The debate on marriages (because of my last post) has prompted me to make a mention of this scene from the film Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain which I happened to see while channel surfing. But let me first describe briefly what had happened in the movie until this scene. Anil Kapoor plays Anupam Kher's son. He has just returned to India from "foreign" and is spending all his time partying. The concerned father feels the only solution to this problem is to get his son married. After getting a no for an answer he emotionally blackmails Anil Kapoor into saying yes to marriage who lays down one condition. The condition is that Anil Kapoor will marry only for a year and if at the end of that period he falls in love with the girl (and vice versa) only then will he continue else he'll opt for divorce. Obviously this leaves Anupam Kher in shock who gets worried if his son after a year does the latter what would happen to the broken hearted girl.
What actually shocked me however was the following dialogue said by the loyal servant to cool down his maalik Anupam Kher.
Saahab. Aap ladki dekh lo.
Baaki sab ladki dekh legi.
Meaning...
Sir. You just find the girl.
She will handle everything else on her own.
It seems the girl is expected to cure the wayward son of all his faults. A feat which the father couldn't achieve in many years she is supposed to do in twelve months.
In the movie Kajol signs the contract because Anil Kapoor promises financial support in return that allows her to settle problems in her own home. But what can be said of the families which are secure in money matters but still get their daughters married to a problem? And what can be said of the well educated girls who agree to become brides?
In the recently released film Provoked based on a real life story, Kiranjit Ahluwalia (played by Aishwarya Rai) continues to stay in a marriage despite being regularly assaulted by her husband. She is provoked much later, after becoming a mother of two, into setting her husband on fire in self defense.The first question that comes to my mind is that why did it take such a long time for Kiranjit to feel provoked? What causes battered women like Kiranjit to go on suffering silently for years? Is it the stigma of a failed marriage? Is it their false hope that things will improve with time? Or do they simply resign to their fate since they've been fed on the age old Indian belief of pati parmeshwar (the husband is God incarnate)? Is it because even today girl's families are known not to take them back home kindly? The last situation is shown to happen in the earlier film too. It forces Kajol to angrily lament that while her husband had left her after one year she had hoped to get support from a home where she had spent 22 years of her life.
4 comments:
It's a shame that you cited a 'typical' Bollywood movie (the first one)as an example of a real life scenario. I doubt if you can find a single weirdo like the character played by Anil Kapoor in the whole world. Trust me, no man in his right mind would want to act so immature, if not insane. (I realize that the movie would prove him at the end the most loving and caring husband of all times!)
I haven't watched that movie, and I don't want to: I can't stand Anil Kapoor on screen; but I'd really like to watch 'Provoked'.
In any place (and time) it's very hard (and painful) to get out of a relationship, and it becomes lot harder when the relation is a marriage in a country where it is considered to be a sacred and predestined (if not God-sent)bonding. You pretty much pointed out the answers to why it had taken so long for Kiranjit to get provoked; but I think, the true reason for her not fizzing out early enough is a combination of all those: for a 'homely' Indian girl it takes a lot bigger push from inside to get over the fear of being branded with a social stigma and moreover of losing the only roof over her head.
Anyway, I'm losing my patience: when am I going to hear the good news (needless to add, of you getting married)???
Kousik... the reason I mentioned HADMRH was not because of Anil Kapoor's character but because of the dialogue that I've put on my post. Its pretty obvious that in those days people didn't want to openly talk about live in relationships through movies and hence the garb of the one-year contract marriage.
Sorry ... I missed your point. Actually I was upset when you said, "More shocking ......", as if, what you'd written before about Anil Kapoor was a real-life scenario. Thanks, for clarifying this! :-)
You are posting some good stuff in this series, and that's what makes me come back.
I was wondering what you might think about the liberal and apparently floating nature of a westerner's view toward marriage and relationship. Western civilization has brought those liberal views along with everything else, and I was wondering how they might appear to a girl like you standing on the soil of a relatively conservative country (with the recent rage against Richard Gere in mind) under the beaming sun of the twenty first century. Hope to see a new post on that, soon!!!
Keep up the good work!
oooh... my mistake. i'll correct the phrase to avoid any more misunderstanding. :)
btw thanks for all the comments. i will take up your suggested topic in another post but not too soon. want to write something light next. :p
Post a Comment