Aaya sawan jhoom ke!! - Page 2

Through the following decades, the concept of rain and romance continued to rule in Bollywood. Raj Kapoor was quintessentially the pioneer of the trend. His heroines - from Nargis to Mandakini, from Zeenat Aman to Dimple Kapadia - were all drenched in the rain or under a waterfall in every film which he directed. One of his greatest hits was Barsaat in the 40s, in which he played the lover of a Kashmiri girl, played by Nargis. In a famous scene from his film Awaara, he romanced Nargis under an umbrella in falling rain. He demanded by contract that Zeenat Aman should agree to let the viewers see a glimpse of her bosom in Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

Bollywood films have come a long, long way since the days of Raj Kapoor. Actors today are more than willing to display erotic zones of their shapely bodies without any ado and audiences are dying to see more and more. Even middle class moralists are not able to stem the tide of exposure in Bollywood films where a bold exhibition of female - and increasingly male bodies - is made to draw eyeballs to the screen. Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor, Esha Deol and the queen of them all Mallika Sherawat, have given an almost new definition to the shapely female body by exposing as much as decency would permit in almost all their films. Still, drenching them further in rain or water continues in several films. And usually, this is done with a rain song in the background. Some more recent hit films where rain songs were used are: 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' where Kajol dances in the rain in a short white (almost transparent) skirt; Sonali Bendre and Aamir Khan gambol in a waterfall in Sarfarosh; Bipasha Basu appeared out of the sea in a stunning entry in Jism and now she and Bobby Deol are seen smooching in rain in Barsaat.

However, rain is not equated with romance in some other films. There are imaginative directors who have used the theme of rain to enhance the impact of their films or specific scenes in them. Kaun, made by Ram Gopal Varma was one such. Here, the story centred around three characters and throughout the film, rain played the fourth character to create suspense, terror and an element of the unknown power playing a hand in the unfolding of events. The possibility of rain and dark clouds covering the horizon was also used creatively by Ashutosh Gowarikar in Lagaan - where a song about rain took the story to its next hiatus. Vijay Anand used the concept of rain to portray the power of faith and spirituality in his immortal film Guide with Dev Anand and Waheeda Rahman in the lead.