Is it just my imagination, or do fifty percent of all hindi movies made between 1980 and 1995 contain a Ramu Kaka character?
A Ramu kaka is an old benevolent man-servant whose pathos filled wrinkled face is designed to drive viewers to tears simply by looking at it. His role usually consists of hanging around wearing a dhoti and a white shirt or a kurta with a small (chequered) towel draped over one shoulder. Most of the time he walks around with a tray serving tea but in times of crisis (when, for example, the heroine's parents have estranged her over her choice of boyfriend (the hero)) he serves as a source of emotional support and kindly wisdom.
Ramu kaka usually refers to the heroine as bitiya.
Ramu kakas are also, invariably, dudes who've 'been with the family' for decades. Bitiya has probably known him forever and RK has been an integral part of her palan-poshan. Because this is India and not the USA the bitiya has not had problems that involve kaka pinching money from her piggy bank or instances of sexual harrassment from the then young and hormone filled
kaka. (At what stage is it appropriate to start calling Ramu a kaka?)
Ramu kaka is also, mostly, a widower. I suspect this is mainly because script writers think it would be a dilution of kaka's character to have a benevolent old female hanging around in a pathos-filled manner as well, but anyway.
A very important part of kaka's character is his loyalty to his employers - Ramu usually has two adult children who've managed to become successful (taxi owner in Mumbai and railway officer in Panipat) - but chooses to continue mucking about in the kitchen and serve people tea because he likes it, instead of leading a peaceful retired life (funded by his successful children) pimpin' about in rural UP.
What does kaka mean?
We were once, while in school, watching 'Aandhi' in the AV-room, as part of our structured weekend entertainment. Aandhi (I thought at the time that this meant 'blind' but apparently it means something else that is a little more relevant to the theme of the movie) is an old famous hindi movie that became even more famous because Indira Gandhi didn't like it. Apparently this was because the movie was based on Indira's life - to drive the point home subtly they even gave the heroine an Indira Gandhi hairstyle, skunk-stripe and all. Anyway. This movie has a Ramu kaka character (who fulfils most of the criteria listed above).
While watching the movie, my friend Pranav was dwelling on the meaning of the word and decided to ask Ishan (hindi expert) for assistance. Kaka was, in the meantime, hanging around on-screen, looking positively tragic for no reason at all.
Pranav (to Ishan): Hey aggi. What does 'kaka' mean?
Ishan (pensively): Shit.
We all found this very funny and laughed a lot and Satyajit Sir (who was screening the movie) yelled at us to stop being philistines and watch the movie in a civil manner. A short while after this, Sanjeev Kumar (the hero) appeared on screen running on a hillock while the beginning notes of a song played in the background. We laughed lots again (not because we thought of Feroze Gandhi running in slow motion; we weren't that sophisticated) and Satyajit Sir got very pissed off again.
I tried to find a Ramu kaka picture to post here but couldn't. You can have a picture of sunil joshi and co looking sexy instead.
Addendum:
Veena very kindly found some Ramu kaka pictures for me, so here they are:
Veena very kindly found some Ramu kaka pictures for me, so here they are:
I don't know what the dude is saying. Here's another one:
