From Joggers Park to De De Pyaar De, these movies dared to make the age hole between their unlikely lovers a part of the story fairly than one thing to quietly ignore.
IMAGE: Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit; Mamitha Baiju and Suriya in Vishwanath And Sons.
Key Factors
- Indian cinema has a historical past of casting youthful heroines with older male leads, however a rising variety of movies are actually explicitly addressing and exploring the age hole throughout the narrative.
- From Joggers Park to Premam, these movies discover romances the place a big age distinction between the lead characters is central to the story.
- With Bethlehem Kudumba Unit and Vishwanath And Sons additionally addressing age-gap relationships head-on, the function seems at how Indian cinema has tackled this doubtlessly uncomfortable dynamic.
Girish AD’s Malayalam rom-com, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, serves up an unconventional romantic pairing: 41-year-old Nivin Pauly reverse 25-year-old Mamitha Baiju. Now, casting a younger actress alongside a a lot older male celebrity is virtually a drained custom in Indian cinema.
Mamitha herself has already shared the display screen with veteran actors like Dhanush in Kara and Suriya in Vishwanath and Sons.
However right here is the catch: Bethlehem Kudumba Unit refuses to brush that age hole underneath the rug.
Director Girish AD confirms the real-life age distinction is baked proper into the characters, serving because the driving drive of the plot.
The script doesn’t count on you to politely ignore the years between the hero and heroine; it builds your entire romance round them. Curiously, this is not the primary time Nivin Pauly finds himself in an age-gap romance.
This dynamic can be rapidly turning into acquainted territory for Mamitha, too. Her earlier launch, Vishwanath and Sons, which hit theatres only a week prior, additionally noticed her falling exhausting for an older man. In that movie, Suriya’s inflexible hesitation to reciprocate these emotions drove the core battle of the story.
Sreeju Sudhakaran rounds up 10 Indian movies launched this century the place a youthful heroine falls for a considerably older hero, and the screenplay dares to handle the elephant within the room: that age hole.
Joggers’ Park (2003)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, MX Participant
IMAGE: Perizaad Zorabian and Victor Banerjee in Joggers’ Park.
The late Anant Balani’s drama charts an unlikely friendship between a retired, extremely revered decide (Victor Banerjee) and a younger mannequin (Perizaad Zorabian). They meet whereas jogging at, you guessed it, Joggers’ Park.
As they peel again one another’s mental layers and focus on their particular person generational quirks, their platonic bond slowly shifts into romantic territory.
The catch? He’s a married household man with grown youngsters, whereas her pals are completely in opposition to no matter goes between the 2.
The screenplay neatly steers clear of creating their relationship bodily, focusing as an alternative on a deep, mutual respect. As we speak, the film is maybe finest remembered for Jagjit Singh’s soulful monitor, Badi Nazuk Hai Ye Manzil.
Cheeni Kum (2007)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, MX Participant, JioHotstar, Z5
IMAGE: Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in Cheeni Kum.
R Balki’s candy rom-com centres on a cynical 60-something chef who falls in love with a a lot youthful spinster.
The battle right here is hilarious: Her fiercely opposed father is definitely youthful than his potential son-in-law. Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu and Paresh Rawal (because the exasperated dad) are all in prime type.
Cheeni Kum simply received over critics and pulled in respectable field workplace numbers. If solely lets say the identical for the opposite Amitabh Bachchan movie on this checklist that hit theatres that very same 12 months.
Nishabd (2007)
The place To Watch: Prime Video
IMAGE: Jiah Khan and Amitabh Bachchan in Nishabd.
There was a definite period when Ram Gopal Varma was obsessive about casting Amitabh Bachchan, continually shoving the legend far outdoors his consolation zone (like making him play the villain in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag).
With Nishabd, he pushed the viewers out of theirs, too.
Bachchan performs a fortunately married, middle-aged photographer who develops an uncomfortable obsession together with his daughter’s uninhibited buddy (the late Jiah Khan) throughout her vacation stick with them.
Nishabd primarily turns into this emotionally scarring automotive crash journey of a person blowing up his complete household life to pursue a forbidden romance. Viewers have been deeply unsettled by the premise, flat-out rejecting the movie on the field workplace, and Bachchan by no means took on such risqué roles once more.
The Lunchbox (2013)
The place To Watch: JioHotstar
IMAGE: Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur in The Lunchbox.
Ritesh Batra’s globally acclaimed drama constructs a delicate relationship between a nearing-retirement authorities clerk (the late Irrfan Khan) and a uncared for housewife (Nimrat Kaur), all with out them ever sharing a body.
Their bond sparks over a mix-up in Mumbai’s dabbawala system, rising by handwritten notes tucked inside a lunchbox.
The Lunchbox refuses to neatly label their connection. As a substitute, it operates on a deeper emotional stage, giving the older man a renewed lease on life whereas empowering the girl to lastly stroll away from her souring marriage.
Batra’s subsequent, Photograph, additionally featured the same, understated age-gap romance, this time between Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra’s characters.
Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014)
The place To Watch: JioHotstar, Manorama MAX
IMAGE: Nivin Pauly and Nazriya Nazim in Ohm Shanthi Oshaana.
Jude Anthany Joseph’s pleasant coming-of-age rom-com stars a wonderfully forged Nazriya Nazim as Pooja, a spirited teenager who develops a life-altering crush on a barely older man (Nivin Pauly).
Whereas he immediately brushes off her emotions as mere teenage infatuation, she spends the subsequent few years fiercely proving him unsuitable. Naturally, all of it builds to a extremely satisfying pleased ending.
Full of infectious humour and standout performances from Nazim, Pauly, Aju Varghese and Vineeth Sreenivasan, Ohm Shanthi Oshaana stays one among Malayalam cinema’s most rewatchable consolation movies.
Premam (2015)
The place To Watch: YouTube
IMAGE: Nivin Pauly and Madonna Sebastian in Premam.
Alphonse Puthren’s Premam charts three distinct phases of its protagonist George’s (Nivin Pauly) romantic life. First comes the unrequited high-school crush, Mary. Then, a tragically doomed romance together with his barely older school lecturer, Malar.
Within the closing act, he finally ends up marrying Celine, a younger girl he rescues from a poisonous relationship. The twist? His new bride is the very same woman who used to tag alongside in a major faculty uniform behind his very first high-school crush.
Madonna Sebastian, who performed Celine, reprised the identical position a 12 months later within the Telugu remake reverse Naga Chaitanya.
Expensive Zindagi (2016)
The place To Watch: Netflix
IMAGE: Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt in Expensive Zindagi.
Whereas not a standard romantic monitor, the ultimate act of Gauri Shinde’s coming-of-age drama confirms that Alia Bhatt’s Kaira has developed real emotions for her a lot older, divorced therapist, Dr Jehangir.
Frankly, it’s exhausting responsible her when he’s performed by a ridiculously suave Shah Rukh Khan.
The film handles the romantic confusion fantastically. Jehangir gently turns her down, explaining that patient-therapist transference is totally regular, however appearing on it violates skilled ethics.
Nonetheless, the movie leaves the door cracked simply sufficient to tease the likelihood that the good-looking physician may need harboured emotions for her, too.
De De Pyaar De (2019)
The place To Watch: JioHotstar
IMAGE: Ajay Devgn and Rakul Preet Singh in De De Pyaar De.
Akiv Ali’s rom-com throws Ajay Devgn and Rakul Preet Singh right into a chaotic romantic entanglement, with Devgn enjoying a 50-year-old rich NRI relationship a girl half his age. What begins as informal flirtation rapidly escalates right into a severe march in the direction of marriage.
The primary movie squeezed its comedy from the couple desperately looking for approval from his separated spouse, a scene-stealing Tabu, and his grown youngsters. The sequel, arriving six years later, flips the script.
This time, they should win over the a lot youthful bride’s household, pitting them in opposition to her fiercely disapproving mother and father (R Madhavan and Gautami Kapoor), who will cease at nothing to sabotage their relationship.
Manmadhudu 2 (2019)
The place To Watch: Netflix
IMAGE: Rakul Preet Singh and Nagarjuna in Manmadhudu 2.
I’m not certain what cinematic universe Rakul Preet Singh was working in throughout 2019, however De De Pyaar De wasn’t her solely outing falling for a 50-something millionaire.
On this Telugu rom-com, Nagarjuna performs an older playboy who, to silence his household’s relentless marriage calls for, hires a cash-strapped younger girl to play his pretend fiancée.
Naturally, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine precisely how this supposedly strictly-business association finally ends up. The movie additionally sprinkles in enjoyable cameos from Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh and Akshara Gowda.
GDN (2026)
The place To Watch: Not Out there For Streaming
IMAGE: R Madhavan and Dushara Vijayan in GDN.
If R Madhavan was busy preventing off an older son-in-law within the De De Pyaar De sequel, GDN sees him stepping proper into the older groom’s footwear.
This biopic casts him because the ingenious inventor and industrialist G D Naidu, with Dushara Vijayan enjoying his youthful second spouse, Ranganayaki.
The wedding solely comes about after his first spouse (Priyamani) abruptly walks out of his life (and from the film), claiming she is not the proper particular person to gasoline his ‘progress story’, no matter that truly means.
Images curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
