Bollywood: The Relationship with Fantasy and Fairy Tales

There are fairy tales. And then there is Bollywood. There is fantasy. And then there is often logic-defying, wishful Bollywood. There are plenty of parallels, but beyond the less obvious, legendary characters and popular fairy tales have often directly found a place in Bollywood. From a song adaptation of Cinderella, to a not-impressive-at-all adaptation of Aladin, Bollywood has borrowed themes and characters from numerous popular fairytales. As some over the world celebrate "Tell a Fairytale Day" on the 26th February, we take a closer look at some such movies. One of the more direct adaptations is seen in the 1993 film Anmol.  It is the Bollywood-ized version of Cinderella. Anmol (Manisha Koirala), the protagonist, is made to work as a maid by her evil step-mother and step-sisters after her father dies of a heart attack. They are pretty nasty to her and her life is miserable, until one fine day, a new singer by the name of Prem (Rishi Kapoor) enters the scene. After a series of communication via Prem's dog, Moti, and some common adventures , both of them fall in love with each other. There are noticeable differences with the story though, for example, her uncle wants to sell her to a brothel to take care of his financial problems. At one point, Prem tries to get to her through a chimney and fails. All in all, it is just a bad and awkward remake of an iconic tale. The fact that Manisha Koirala was almost half Rishi Kapoor's age also added to the protest against this movie. There's also Ajay Devgn's debut attempt as a producer Raju Chacha (2000). While it isn't necessarily an adaptation, it has some references to Disney's The Lion King. The visual effects, the credits in the beginning and the playful plot remind the viewer of a Disney animated feature. There's a song in the movie, "Ek Sher Tha" and it looks like an exact replica of The Lion King. Visually it is very similar and it fits greatly with the narrative. And talking of song adaptations, there is also a song adaptation of Cinderellain the 1975 film, Rani aur Lalpari. The overall structure of the story in that case, though, is far from a fairy tale.

Cinderella has fuelled many adaptations. One of the less illustrious ones is the 2004 film Tumsa Nahi Dekha. However, it is more of a crossover with other half-baked themes than a true adaptation. The "Cinderella" here is a bar dancer, Jiya (Dia Mirza), and has a mentally handicapped brother. Daksh (Emraan Hashmi), a rich boy, falls for her. Yet in this movie not only does Daksh already have a fiance, Daksh's father is also against the marriage. After many trials and tribulations, the two do end up in a happily ever after of sorts. The movie, however, was a disaster. It tanked at the box office and was a failure by any standard.

The director of the critically acclaimed Kahaani (2012), also directed the less-critically acclaimed Aladin (2009), featuring Amitabh Bachchan as the modern avatar of the genie, Genius, and Ritesh Deshmukh as Aladin Chatterjee. When Aladin releases Genius, he does not want to make any wishes, but Genius enters his dreams and finds out his wishes anyway and Aladin's life takes a chaotic turn. A couple of twists and turns later, the film ends on a happy note, with Aladin living happily-ever-after with his love interest Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandes). The film's visual effects and special effects garnered appreciation, but the movie was a miserable commercial failure.