SUSPENSE, SURPRISE, FANTASY

Unraveling the legend of imaginative, fantastical fashion, which Bollywood has mastered over the years...

- Sujata Assomull

Hindi cinema represents a collective fantasy— a group daydream,” is how noted psychoanalyst and author Sudhir Kakar describes the industry. We go to the movies to escape, often to just switch off from our lives for a couple of hours, and Bollywood is a fine example of this, with song and dance reverberating in our film culture.

Many years ago, I remember going to watch the film Chandini Bar [2001], a film that takes a very real look at Mumbai’s dance bars. With Tabu in the lead role, the film was directed by Madhur Bhandarkar and won a National Award. I found it to be a real eye-opener, making an important social commentary about Mumbai’s underworld. My driver, whom I would always buy a ticket for any film I saw, thought otherwise. He came to me during the interval with a grim look on his face. “Do you mind if I don’t see the rest of the film?” Quickly adding, “I go to see films to escape from reality, this film is just showing me how bad life is. Where are the happy songs, where are the beautiful clothes?”. It was then that I realised just how important the fantasy element of Indian cinema is... he clearly was not looking for cinematic realism. And can one blame him?

Over 15 years later, I was working on the book 100 Iconic Bollywood Costumes, and I made sure to include as many fantastical costumes as possible, given that they are such an indelible part of our film culture. In fact, fantastical costumes have influenced how women approach their own style, encouraging them to push their personal style boundaries.