Golden Era of Bollywood: 70s - The Decade Of Masala Movies

Friday 29 June 2018

70s - The Decade Of Masala Movies

Bollywood has long been synonymous with all-singing, all-dancing, melodrama and masala. Masala means a spice mix of everything from action to romance, drama, comedy, and pathos thrown in one film.In Bollywood every decade has some thing special so the 70's was a decade of Action packed films.This was the decade when Amitabh Bachchan emerged as the King of Bollywood.This was the decade of blockbusters like Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Deewaar,Zanzeer,Don and Yaadon ki Baaraat.
It was a time of some of the most fantastic Stories and Screen plays,over the top costumes (not to mention set design, makeup, art direction, and more), and a cinema that was, in every way, much larger than life. There was loads of action, lots of dhishoom-dhishoom.
The first half of this decade(upto 1974) was about love and Romance but after Zanzeer the action took over the romance.In 1969 after the release of Aradhana Rajesh Khanna emerged as Super star and became the new heart-throb. From1970 to 1972 was his Peak time,he gave one hit after another. In 1973 emerged Amitabh Bachchan with the release of Zanzeer. This year Bobby also released.The film began the phase of Teenage romance which was over shadowed by the action after the release of Deewar and Sholay in 1975.
In this period Indian film industry was introduced by the angry young man The Great Amitabh Bachchan who became a Living Legend. • While Dev Anand , Rajesh khanna,Jitendra and Dharmendra continued to bask in the glory of back to back hits , the actresses were not far behind.Right from the time of,Vyajanti Mala,Nargis,Sharmila Tagore to Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman,Sridevi, Rekha, Smita Patil became the main attraction of Indian film industry.
Dharmendra was another actor who gave many action films in this decade.Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971),Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973),Jugnu (1973),Sholay (1975),Charas (1976) and Dharamveer 1978 were few of the hit action films in this decade.
This decade saw the rise of Manmohan Desai who was known for his family-centered, action-song-and-dance films which catered to the tastes of the Indian masses and through which he achieved great success. His movies defined a new genre called masala films. A common theme in his films were the lost and found plot where family members would be separated and reunited. He was one of the directors who had a special working relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, He had a string of hits with Amitabh Bachchan in the 70s and early 80s which helped cement Bachchan's status as a superstar of Indian cinema. He worked with Amitabh on Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, Suhaag, Naseeb, Desh Premee, Coolie, Mard and Ganga Jamuna Saraswati; all but the last were box office successes.
The decade had such stalwarts like Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Manoj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor operating at their peak while Rishi Kapoor and Amol Palekar but this decade was of Amitabh Bachchan who single-handedly bulldozed his way to the top. So final and enduring was his domination that he was dubbed “one man industry.”
Since the masala genre burst onto the scene in the 70s, it has evolved a great deal. The various elements portrayed in a masala film have enthralled audiences from various movie genres. Every age group in India has taken a liking to Masala films, and that’s the reason filmmakers love to get creative with this genre.
The success rate of masala movies has been exceptional. Many movies that belong to this genre have become blockbusters and superhits. This trend continued in 80s and even in 21st century Masala Movies like Dabang, Dhoom and many more like these films rule the Box Office.
While there has been criticism of masala movies being a mishmash of too many genres, the masses in India have enjoyed watching the variety of masala flicks over the years.