My favourite 5 Bollywood Opening Credits

Nothing can immerse you in a story better than a well-made opening credits!

Because I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching random videos, I had earlier written a newsletter about my favourite quotes from Bollywood interviews.

I watched some videos of directors talking about the opening credits of their movies and how much thought goes into it. So here’s my favourite Bollywood opening credits from the recent years:

1. Luck By Chance

   Often the first film of a director is either a personal story or about the world they know the best. Zoya coming from a film family and grown up watching the world, made her first film about the Hindi film industry itself.
   The opening credits of Luck By Chance is all the stuff that happens on a movie set BUT behind the camera.

   

   

   

   

   All these visuals supported by a song beautifully written by Javed Akhtar. The song talks about the expectations one must have when they join this industry. Here are some excerpts:

   Jo palko ke tale
   Hai apne sapne leke chale
   Hai kehdo woh chale sambhal ke

   
   Na karna koi gile
   Kahin jo thokar aaisi lage
   Ke sapne tute aasu chalke

2. Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na

   

   The first image we see even before the text appears on it is the iconic Marine Drive and a couple sitting there. Which sums up what this movie is about - 2 friends and Mumbai.

   Much like Luck By Chance, even this is the debut movie of the director Abbas Tyrewala.

   

   
   There are images of couples trying to find intimacy in public places in Mumbai, most of them being spots near the sea. In one scene they even show couples being shoo-ed away by the police.

3. Laal Singh Chaddha

   I must say the the lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya for ‘Kahaani’ in the opening credits add a lot impact to the visuals. We see the story of a ‘pankh’ flying with the wind and going through various places. Much like our lives going through various stages.

   

   Sometimes it being thrown off by an obstacle (a broom).

   

   Sometimes it having to go through a faster speed than usual.

   

   Sometimes it gets to have rest too when someone else helps you in your journey.

   

   All of this ends with the pankh landing at Aamir Khan’s feet where it’s story ends and Laal’s story begins.

   

   The opening credits of it tell us what this movie is about - Life being a journey which is enriching and yet telling you that your story is a tiny little part of this world full of different stories happening around you.

4. Tamasha

   At the risk of sounding cliche, I’m nominating this because truth be told, this movie has already been over-analysed. That’s the truth. But it’s also true that the opening credits sequence of it is one of my favourites.

   Tamasha is a story about a story teller who grew up listening to stories and hence the introduction to the movie is through a song - Chali Kahaani, beautifully penned by Irshad Kamil, telling us that most stories are alike but just in different contexts.

   

   
   Little Ved, when listens to these stories, he imagines them happening in his locality, the world where he resides - Shimla. After watching Ram-Leela, he imagines Sita sitting on a bench in Shimla, waiting for Lord Ram.

   

   Similarly, after listening to the Sohni Mahiwal story, he images a girl from his neighbourhood as Sohni, dressed as Sohni but in Shimla. And other insights like Raavan in his classroom and many other stories in his locality.

   

   

   Why I love the sequence? It’s almost gives you an idea of what the movie is going to be. While it’s not necessary to the plot, but it gives you that bonus content which people who came late to the theatres missed.

5. Taare Zameen Par

   Before the credits start, we see Ishaan capturing a small fish in his water bottle, before he immerses himself into the world of it and starts imagining how that world looks like.

   

   

   It’s almost like a teaser into his brain, which later in the movie when asked to multiply 3 with 9, thinks of a fight between the 3rd and the 9th planet of Solar System and a story around it.

   

   

   I just realised that 3 out of these 5 are produced by Aamir Khan, which tells you a lot about his attention to detail when he’s the captain of the ship.

That was it, I know I’m not regular at newsletters but I don’t want to release uncooked thoughts of mine. Meanwhile, here are some life updates:

• Started mini-vlogging almost everyday (5 out of 7 days a week), feel free to check the Shorts section of my YouTube channel. Really liking it, vlogging felt difficult to me because it involved me pushing camera into people’s faces, so this one is mostly about me giving little jokes with bits of my life.

• Reading ‘The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’ by Jai Arjun Singh. I must say I’m not a reader but this book is about movies which makes me go watch specific scenes or even full length films by Hrishi Da, so not complaining.

• Edited the KK Tribute Concert finally and posted it.

• Trying to find a solution for feeling ‘useless’ when I don’t work 1 day after extensively working for 4-5 days (freelance life is confusing).
  
  Baaki mast, please comment and tell me your favourite Bollywood opening credits!