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Happy ever after: Hindi films and the 'happy
ending'
Happy ever after: Hindi
films and the 'happy ending'
Professor Rachel Dwyer
Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema
Department of South Asia, SOAS, University of London, Russell
Square,
London
Hindi cinema is often labelled 'formulaic'
- a love story, song and dance and a happy ending. However,
many of the most popular films do not have 'happy endings'
as hero dies of unrequited with TB (Devdas, 1935, 1955 and
2002) or without TB (Mahal, 1949); the mother has to kill
her son but is honoured by inaugurating a dam (Mother India,
1957); the hero is killed by the police (Deewaar, 1975) or
in a shoot-out (Sholay, 1975). Even in the romantic genre,
the first love often dies and the woman must marry someone
else (Kal ho na ho, 2003), or the couple are reunited only
in late middle age (Veer Zaara, 2004). It it only the romantic
genre whose ending requires the formation of the couple in
the embrace of the (extended) family. This paper examines
why people claim that Hindi films have 'happy endings' despite
the evidence and suggests that this idea of happiness needs
to be re-examined. It argues that Indian film offers viewers
three main types of happiness: emotional, moral and judgemental.
This can mean the audience feels happy, is satisfied that
the law is observed and the good rewarded and pleased that
religion and traditions are upheld. In other words, the melodramatic
mode prefers an ending with the world restored in the correct
way rather than a couple living 'happy ever after'
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