Small Town Stories, Big Screen Impact

Fifty years after Sholay, Bollywood returns with Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Stree, and Laapata Ladies, offering honest small-town tales that break stereotypes and showcase India’s diverse cultures as audiences seek authenticity beyond urban glamour.

The glamour and glitz of Bollywood cinema are often associated with the 'big, bad, beautiful' megacities—Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, and other major metros. The characters in these films embody the gloss and chutzpah of big-city life through costumes, make-up, revealing outfits, item numbers, and bold romance, including intimate scenes. In contrast, small-town communities often appear marginalised and overshadowed by big-budget productions with permissive values, polished visuals, lavish sets, and the full spectacle of sound, colour, music, and dance.

However, India is vast, with a diverse population beyond its major cities. Its people lead varied lives, speak different languages, and have distinct cultures—festivals, music, dance, food, theatre, and literature. As the world’s largest film producer, India’s growing media networks mean audiences outside big cities seek films they can relate to—in stories, settings, songs, and emotions. Bollywood has created a market for small-town movies. These films use local stories and settings that appeal to both regional and national audiences.

The small-town story began long ago. Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975), set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, offers radical portrayals of men and women, showing that small-town characters like Jay, Veeru, Thakur, and Gabbar Singh—real or fictional—should not be underestimated. Sippy carefully crafted distinct speech patterns for each character. The two main female leads provide speech contrasts: one extremely talkative, the other silent, adding depth. Radha (Jaya Bachchan), now silent post-widowhood, is shown in flashbacks as a lively, film-loving maiden. Basanti (Hema Malini), an orphan who drives a tonga ferrying villagers and city folk, is smart, bold, brash, and fearless. Jay and Veeru are rootless, aimless, but good-hearted thieves, courageous enough to face a villain like Gabbar Singh. Sholay’s enduring popularity over 50 years, with global repeat viewings, proves that small towns and villages are far from insignificant.

The small towns and pockets of villages have found strong popularity among the mass audience across the country because the audience in those geographical pockets feels happy with the identification they find in seeing the cities and villages they belong to on-screen, telling some of their own stories.

Over the past decade, Bollywood has switched gears from urban romances like Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na (2008), Wake Up Sid (2009), and Break Ke Baad (2010) to romantic comedies set in small towns like Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), and Stree (2018). The marked shift is reflective of certain changes in India’s cultural landscape, shaped by a myriad of socio-economic factors that Bollywood is attempting to keep up with.

Set in the North Indian town of Bareilly, Bareilly Ki Barfi breaks away from big-city romances to present real people—with stammers, crushes, and meddling matchmakers-in a charming small-town love story. Its leading ladies are bold, smart, and assertive, defying the ‘cute and shy’ stereotype often associated with small-town girls. Linking this and a similar film is Chirag Dubey (Ayushmann Khurrana), a modern-day Devdas pining for his Bubbly, now married to someone else. Avinash Das’ Anaarkali of Arrah (2017) follows Anaarkali (Swara Bhaskar), a young woman from Bihar’s Arrah who inherits her mother’s profession—performing erotic song-and-dance numbers for all-male audiences, arranged by a local orchestra and its owner (Pankaj Tripathi). Amid whistles, catcalls, and dancing men, she sways in shimmering costumes to suggestive lyrics. Though far from the virginal ideal, Anaarkali owns her choices and owes no explanations-not even to the man who employs her. The Tanu Weds Manu films (2011, 2015), starring R. Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut, and Jimmy Shergill, explore the charm and humour of Kanpur. Set in real locations, the films’ authenticity and relatable characters stem from their grounded setting. Masaan (2015) weaves two parallel stories exploring class, corruption, love, and loss. Set against the Banaras ghats, the film captures the city’s essence and the tragedy of death.

Small towns as backdrops now resonate with audiences from the hinterlands. While smaller-town viewers relate to these stories, metro audiences may welcome their unpretentiousness as a break from fast-paced life. This cultural shift towards honest portrayals has also driven Bollywood’s de-urbanisation.

The prize goes to Kiran Rao’s hit Laapata Ladies (2024), set in a village and highlighting the cleverness of two small-town brides who are accidentally swapped because their identical red veils covered their faces. Over 100 years after such practices were common, the film proves this custom endures—brides still conceal faces, heads, shoulders, and torsos. If the face is hidden, how can the husband be blamed for picking the wrong bride?

(The writer is a film scholar. Views personal.)