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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

And talking of desi cinema I was awed by this movie on Zoom last night- Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Geeta Rao ( Chitrangada Singh) plays an amazing role and so do her love interests- Shiny Ahuja as Vikram Malhotra and Kay Kay Menon as Siddharth Tyabji.

Siddharth is Geeta's first love since college and contiues to have an affair with her even after her marriage to Arun (Remember Ram Kapur from the tv series Heena and Monsoon Wedding?). Siddharth is an idealist who believes he can help villagers of Bhojpur in Bihar to revolt against the oppressive thakurs but is surprised by the servile attitude of the oppressed. On the other hand-Vikram is a realist, honest almost to the point of brutality and is a cunning "fixer" of things. He prides about his ability to know "who can be corrupted" and earns mega bucks using the same. In spite of his knowing what he wants, there's a certain desultoriness about him. The movie strats with the three of them as students in Delhi University and progresses further by etching the love, ambition and philosophy of their lives.

Geeta leaves her IAS officer husband to join Siddharth in his struggle and is beaten and dishonored in custody. Arun rushes to save her, informed by Vikram. A misinformation about Siddharth's death lead to an encounter between Geeta and Vikram and he sets out to find Siddharth in a hospital where the police is planning to kill the rebel. Siddharth escapes with the help of his aids but Vikram is captured by the police and they scheme to kill him and burn his face with acid so he can be passed on as Siddharth. In a failed attempt to escape, Vikram is injured and beaten up- almost to death and loses his mental faculties before he is saved by the several contacts he had built during the years.

Siddharth intimates his decision to leave India and study medicine in London, while Geeta has to part ways with him again because she wants to go back to the village and continue with her adult literacy program.

The clash between idealism and realism and the transition between the two makes it very difficult to label who was what. Siddharth starts off as an idealist in his early life and turns a realist, while Vikram who is a realist to the core, risks his life to find Siddharth and acts like an idealist.

It's definitely a love story with a difference and the title is apt and so are Mirza Ghalib's lyrics from which the movie derives the title:

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi ke har Khwaish pe dum nikle,
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle
Mohabbat mein nahi hai farq jeene aur marne ka,
usii ko dekh kar jeete hain jis kaafir pe dam nikle

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can breathe fire or I can get drench you in rain.
Be the Sage or the Rebel.
Perceptiveness is the core of human nature.
We percieve and we analyze things long before we can comprehend them.
Love and Life are like that

From,
Bad Wulf

Anonymous said...

lolz...

since you do not allow comments on the spurt of emotions above, i use this place.

for a change i don't pass by your blog carrying the so familiar feel of admiration/regards that i have so often felt after reading ur stuff.. i feel you have smitten the wrong chord this time..

the second paragraph specifically reiterates facts that are already known and amount to boasting, yup thats the blunt word.

and since it would be enough for you to know someone regular feels so i don't specifically leave my name.

Anonymous said...

first abt the movie HKA ...one of the better movies bollywooed has produced off late...maybe coz it was heavily backed by a media moghul...the content was good..n narration was better..

now abt ur last post...i know sometimes to live in the plastic world u have to turn plastic...n the freedom of expression is confined somewhere deep insdie struggling to vent out...

knowing u i can understand how u must be feeling if u think u r not able to express what u want to express...but then u created this space for expressing ur life without any apprehension or inhibitions...n i can just ask you to keep doing it...blogging anon might be a step backward..n i would still prefer the ol' appu blogging from this space, like always :)

tc..keep smiliN :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@private quelch
Nice quips. :D
I don't see "boasting"as a blatant word. It's honest and very basic to human nature. And I'm not so great as to try modesty. One more thing- I don't write to get admired, I write to write. :)
Thanks for posting your opinion. But I had disabled the comment option on Words-III only because I did not want any comments on it. Call it whim or a "surge of emotions", I think I still have the freedom to exercise it :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@saikat
Ha yaar.. apun ko kabse zamane se darr lagne laga :D
HKA didn't do well at the box office. One reason could be- it was before it's time. The character sketches were good. Geeta was in love with idealist and was ready to undergo any amount of hardship to be with him and respect his ideals. Vikram craved for what couldn't be his. Even after his worldly success, he felt incomplete. Siddharth turned a non-believer of his own ideas and later abandoned his principles and the only love of his life for a more convenient life.
Those are people you can identify with or seem to be familiar with in your everyday life :)
In fact one of the characters in my forthcoming novel, Manan Malhotra seems to be very much like Vikram , except that he's going to be the first love of the female protagonist. Without giving away much, I'd like to say I've some idea how it's going to be... and I'm excited!

Anonymous said...

just a couple of lines abt ur upcoming novel, n my adrenalin has already started pumping...subah subah uthke line jo lagana padega..1st cautographed copy lene ke liye :P

well an interesting character u have got...that too first love...hmmmm my wild imagination has already started weaving a story..more hints u keep on giving ...more plots i keep on dreaming... :D

abt ur blog ..yeah aapne kab se darna seekha hain memsaaheb...chalaye jaaon yuddh zamane ke saath kalam ke dum padh...jab kick boxing karne ka man ho humhe yaad kar liyon :D

Anonymous said...

hmm... interesting... What percieves as emotion can be in reality a clever way of making someone yours. Using every possible situation to your advantage. Use that angle in your Novel. It will sell.

Bad Wulf

Aparna Ganguly said...

@bad wulf
Using every possible situation to your advantage Was that an accusation?? :O I did not know I could manipulate or synthesize emotions. If I can, I'll count it as one of my virtues then.
About my novel, I think I'll have to wait for another 2-3 years before I can find out whether it'll be a best seller.
P.S I intend to make it autobiographical though. I wonder if that is a criterion in your list too :P

ivid said...

Though HKA was well made it didnt do well at the box office. The reasons could be many but dont think that it was ahead of times as you yourself said that we would find so many such characters around us. I feel that it was too harsh to be accepted. We Indians are too comfortable with the film or a story having a happy ending.
I was infuruated by the way Siddharth escaped to england and pitied Vikram for his naiveness and his uncoonditional love for his wife. In real life we dont want some one to be wronged and thats why personally i didnt like the movie. Geeta failed her husband. Though the last scene was comforting wherein she is seen with her husband now mentally retarded.
I could not help but ask myself what wrong did Vikram do to meet that plight. Isnt it why it is so very difficult to fall in love?that fear of being wronged and not being reciprocated?
Complicated human emotions...running after what seems unattainable and not valuing what one already has....

Aparna Ganguly said...

@divy
I meant ahead of its time in terms of the audience it was catering to. Not in terms of its content. What was depicted is a timeless tale of love, betrayal and love again. Whether it is the love for an individual or for an ideology, the human mind is dynamic and highly unpredictable when it comes to dedication. It might be an innate human frailty or the greatest strength we have.
The only certainty is "CHANGE". Though it might not always be welcome or positive. The progress (or displacement) can be in a negative vectorial direction too. It's wiser to accept things we have no control over.
The movie had an apparently sad ending for Vikram and Geeta . Look at it from a different perspective. It might actually be a happy ending. She need not have yielded to Siddharth's whims and accompanied him to UK or Siddharth need not have put up a pretense of still believing what he used to. Parting their ways was inevitable.

Vikram's loss of metal faculties was tragic but consider this- she was the only person he ever yearned for. And at the end of the movie ( which is a new beginning if you ask me) he has her. The only thing he remembers is what he has scribbled on the rock "I love you Geeta" .

I think- sometimes it's enough to have somebody who loves you. It's more fulfilling than most things. And we all have our happy endings. It's just that we don't recognize it.
Thanks for your comment. You opened a barrage of ideas :)
Btw, I don't think Geeta married Vikram. Love doesn't need a social approval or a piece of paper. If it's there, it will show :)