Two remarkable movies, more than thirty years apart and yet speaks of the same basic theme. ‘How to follow the commands from one’s heart when signals are confusing’. I got lucky to see both these movies on my lap-top within a span of seventy two hours and I was dumb struck by the similarity in the emotional under-current.
What do you do when there is a very strong feeling from inside which propels you away from your loved one towards work, career and the external world? How can you satisfy both the needs when only one choice is permitted? How can you prevent your loved one from misunderstanding you? How can you protect your own self from future impending pain? Both the movies tell you that “you can’t”. Both the movies depict the protagonist to have made their choice in favor of their stronger feeling of work, away from their love. Both the movies have chosen freedom of spirit over binding and responsibility towards a single individual. In Aandhi, it is the female lead that has the ability and is therefore bent upon a career; she needs to do something with her life and seizes her opportunity when it comes up. In Love Aaj Kal it is the male lead facing the same situation and choosing the same road. There are some differences of nuances, but these are insignificant.
For a while lets’ forget that these are merely movies and also forget that Indian movies are always high voltage melodrama, and a repetition of themes and plots, let us only focus on the human emotional problem.
Do such situations really happen to normal and real people? Yes.
Do such people react in the same way? Yes, some of them do.
Why?
Everybody wants to be loved and needs a lover. No arguments about that. The only thing that beats somebody else’s love is love of own self. Some people need to establish themselves, prove a few things to them and make or create themselves. At the same time they are also sensitive towards their love and chose not to burden them. Instead they let them go, choosing freedom for both. In a way it is a sacrifice of selfish love in return for perceived happiness. On the other hand, if they chose to be insensitive, they would still like freedom for themselves but would bind the other into a cruel and deprived relationship of marriage. Then, while one would be working in some faraway place or hardly find time for spouse and family, the spouse would be slogging away in unhappiness. We do meet both these type of characters in our daily life.
However, love triumphs in the end because it has to. Love is all that there is in this world. Therefore, in case soul mates get separated because of the ambition of one, they have to come together over time. Love pulls them together. To this I would add that the ending of Aandhi is flawed because the couple still continues to stay apart. It is more a western capitalist concept which brings more pain to all concerned. Even the viewer feels hurt.
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