Love Songs - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Last Saturday I saw this Benglish movie starring Jaya Bacchan, Om Puri, Mallika Sarabhai amongst others. A crisp well- made, well-edited and well-directed movie depicting human relationships, celebrating Love in all its shades.

Love is a sweet "sad-song"

The story revolves around Mridula Chatterjee, now in her sixties, leading a successful and independent life, having an NGO of her own which "fights" for the "challenged" children. Her grandson Rohan, whom she has brought up single-handedly comes home for his vacations from law school in Bangalore. Rohan's natural curiosity about his grandmother's life compels her to walk down the memory lane and dig out her memories of the past that had for long being confined within her heart.

Hers is a life with many ups and downs - one that forms a good story line for a novel. Memories of her University days; turbulence heralding the Nexalite era of poetry, idealism and uproar; her one and only love Aftab Jaffrey lost in the wake of communal prejudices; her hurriedly arranged marriage and the untimely death of her husband while she was five month pregnant; memories of her posthumus daughter, Palaash, who is always troubled, always tempestuous, and always insecured in her life, and blamed everything to her mother. As Mridula narrated her past to Rohan and his friend Tara, they begin to understand the choicesshe had to make - for herself and for Rohan. They realise why Mridula was forced to reveal a strictly guarded secret to Palaash (that she was Aftab's daughter) which resulted her untimely death, and then why she decided to move on alone despite her daughter's death and a possibility of a second chance with Sftaab, with whom she had an encounter again in the rural areas of Birbhum, many years later.

Direction wise, I felt only two hitches - The director could hve done without the english version of the Rabindra Sangeet - "Jodi tor daak shune keu na ashe tobe ekla cholo re" - the original version would have been more welcome. I personally have problem with the term "challenged" used for people with disablities - arent we all challenged? I think we are more challenged than them. But otherwise, its a treat for all Kolkata lovers to watch this movie. College Street, Coffee House, Park Street, Victorial Memorial, i mean, u just name it. Kolkata is very well shot in the movie.

This movie is of the genre which provokes thoughts within you - this movie forces you to think - think about life, about love, about relationships. This is an evocative story of how ordinary lives suddenly change due to extraordinary circumstances and how the fragnance of love moves gently from dark past towards fresh present, to give a new hope and the possibility of a glorious tomorrow. Life is all about decisions - deciding and standing by your decisions. Love is the most precious gift you get from God, and those who stick by their love, no matter what, end up being happy and content. And those who give up to the pressures of the society, and the oppositions of the family, end up being incomplete. Aftaab had given up to the pressure of his family and society, moved to England abandonning Mridula, and the result? He messed up his life getting married to an alcoholic and living the marriage life-long just for the sake of convenience, hurting himself, Mridula and Rebea (his wife). Mridula, had a life of turbulence with a forced marriage and spent her lifetime alone, loving only Aftaab throughout her entire life, only waiting for him, and struggling to get a firm foot in order to establish herself so that she could sustain herself and her daughter. Only, only, if both of them could fight the initial oppostions and stayed together - probably the movie wouldnt have been made! but then their life would have been probably much better, and much complete! Palaash would have got her father, and that would have made her a more confident and a more secured person. Next time, any lovers decided to call it quits due to external pressure - think about it.