Is there any sane reason why anyone would want to spend a lakh of rupees per head for a trip to Switzerland when you can see the country from the warm confines of home sweet home? That is what you get out of current crop of films. Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand… you name it, you got it. In the foreground all and sundry are pledging undying love. The green hills and meadows present a very pleasant picture background. Makes one wonder if that is the basic idea, to have beautiful backgrounds so that foregrounds can be forgettable. After all, what is budgeting all about?
The golden fifties and sixties had budgeting of a different kind. Locales in the fifties meant large patios and grand homes. Outdoor usually meant a black sheet with sequins and a large moon sewn on. The tree stump was mandatory or what would the heroine swing on while sending caustic rejoinders to the hero while her eyes shone with love for him? The great outdoors were conveniently painted curtains, and for black and white techniques it really didn't make a difference at all.
The sixties were presumably more demanding. So the stars got to travel to Kashmir, the paradise on earth. The greatest love songs featured the vaadiyaan and the pahadiyan and the hawain and the ghataain of the valley. Beauty meant Kashmir Ki Kali.
The state was the destination for all honeymooners of the sixties, even spilling over to the seventies. But foreign locales were still exotic. Raj Kapoor's Sangam provided true excitement by showing Europe. Around The World in 8 Dollars was a great idea because beautiful Europe was mentioned. Evening in Paris was more a tourist guide to France with beautiful Sharmila (who can forget the bikini?) and Shammi Kapoor thrown in. French buses, French railroads, the Eiffel Tower, the Swiss ski lodges - all were beautifully covered, it was paisa wasool time.
Sixties was also Darjeeling time. The lucky ones like Sharmila Tagore got to go everywhere from jumping into the beautiful toy train to Darjeeling to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Mountains became an obsession, beautiful women, beautiful sights, tall deodars, soft cool breeze… it was time for love.
The seventies brought home the fact that Indians were great tourists too, Feroze Khan drove around in a Jaguar in the heart of Europe, and so did Rajesh Khanna. Hong Kong became a rage, the best place to get diamonds from. Cameras panned the Hong Kong skyline before focusing on the hero roaming its streets. Visuals were in.
The action decade, the eighties, got in more countries into the net. Switzerland and Australia became hot. The younger crowd loved Europe, black leather thigh boots were the fashion and it went well with central European climate By the nineties no place on earth was spared, Mahima Chowdhury warbled Jahaan piya wahan main across the American continent while Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit landed even in the icy locales of Antarctica for Pukar. Govinda had some strassenlove - he was always gyrating in Austria till Goa took his fancy. So the Haseena was pataoed in Goa.
The wheel seems to have come a full circle. Lagaan can take the credit for ushering in a new idea, that India can be appealing. There is Bhuj and nothing else, still the film is loved. Nayak has been shot across 2000 locations in India but the South Indian directors can take credit for it, they can make the washing end of a local village river look better than the Alps. But the tough part must have been breaking the news to Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee - "Sir, we are shooting only in India, not in England this time - yes, times are a-changing.
