Millennials Review Classics: Breaking Barriers with ‘Bobby’

Dimple Kapadia’s presence in this classic makes it worth a watch!

(Kshitij, 22, watched Bobby (1973) for the first time this year. Read his review.)

People in Bobby really know how to party. Or at least that’s what they do every 15 minutes or so.

People are drinking, dancing and boogying in mismatched bellbottoms and skimpy off-shoulders.

In Bobby’s conflicting worlds of young and old, rich and poor, a party is what brings everybody together.

My family has always been fond of this movie — it has come up at various parties in my own house. Bobby, they said, changed what cinema could do for young Indian movie-goers.

Over a lazy game of cards, aunts have told me how as 14 or 16-year-olds they felt emboldened by Bobby, and a freedom to rebel and find love. 

I had a lot of expectations from this “breath of fresh air” of the 70s. But I can’t say I was satisfied. No doubt, the ‘rich boy falls for poor girl’, and the crazy Bollywood love that beats all odds, is quite a been-there-done-that theme today. However, Bobby still makes for an interesting watch.

ICYMI: The Plot of Every Bollywood Movie Thereafter

Raj is the only son of a rich man. Raj is a naughty boy.

6-year-old Raj is exiled to a boarding school, at which point we learn he has never been breast-fed by his mother.

Raj returns for his 18th birthday party, where he sees his governess’ granddaughter aka Bobby Braganza.

This is how Bobby reacts when Raj later tells him she is the only girl he knows. Is that a 70’s version of asking somebody out?

But Raj’s ‘high-society’ father tries to buy off the ‘love’ for his son.

Rich daddy then tries to get Raj hitched with another rich daddy’s “pagal” daughter.

Raj runs away, but now Bobby’s family is not ready to oblige.

Left with no option, the two jump in the sea, but are rescued by each other’s dads.

Not to forget are classic songs like hum-tum ek kamre mein, mein shayar toh nahi, and jhooth bole, that have come up during many a drunk antakshri nights.

Bobby, Oh My Darling

Raj Kapoor had made this movie to launch ‘Chocolate boy Chintu’, something Rishi Kapoor was called. But the movie needed a new and, perhaps, unknown actress to go with the new hero.

Enter: Dimple Kapadia.

I have seen her in more recent films like Finding Fanny and Luck By Chance, and the actress has evolved leaps and bounds since Bobby.

But her no-frills charm, her casual on screen demeanour, and an unpretentious sexiness make her ingenious in Bobby.

Bobby’s confidence is not cheeky nor is it intimidating. Her mind is young but her feet are on the ground. She wants to breakout, but doesn’t want to wreck all that comes her way.

Dimple Kapadia’s ‘Bobby’ is perhaps the reason this film still feels fresh and will continue to be for years to come.

Of Parenthood and Class

Bobby also resonated with me because it is pinned on a timeless peg – a generational struggle to come to terms with sexuality vis-a-vis parental obligation.

At various points, Bobby brings face to face the duty-bound love towards parents and the free, no-clucks-given love for somebody forbidden.

The class divide between the lovers is laid-bare and is the film’s main point of conflict. Hidden underneath is the stereotype of poor but loving and rich but distant family.

Raj’s parents don’t have time for him, but for Bobby’s father her happiness is the only thing that matters.

It is here the film lags, because it takes an important subject and mars it with cinematic populism. But perhaps what I call populism, only became popular later.