Watching “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” makes us wonder if Bollywood rom-coms can ever go back to their golden era?

Struggling with Execution, Misogyny, and Lack of Substance in Bollywood rom-coms have become a norm and why it makes us miss the old Bollywood? 

Bollywood has undoubtedly presented us with an extensive array of delightful and heartwarming romantic comedy movies throughout the years like Tanu weds Manu, Jab we met, Love aaj Kal, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and many more. We grew up with rom-coms as one of the leading genres of Indian television and we still get to see a number of films being produced yearly in this particular genre. We recently watched Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan starrer, “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” which was a romantic comedy lacking both romance and elements of comedy. The jokes lacked wit and creativity, often resorting to clichéd and predictable punchlines and made the audience feel awkward at some points. A storyline that is quite inspired yet exactly inverse of Love per square foot (2018) was weak and poorly executed as the plot lacked depth and coherence, making it difficult to engage with the characters or their motivations. The story was centered around the dilemma faced by a middle class couple but unlike, Love per square foot, the couple here was pretending to be divorced for getting a house under the government’s housing scheme. The conflict that the story tried to highlight through the movie was how having privacy in an Indian joint family is a luxury even for married couples. A couple has to go to lengths to get some privacy in such cases and this lack of understanding isn’t generally addressed and talked about in families. It isn’t like these concepts have not been tried before in Bollywood and many people in India do think that it is a realistic and relatable problem but the problem in this particular case was not solved in the end. They took a conflict, strong enough and made a story that leads to nothing. The film ends with that “Home is where the love is” kinda ending and we couldn’t understand what was the point of all the drama?

Good themes, Poor Execution –

It is the case with many rom-coms that we got to see in the last few years. It seems as if Bollywood cannot seem to find a balance between entertainment and substance. Recently, we also had the Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor starrer  “Tu Jhooti, Mai Makkar ” and it seems as if the writers of the story tried to fit into the standards of new-age romance without understanding the way it is. Nisha dates Rohan and they both fall in love with each other but later she realizes that she can’t choose the guy over her independence and overbearing family. The attempt to show Shraddha Kapoor as an independent and modern girl was contradictory to the misogynistic elements that the movie has. This film of Director Luv Ranjan was different from what we had in his earlier films. In “Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety” and “Pyar ka Punchnama”, the female leads were portrayed as manipulative and the story is centered around the guy choosing between bromance or romance which makes it about an attempt of ownership. In the case of TJMM, things were different but again, everything was poorly executed. 

What are these stories leading to?

Bollywood isn’t known for giving the spotlight to its female characters. Generally, the female lead is used as an emotional support or catalyst of character development of the male lead. We don’t usually get to see more of them than that, especially in commercial films. In such circumstances, stories based on romance become a thing where female characters get the spotlight they deserve. We won’t say that the representation in the good rom-coms hasn’t ever been problematic. Most of the famous films of the 90’s portray women in a stereotypical light. Like “Dil toh pagal hai” portrayed that you can only be chosen by the guy you like when you go through a drastic glow-up but they were still entertaining and weren’t considered problematic at the time of the release. These movies were entertaining, they had substance and people wanted to watch them. Despite the flaws, these movies had their own charm which seems to be lacking in the modern day romantic comedies. Today, the mass-entertainer movies include the likes of Pushpa (2021), KGF (2018), Pathaan (2022) etc.This has pushed the narrative to focus on the “Hero” again. Many films now prioritize formulaic plots and rely heavily on predictable tropes, leaving viewers craving for more nuanced storytelling and meaningful character development.

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