When did it start? The objectification of the  male body? Some would hark back to the primate appeal of the barely clad Tarzan and generations of comic book heroes in tights as the beginning of it all. Some would retreat even further to Renaissance sculptures of male torsos in all their rippling glory. In our amorphous memory pools however, a few images stand out.

Prithiviraj Kapoor playing the personification of arrogant male beauty in Sohrab Modi’s Sikander. Dara Singh’s brainless brawn in B-grade adventure capers. Dharmendra’s bare chested tenderness in OP Ralhan’s Phool Aur Patthar as he nursed an abandoned Meena Kumari to love and life and later his sinewy legs stealing the show from even Zeenat Aman in Dharam Veer. These are early examples of men being subjected to the camera’s voyeuristic curiosity in Hindi cinema.

Advertising initiated what may or may not have been the first instance of  titillating the female gaze with an undergarment ad where the male model in a strategically revealing dressing gown saved a damsel in distress. There was also Karan Kapoor’s ‘Dream Lover’, selling Bombay Dyeing shirts, bed sheets and subliminal fantasies with his cognac eyes and the twist of a wry smile.   

For a long time though, the gaze of the advertising mavericks was only preoccupied with sari clad Lalitajis ruling their home and kitchens with `samajhdar’ solutions or with  models bathing with frothy lime soaps under iconic waterfalls. The male models usually smiled over perfectly washed sweaters, presided over dining tables groaning under perfectly pressure cooked food or cuddled happy, well-fed children. Occasional music videos like Alisha Chinai’s Made In India turned Milind Soman into a packaged candy but for a very long time in Hindi cinema, heroes displayed latent style rather than  acquired muscles. The only bare-chested scene of any significance in the seventies was when Amitabh Bachchan shared a smoke with live-in paramour Parveen Babi in Yash Chopra’s Deewar. The point was simply this. Heroes did not need to strip to be desirable. Desire was a complex thing back then. It was not about pumped up arms and shaved chests. It was about mystery and charisma and indefinable depths.

So when the angriest action hero of his time spouted poetry like a sonorous waterfall in Kabhi Kabhi and Silsila, women sighed. Sanjay Dutt could never mainstream his bulked-up physique though he inspired the likes of Salman Khan to pack a punch in what was undoubtedly a puny frame. Akshay Kumar brought back the bare-chested Lothario with a vengeance in Abbas Mastan’s Khiladi but he was still an exception rather than a rule. The next decade belonged to a short, not particularly well-built hero with bee-stung lips, deep brown, puppy eyes, floppy hair and so much screen presence that minor details like a bad voice got glossed over. Shahrukh Khan like Amitabh Bachchan before him was a poster boy for unconventional male magnetism. Like Bachchan, he too redefined male charisma with outstanding and deliciously compelling individuality.

Screen evolution
Shahrukh’s was the ultimate screen evolution from an  anti-hero throwing women off terraces and stalking them manically, into a definitive lover throwing his arms and his heart open amid golden mustard fields for a suppressed young girl in DDLJ. As someone who followed his heart across borders in Veer Zaara and exuded soul deep love in other countless films, he epitomized the man who could be trusted, a stray KANK notwithstanding. No one really cared about his waist size.

It was when a perfectly sculpted Hrithik Roshan strode into cinema halls that the male body came back into focus. The likes of John Abraham made sure that gym memberships rocketed. A fit body became a prerequisite and even a 65-year-old Amitabh Bachchan was reportedly hitting the gym at five in the morning. Look at any hero today and you will see a Before and After version. Ajay Devgan’s bushy eyebrows are history as is his once naturally lean physique. In Omkara, the camera slithered sensuously on his hardworking pectorals while even a once awkward Saif Ali Khan has bulked up.

Shahrukh himself has turned into a six-pack toffee for his home production Om Shanti Om. For men in the public eye, the preoccupation now is not just with the body beautiful but with skin care and head-to-toe grooming and Shahrukh is known to not let anyone but his favourite hair dresser touch his locks.

Some time back when he appeared in a bath tub, plugging a soap endorsed hitherto only by beautiful women, the earth truly shifted. The writing was on the bathroom wall. It was now the turn of the male of the species to look beautiful, to groom and pamper himself, to be a prize catch.  Khan is also endorsing a fairness cream for men and that just goes to show just how far this gender reversal has gone. Slimming salons now beckon men with instant makeovers without the chicken and salad leaves diet that our heroes reportedly go on to look young and fit.

Hair streaking!
At unisex salons like Bounce, you will see as many men as women getting their hair streaked. Visit Parcos, the 2100 sq.ft., one stop store for beauty solutions at the Leela Galleria and the number of beauty solutions being offered by international brands to men and women will boggle your mind. The store opened in February 2004 and hosts over 53 fragrance, skin care and cosmetic brands apart from four premium brands like Clarins, Shiseido, Elizabeth Arden and Nina Ricci. The top five popular fragrances for men here are L'E A U D'ISSEY (Issey Miyake), Aqua ( Carolina Herrera), Burberry London and Weekend (Burberry), Chrome ( Azzaro) and Black XS (Paco Rabanne). Stroll in and chances are you will find a man or a few checking out the perfumes and seeking out effective skincare solutions.  The monopoly of old horses like Brute and Old Spice is well and truly over. At the sinfully enticing Lush outlets at Garuda Mall and Forum, there are luxurious products for men and we learn that even Johnny Depp was once seen in their London store, shopping for Black Pearl bath bombs (fragrant with frankincense and myrrh essential oils) for himself and his Pirates of the Caribbean cast! Lush offers to men a special gift pack called Dude, shaving creams like Ambrosia and Prince along with unisex bath butters,  shower jellies, jells, shampoos, arm pit creams, massage bars, face masks and more. Reetika Kotecha of Clarins India informs that male vanity is not going to ebb any time soon. She says, ``Men are now willing to spend on themselves. They know the importance of grooming and the Metrosexual male wants to pamper himself. We have four Clarins skin spas for men at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and at Bangalore (Bangalore Central) where guys can book packages, buy skin care products and more. We have specific products for men designed to suit their tough skin. With a large number of India’s population under 30, the niche for such youth centric products will only grow.’’

Feminine side
Lippi Lal, Training Manager, Baccarose chuckles, ``Recently a man told me that he is in touch with his feminine side (and I laughed ) but you see, post the women’s liberation moment and social revolution in the West, the gender roles have blurred and men are discovering that just being macho is not enough. Since Satellite Television happened, Western trends get aped in India as well. In India, the market for men’s products is not huge but it is emerging. Until now, maybe a man went behind his woman’s back to use her fairness cream but now there is one for him too! What happened to the tall dark and handsome man? Well, now he knows, there is a cream for him that can even out his skin tone and smoothen his blemishes!''