Bollywood set to roll out 'Mrs Robinson' roles

Mumbai, Aug 26 (IANS) After two back-to-back tales of autumnal men in love with much younger girls in 'Nishabd' and 'Cheeni Kum', it's time for Bollywood to swing the other way.

Films replicating the 'Mrs Robinson' prototype from 'The Graduate' - of the older woman seducing the boy-man - are set to roll out.

Hyderabad-based producer Sudhish Rambhotla wants to cast 49-year-old Dimple Kapadia, and no one else, in a faithful adaptation of 'The Graduate' opposite 25-year-old Sammir Dattani in the role of the impressionable student.

A few years ago, Dimple played the role of a 40-something woman in love with a much younger man in Farhan Akhtar's 'Dil Chahta Hai' and Somnath Sen's 'Leela'.

The recent film 'Metro' had Shilpa Shetty playing an unhappy housewife who dates a younger man.

In Mahesh Manjrekar's 'Deh', Jaya Prada plays a lonely wife in a forbidden relationship with a much younger Dino Morea. Their sexual frisson seems to replicate Raakhee and Mukul Sharma's forbidden liaison from Aparna Sen's 'Paroma' two decades ago.

Siddharth Anand has cast Bipasha Basu opposite the distinctly younger Ranbir Kapoor in a new film and the stunning Sushmita Sen is all set to romance debutant Prashant Raj in 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag', the name of his remake of 'Sholay'.

That's not it. At least two very major banners in Bollywood are planning remakes of Satyajit Ray's 'Charulata', the ultimate toy-boy classic about the bored housewife drifting into a special bonding with her callow but caring brother-in-law.

Then there's Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Sawariya' in which the naive Ranbir Kapoor shares a very special bonding with an experienced prostitute played by Rani Mukherjee.