We immediately think of singing and dancing, and simple love stories. The intriguing factor, though, is that all of these elements belong to separate genres themselves. Kuch Naa Kaho is made up of several “sub-genres”, each genre has their own part of the movie; none overlap, and you can distinctly tell where one genre ends and another begins.

Kuch Naa Kaho follows the story of Raj, played by Abhishek Bachchan; a young Indian man living in New York who has returned home for his cousin’s wedding. His overbearing uncle is continuously trying to arrange a wife for Raj, but, he isn’t interested in getting married – insisting that love “cannot be arranged”. But, he falls in love with his uncle’s best employee, Namrata, played by Aishwarya Rai, who has a secretive past. The genius of this film lies purely in it’s positioning of different genre elements. At the beginning of the movie, the film is played out as if it’s a comedy – a movie revolving around snappy dialogue, and humorous situations. An example of the comedy elements at play would be in the early scene in the airport, where Raj lies to Namrata about having a son, just so he can get her seat on the plane.

“A popular comic feature of Hindi movies is to have a hero appearing dressed as a woman.”1

Kuch Naa Kaho even has such a scene, which involves the brother-in-law character of Ajay, played by Raja Choudhary, wearing his wife’s engagement party dress to evoke a comic effect.

The next genre that the movie switches to is romance. This change is immediately felt by the introduction of more luscious costumes, and set design – having deeply effervescent colors such as red showcased. Costumes worn are traditional Hindi outfits, which is a surprisingly interesting contrast with the lyrics in this section of the movie. The romance aspect is firstly brought-about with the introduction of an argument between Raj and Namrata – the two of them having a “battle of the sexes” type debate; why women are so stubborn, and why men are so overbearing. This argument takes place through a musical song and dance, with the two characters giving each other flirtatious looks, and singing lines that we all know they’ll regret later on in the film. But, it’s this simple plot point that sets up this transition into the romantic aspect of the movie. This then continues on for 45 minutes, with Raj and Namrata visiting women, trying to find a suitor for Bachchan’s character – it’s in these scenes that Raj finally realizes that he loves Namrata.

Half-way into the film, the movie switches into a different gear – turning into a type of family film. The introduction of Namrata’s young son Adi, played by Parth Dave, gives the movie a sense of innocence and jovialness. A scene in this section of the movie takes place within the boarding school where Adi lives; Raj and Namrata visit Adi there and a musical number takes place with a cast made up mostly of children. The sweet and catchy melodies of the song, sung mostly by the children, take the movie into a new direction that makes it appealing to younger audience members. Younger viewers can identify themselves with Adi, and older viewers can sympathize with Namrata’s feeling for her child. The colors used are all bright and vibrant, and the scene it shot entirely outside in natural sunlight – all of this makes the scene very accessible for all-ages.

The final phase of the movie, the last 30 minutes, goes into a completely opposite direction from the previous parts of the movie; the movie turns into an extremely serious film – sticking strictly to the drama genre. There are two elements that induce this change; one is the introduction of Namrata’s long lost cheating ex-husband Sanjeev, played by Arbaaz Khan; his overbearing menace and chilling stares add a sense of undeniable dread within the movie – overshadowing any previous genre portrayed in the film as he brings about a “love-triangle”.

“The love triangle is the classic formula, with countless variations. At it’s most basic, however, the triangle traditionally had either one man and two women, or two men and one woman. The history of the love triangle is so dense with associations and allusions…”2

The second, and most obvious element is the presence of rain in the film when Raj an Namrata finally voice their feelings about each other.

“Rain has always been invested with erotic and sensual significance in Indian mythology, classical music, and literature, as it is associated with fertility and rebirth … Utilized in many films over the years, these often highly erotic sequences – with wet clothes clinging to bodies – are part of an elaborate system of allusion …”3

There aren’t any jokes used in the last handful of scenes in the film, and the movie’s aesthetic nature helps change the mood to drama with the use of slow-motion and dark lighting.

Overall, though, throughout the movie the most prominent and noticeable sub-genre is musical. Helping the films themes and character developments along, the songs written by Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa and Ehsaan Noorani, all have different elements to fit in with the movie’s changing styles.

“One of the main functions of songs within a screenplay is to display emotion, and in the case of Hindi cinema this is overwhelmingly related to love. The general belief in the film industry is that love and romance are best expressed musically.”4

All of these elements, all of these different genres all amount to one main mode: Bollywood. Bollywood, as a genre, is one of the most distinct film-styles ever to be released upon the screen – this fabulous mixture of grand thematic elements all mixed into a three hour movie is so distinctively Hindi. Kuch Naa Kaho is a very interesting example of the continued Bollywood style, not only because of all of the rudiments present in the piece, but because it is a movie that is continuing a genre that was created more than 100 years ago. A genre that has lasted this long is sure to last another 100 years, without a doubt.

1 Rachel Dwyer & Divia Patel, Cinema India: The Visual Culture Of Hindi Film. (Published in USA by Rutgers University Press. 2002.) p. 96

2 Raminder Kaur & Ajay J. Sinha, Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema Through A Translational Lens (Publised in India by Sage Sage Publications. 2005) p. 199

3 Raminder Kaur & Ajay J. Sinha, Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema Through A Translational Lens (Publised in India by Sage Sage Publications. 2005) p. 199

4 p. 80