Parliament worried over decreasing duets in Bollywood

Looks like our lawmakers have found something new to worry about.

Cutting across party lines, MPs on Friday expressed concern over decreasing number of duets in Bollywood movies.  In a motion moved in the Lok Sabha yesterday, MP Chavvani Lal asked the government to take strong steps to arrest and reverse this decline at the earliest.

Duets: going...going...gone?

“When the NDA government was in power, we used to have one mandatory duet in every movie. We had over 456 registered duets in various movies in 2002. Today we just have two. The UPA government has failed once again.  It has not taken the issue with any seriousness. But we are open to a no-holds barred debate. Our concern is that the nation's pride and honour, has been sullied," senior BJP leader L K Advani said.

MP and Bollywood expert Lalloo Prasad Yadav rued the absence of sustainable chemistry among lead actors in today movies. “Today actors look as if they have been threatened into acting. There is absolutely no chemistry and everyone is simply worried about their own role. In such conditions you can never expect a proper duet. When I was young in the early Cretaceous, even animals in movies used to sing songs and run around trees-even if they belonged to different species,” Lalloo complained     

Lalloo: Chemistry is essential 

Left parties meanwhile asked the government to call an all-party meeting on the issue. “This is indeed a matter of concern for all Indians. The government should immediately convene an all-party meet and bring out a white paper on this. The nation needs to know why the Indian film industry is becoming uncomfortable with duets,” commie leader Prakash Karat said in a telegram sent from Beijing. The CPI(M) also asked government to consider offering monetary incentives in the form of subsidies to encourage movies to have more duets.  

Dismissing the opposition’s ‘crocodile tears’, Congress leader Kapil Sibal said “what do they expect me to do? Wear a lehenga and dance around the trees? Who do you think I am, Sushma Swaraj? This is a matter for Bollywood to decide and if the government intervenes, some clown will go on a fast on this one, just to gain publicity. We are in touch with movie makers and my colleague Digvijay Singhji has already threatened to start attending muhurat shoots if Bollywood doesn’t revert to its original duet levels. Lets wait and see if this leads to something”.