Second Hand Jawaani – Of actors who never grow old!

Finally, some relief for female movie goers! I recently read the reviews of Cocktail. Among the many things the critics said, number one was – Saif looked a little too old for his character. Ahem! Haven’t we been saying that all along? Bollywood and its pairings are bizarre. All of us know it, few of us acknowledge it. However, the truth is no one wants to watch old, wrinkly men jump in red trousers.

Crazy as it may sound,the Bollywood Jodi usually has a 20 year difference between them, these days. Not always of course. But, that’s almost a norm. Most of the ‘heroes’ are 45 plus(yes not even 40) wrinkly men romancing 20 somethings. Kareena Kapoor – Imran Khan pairing in Ek Main Aur Ek Tu was criticized heavily for the 2 year age difference between the actors with critics going to the extent of saying Kareena looked ‘old’. Why is the ‘buddha’ hero spared then?

I got a little Bollywood critic-ish image thanks to Don’t angry the millionaire! No,I’m not a movie buff , but to say I don’t like Hindi movies is also wrong! I was a SRK fan all through the late 90s. Karan Arjun and Baazigar were regularly shown on Zee Cinema and I made it a point not to miss them. I dragged my parents to the theater for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dil to Pagal Hai (not kidding!) and cried my heart out during Mohabbatein. The other Khans, Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgan were not as big a favourite but I enjoyed all of their movies too, occasionally. But then that was during my early teens.

Things are different now. Someone who is 47-48 would be called ‘uncle’ in life. Remember the Pepsi ad? Men keep seeing fresh new faces year after year, while we’re forced to watch the same guys (uncles) who have been here since mid 1980s. Age is only for cheese and wine? Please make that for the Bollywood hero as well!