Anupam Kher in DDLJ to Aamir Khan in Dangal: Dad’s the way to go for B-Town fathers

Amitabh Bachchan may have uttered a number of memorable dialogues in his deep baritone, but it was Shashi Kapoor, who, in response to a question raised by his elder brother Vijay in the 1975 Deewar, declares ‘Mere paas ma hai...!’ A line that for the next few decades would for all purposes be — pun intended — the ‘mother’ of all dialogues!

Compare this to the line about the father from the same movie — Mera baap chor hai — and you will understand where the power equation lay. Right from Mother India in the ’50s where the poverty-stricken mother raises her two sons to Trishul in ’70s, where the son avenges his wronged mother to Beta in the ’90s, it was all about the mother-son equation.

Fathers in the forefront

Now that’s changing. In recent years we have seen a lot of Paa films. If Paa (2009) was all about Amitabh Bachchan’s relation with his screen father Abhishek Bachchan, Piku (2015) was all about his equation with his daughter. Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) explored the tension between Kamal Mehra, played by Anil Kapoor, and his son, essayed by Ranveer Singh. In recent times, we have seen Dangal, which is not as much a sports biopic as it is the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat’s relationship with his three daughters.

If there is one person who is happy that the mother is no longer the be all and end all of the son’s life, at least in the movies, is Rajat Kapoor. “Grown men in their forties going on and on about their mothers used to make me cringe as an audience. It seemed infantile! No wonder these ‘heroes’ could not have a normal relationship with women, because they were so obsessing about their mothers. Talk of Oedipal complex!” he laughs.

Getting real

Things were changing. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), while Amrish Puri played the typical villian in his daughter’s love life and wanted her to marry a boy of his choice, there was also Anupam Kher as the ‘friend-father’ to Shah Rukh Khan. A decade later, Amitabh Bachchan forever broke the papa mould as he played Sexy Sam in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) — the epitome of cool and definitely the sexiest father we saw on screen in a Hindi movie.

In Kapoor & Sons, Rajat Kapoor essayed the character of a flawed father and husband. “There are a few scripts and films that are trying to portray real people, trying to tell stories of believable characters,” says Rajat, adding that Kapoor & Sons, was fortunately one of those films where people behaved like people in the real world. “They felt flesh and blood — not written as fantasies. So the change is not only in the father character. There is a small section of films trying to tap into real emotions, overall.”

From Mughal-e-Azam to Devdas!

Trust lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar, to point out that this is not a new phenomenon. He points out that the father was always important in the scheme of things, “If you look at Mughal-e-Azam, who was more important? It was the father. In Devdas, it is the father who opposes the marriage of Devdas with Paro.” He explains that all the films where there is some sort of confrontation with the parent, it would mostly be the father. “When there was some sort of relationship of compassion and understanding and emotion, then the mother would be in the foreground,” says Javed, who has written the script of movies such as Shakti, where the plot of the story revolves around the uncomfortable relationship shared by Dilip Kumar and his son, played by Amitabh Bachchan.

Changing equation

Times are changing, and with power equations altering even on the home-front, the father-children relationship, too, has undergone a metamorphosis. “There are many reasons,” Javed elaborates. “One is that with the joint family system breaking down, it’s a nuclear family set-up where you have to maintain relationships with each other. The father was a figure of authority who children were afraid of. But now, in nuclear families, smaller houses and fewer members, they have to interact with each other,” he says, adding that with changing modern ideas, fathers and children are much more at ease with each other now. “The father is no more that symbol of power and authority.” He offers the example of Anil Kapoor’s character in Dil Dhadakne Do, written by him, “He projects, perhaps the father of today. He has traditional and feudal values and he gradually comes out of them as the movie progresses.”

Caricatures no more

Fathers such as Rishi Kapoor in Do Dooni Chaar, Farooque Sheikh in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and Yogendra Tiku in Queen show that fathers in movies don’t have to be mere caricatures, but real people who can have normal, loving relationships with their children. While Rituraj Singh portrayed a typical father who believes that a girl’s place is either in the kitchen or the bedroom in Badrinath Ki Dulhania, his character undergoes a change by the end. “The director, Shashank Khaitan, was very clear that he didn’t want my character to be a caricature. So, it was a very underplayed, subtle performance to enhance the fact that he’s a real guy. Otherwise, I don’t think the audience would have believed him,” says Rituraj.

Inspired by women

Shoojit Sircar, who directed the critically-acclaimed Piku, believes that more than the fathers, it is the women who have come out from the cliches. “Look at the movies by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, like Mili and Guddi, where the daughters had a normal relationship with their fathers. So, I don’t think the fathers have changed much,” he opines, adding that it is because women have become more aspiring and bold in their decisions, that the fathers have taken inspiration from them. “They have realised that they can’t stop her now and they have to let her go. So, what has really changed is the daughter who has said ‘no, I will not be like my mother’.”

Papa’s popular in ads too

Though mothers still prominently figure in commercials to sell everything from cornflakes to washing machines, fathers too are fast emerging as important figures, especially with daughters. Whether it is Star Plus’ Nayi Soch TVC that shows Aamir Khan as a proud father of enterprising daughters or the recently released commercial for Exide Life Insurance, where Mahendra Singh Dhoni is seen taking care of a baby girl, the father’s bond with his children is clearly the focus. Piyush Pandey, creative director at Ogilvy Mumbai, who made the Nayi Soch TVC, believes that advertising has its ears to the ground and eyes wide open. “People in advertising are getting more and more real. Most movies and advertising are ways of communicating with people and that’s what we are doing,” he says.