Forever Young

The year 2008 has given a platform to a lot of new talent like Imraan Khan, Harman Baweja, Genelia D’Souza, Prateik Babbar and Deepika Padukone, to name a few.

Along with the emergence of these young artistes came a brand new stereotype of what ‘young’ means in India.

An article I read in the Bombay Times suggested that ‘It’s hot to be chirpy and in to be peppy this year’ and the examples that were used to justify the statement were those of Shahid Kapur in ‘Kismat Connection‘ with his long-sleeved cotton T-shirt and jumpers and Mallika Sherawat’s ‘mis-matched colours’ and cute skirts in Ugly aur Pagli.

In the movie ‘Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na’, designer Ashley Rebello attempted to make them look (and I really like the way he put it) ‘Flawlessly comfortable in your own skin’ and he sure as hell did!

There was nothing overdone about the clothes they wore. Genelia was so realistically made up with her sporty-cute attire, it was so easy for the younger population to relate to her character.

On the other hand, majority of the youth today refrains from dressing the way Vidya Balan did in Kismat Konnection, not because she looked bad (hell, she looked better than she ever has before!), but because no college student dresses that glamorous on a daily basis. Another stereotype that often creeps up is short hair = young… So that makes Helen young then?

As far as Shahid is concerned, is it really ‘young’ to wear shiny shoes and flashy T-shirts ? I think not.

The youth today is far too heterogeneous to be put into one broad category, but if any one movie has managed to bring out nearly every aspect of the youth and the different kinds of lifestyles kids today lead, it’s got to be Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na.