A 40-plus Shilpa Shetty looking hotter than ever, singing and dancing and romancing with 20-plus Meezaan Jafri in Hungama 2 is nothing new in Indian cinema. It is known as the ‘Mrs Robinson’ syndrome. In the Mike Nichols’ classic The Graduate, the much-older Anne Bancroft seduced the happily-surrendered Dustin Hoffman. Bollywood has also followed this trend. A look at the movies that had younger men romancing older women.
1) Simi Garewal-Rishi Kapoor in Mera Naam Joker (1968): Though they didn’t go all the way, they did go far enough with the 14-year old Chintoo Baba ogling at his school teacher.
2) Meena Kumari-Guru Dutt in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962): She was the lonely alcoholic wife. He was her smitten adoring Man-Friday. Much younger, emotionally and sexually inexperienced. She teased him, provoked him, and prodded his dormant emotions awake. There was just a hint of physical intimacy at the end which Guru Dutt had to fight to preserve. This was one of the earliest and most evocative representations of erotic attraction between a boy-man and an older lonely woman who could do with some male company.
3) Dimple Kapadia-Amol Mhatre in Leela (2002):
4) Manisha Koirala-Aditya Seal in Ek Choti Si Love Story (2002): The film had scenes of the 15-year old boy masturbating to images of his fantasy-woman. Not an aesthetic experience at all.
5) Sushmita Sen-Shah Rukh Khan in Main Hoon Na (2004): Technically, Shah Rukh Khan is older than Sushmita. But in Farah Khan’s feisty campus romance SRK played a student besotted with his teacher.
6) Aishwarya Rai-Zayed Khan in Shabd (2002): Intellectual mumbo jumbo about a writer Sanjay Dutt’s wife and her relationship with a character in her husband’s book who comes to life.
7) Raakhee Gulzar-Rishi Kapoor in Doosra Aadmi (1977): One of commercial Hindi cinema’s earliest attempts to take the man-woman relationship beyond the conventional. Raakhee was a portrait of enchanting desolation as a smoking drinking career-woman who falls for a much younger guy played by Rishi Kapoor. In the memorable duet Kya mausam hai it was interesting to see how director Ramesh Talwar applied the rules of the commercial Hindi cinema to a very unusual situation.
8) Kareena Kapoor-Imran Khan in Ek Main Aur Ek Tu (2012): They could’ve passed off as a same-age couple. But the script insisted on giving Kareena Kapoor a biological seniority. Just a small age-difference. But it was interesting that it was even brought up for consideration.
9) Poonam Pandey-Shivum Nair in Nasha (2013): The boy has the hots for the dark mysterious sultry siren.
10) Shilpa Shukla-Shadab Kamal in BA Pass (2013): Shilpa Shukla delivers a bold and seductive performance contoured by bouts of fitful fumbling and groaning.
11) Kareena Kapoor Khan-Arjun Kapoor in Ki & Ka: Director R Balki was in two minds whether to make mention of the age difference or not. He finally did.
12) Konkona Sen Sharma-Ranbir Kapoor in Wake Up Sid: Yes, yes, Konkona looked older than Ranbir because she was. No one was hiding the fact from the audience. Director Ayan Mukerjee had explained, “Yes, Konkona's character Ayesha is a few years older than the guy. But it's not Summer Of 42, please! Nor is the age difference concealed here as it was between Ranbir and Bipasha in Bachna Ae Haseeno. What happened was that we wrote in the age difference because I wanted only these two to be in my film. Period.”
Image source: Youtube/Filmy Crazy
Image source: Youtube/Filmy Crazy