Recently I saw an old Hindi movie- Dil. There was a time when love in Hindi movies was ideal. There used to be a poor boy, rich girl and true love between them. Obviously they never showed sexual relations between them, as the love was intended to be 'pure'. Even making out was symbolic, with the screen blurring as soon as the lead pair got their faces closer. The next shot used to be two flowers bumping against each other.
The boy, though poor, was idealistic. He was honest, just, clear of conscience and seemingly asexual. And yet the girl liked him, which is very unusual. The girl would be rich, sheltered and a free spirit. Until the poor guy 'tames' her and she falls head over heels in love with him. No dialogue would be complete with a kasme-vaade, saat janmon ka saath, saccha pyaar, jaan de doonga/doongi type of lines. The lovers often used to be star crossed, with the parents opposing the marriage and the guy and girl trying to elope. Heavy duty dialogues and romantic song routines in the hills of Switzerland were the order of the day.
When their parents don't allow Madhuri and Aamir to marry in the movie, Aamir barges into Madhuri's house, breaks a wooden stool, sets fire to it and they do the saat pheras around it! Moreover, the ritual was complete with Aamir cutting his thumb and using the blood as sindoor to bharo-fy Madhuri's maang. How cool is that?!
It is sad that we cannot have such things in our movies nowadays. The men are reduced to health magazine models. The women are reduced to glittery stick insects in shimmery costumes and fashion labels. Love is reduced to something mechanical that happens when the lead pair is done with sampling the variety on offer. That is so boring. So mechanical. So tasteless. And so (unfortunately) real.
The kasme-vaade brand of love is something to be celebrated. It exists in fiction only, but it is so beautiful to see it materialize on screen. I appeal to any good Indian filmmaker to bring it back to the silver screen. Sex is mundane (though de-stressing in a way). Real love is boring and has too many hassles as compared to sex. We need the Yash Chopra brand of Bollywood amour back on the 70mm. Now only if someone listens. Until then, we always have YouTube to take us back to that wonderful age.
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