New Delhi: While corruption has been entrenched deeply in the Indian system and one can hardly fight it even if one feels desperately about doing something, in Bollywood, the war on corruption continues to be a hot and enduring pursuit.
The Bollywood hero often dares the system and almost always takes on this cause as the common man continues to be a sitting duck for the rich and the powerful, a hapless pawn in the hands of the system.
The 'hero' plays the one-man-crime-fighting-machine, who takes on rampant corruption for the sake of the helpless citizen. His only mission in life is to effect great social change, a change he cannot bring about within the rules of the system. And thus follows the sedition, subversion and at times even a ploy. Almost as a rule, the hero is a recluse, given to temper and driven by a personal vendetta.
It's a storyline only too familiar in Bollywood. The reel occurrence never really gains credence in the real world. Still, the Shahenshahs, the Arjuns and the Mr Indias offer a comfort which real life never offers.
Who can forget Amitabh playing the angry cop confronting the top magnates and big wheel in Zanjeer( 1973), or for that matter Sunny Deol taking on a political bigwig in Arjun (1985)?
In Main Azaad Hoon(1989), Amitabh plays a catalyst for the masses to take on the establishment. In Angaar( 1992), Jackie plays a unemployed youth lashing back at the murky nexus of the mafia and the corrupt politicos.
In Shool( 1999), Manoj Bajpai is an upright police inspector, who takes on the local political corruption single-handedly. In Nayak( 2001), Anil Kapoor is a righteous journalist who swaps the CM's seat for a day to wean corruption out of existence.
While it might look a bit obsessive to see Bollywood being so choc-a-bloc with these plots of defiance, yet these films do provide a comfort which real life never offers. Also, maybe, when assisted by a willing suspension of disbelief and an artistic license, the regular guy might just feel vindicated momentarily and take solace in a few reel moments.
The controversial Rang De Basanti can be cited as a perfect example of this. Catching the pulse of this will-to-reform in an extreme fashion, it is set around a group of unemployed youth, some disoriented, others disenchanted.
The death of a friend in a MIG crash gives a cause to these purposeless rebels, for which they take on the system and pay back with their lives.
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