On-screen pairings are a factor that seems ubiquitous, as more and more filmmakers and writers emphasize how a pair can include anyone, and it will work wonders as long as the story is good and strikes a chord more than other things. There is a parallel to it though – at times, when a story might or might not connect; if the undeniable chemistry between the leading pair connects – it becomes iconic, Your fingers might fall short of counting the number of some of the most-loved and adored on-screen pairs of all time and you might still miss out on a lot.
On the one hand, the conversation surrounding younger female actors being paired opposite elder male actors is persistent and seemingly does not affect filmmakers despite having a negative connotation towards it. But can you blame them? Why would they when you, as a viewer, go on to love that respective pair to an extent where this conversation takes a backseat? But there are always exceptions – exceptions that came in as a breath of fresh air and broke the mould thus proving that things aren’t as linear as we anticipate.
Unlike the instance above, here the names can be counted on your fingers rather easily because it is a rarity – a genuine rarity. The success story of Badhaai Ho might be the obvious candidate here where despite having Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra at the helm of things, it was the sweet and tender love story of Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta that struck a chord. Many believed that this success story would enable filmmakers and storytellers to be a little more brave and believe in their story as opposed to the face who will be telling it – that didn’t quite happen.
What’s fascinating is that the pairing of Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel might seem like-aged but even that isn’t even though they starred in Gadar over 23 years ago and reprised their pairing only last year in Gadar 2 – hence we can cheat to include this pair in the success story as well. But if you think hard on it – that’s about it.
Recently, we had two on-screen pairings that tried to break that rule and in all fairness, it even seemed like it surely would owing to the sheer star value attached to them. Ajay Devgn paired opposite Tabu, and Sanjay Dutt paired opposite Raveena Tandon seemed like a fantastic call taken by the respective filmmaker to convey a story that means something. And this is another rare instance to look at where despite working in back-to-back films together, Devgn and Tabu weren’t romantically paired opposite each other until Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha. The film tanked but unlike the time when a story is good and still not accepted, here the entire intention was misplaced and despite being stalwart actors they couldn’t save the film. Dutt and Tandon, on the other hand, starred in Ghudchadi which was released digitally but also succumbed to medicore treatment of what would have been momentous.
This leads to the talk about older male actors and female actors being paired and how accepting are we towards the idea of it. How much this rarity becomes a recurring occurrence to being regular depends on the blended mixture of our acceptance towards it and directors and writers not comprising on telling a gripping and immersive story instead of relying on star power.
The fact that people have been accepting towards elderly romances and veterans acting more than ever when it comes to films and shows – is an indicator of how even if there is some hesitation or initial ponder about like-aged romances, especially with older actors, that’s won’t matter if you are able to glue them to your world and entertain them enough.