Lamhe was the movie that we kids were not taken to, and were ceremonially tossed out for playtime when it played on the television later. Watching it for the first time! Twenty years after its release I can watch this movie as a hindsight on how much society's values have changed since.
Bollywood has seen many star-crossed lovers but this is something else. It sounds like a Freudian nightmare and yet it is not (and you have to remind that to yourself throughout the movie). There must be something in the sands of Rajasthan that it evokes such contemplation in everyone.
Unrequited love is celebrated in Indian culture unlike any other. The pardesi (stranger) who comes and steals the village belle's heart only never to return, is the theme of many a folk songs across South Asia. This story flips the theme and has the stranger pining for the girl forever. And as if coming back to his land and listening its songs awakens this feeling in Viren and he finds himself unable to fall in love with anyone else.
Viren raised in London visits his native place in Rajasthan and falls in love with the village belle Pallavi. But she is in love with the sweet faced Siddharth, (a moment to mention Deepak Malhotra who really made his presence felt and should have been given more chances).
To escape this Viren returns to London but it is not easy to escape the past. And Pallavi's daughter Pooja comes into his life, a spitting image of her mother and already in love with Viren. Despite knowing that Pallavi's unrequited love, it is hard to say whether it is how the director projects it, or whether it is our own old world morality that paints our view of what happens next but yes, there is some hard to shake judgment on our part. And it has less to do with the age gap between the two characters.
One thing you see immediately is that just like in Dil Dhadakne Do, here Anil completely switches off his Lakhan vibe and becomes this Prince who is deliberate and brooding, and acts what Anil Kapoor himself calls "switching to multiscreen theatre" mode.
Sridevi is gone now but this movie will remain as one of the shining jewel in her immortal legacy. And of course the same is true about Yash Chopra who did make many movies on controversial themes but couldn't dare to return to something so taboo.
No comments:
Post a Comment