It was a typical Monday afternoon. Now 10-year-old Angel was back from school and mindlessly browsing channels on the idiot box while I lay on the couch scrolling Instagram for some interesting content. Just then “Akele hain to kya ghum hai…” from Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak played on some music channel and I promptly asked her to stop. As a true blue nostalgia-driven Bollywood lover filmy mom, I got up and sang along while narrating the story to an uninterested her. Not long after this song the runaway couple is found and eventually both of them die together. How inconsolably I cried when I watched it in the theatre for the first time! She boringly rolled her eyes and said matter-of-factly, “What is the need to cry? Every movie can’t have a happy ending.”
While my ever-practical daughter may be right, doesn’t a happy ending make us happy? Imagine being invested in a story and rooting for its characters only to find out that there was no light at the end of the tunnel for them. It’s a brilliant area to explore as a writer, not so much as a reader. Life isn’t fair but fiction can be forgiving. Negative emotions need to be experienced but is heartbreak necessary? I can prove that with a few filmy examples. Let’s keep our happy ending hopes limited to Hindi movies for the sake of this post, yes?
While I’m known to cry buckets for the most ridiculous reasons (who sheds sad tears during Baaghi or Cocktail?) the following movies can legit make anyone’s eyes water. Agreed, we weren’t promised a happy ending but we didn’t see the twist coming either. This is my list so you may humbly disagree and/or add your own to it.
Aashiqui 2
No movie in the last decade has bombed me like this one did. A beautiful and unusual love story develops between a lucky, popular star and his talented protégé sadly destined to meet a premature end, thanks to his serious alcohol addiction. He tries to vicariously find happiness by helping her achieve her dreams while struggling with his failing career. She, on the other hand, urges him to get sober and restart his life but to no avail.
It wasn’t only Aditya Roy Kapur’s unexpectedly convincing acting and Shraddha Kapoor’s brilliant screen presence that made this movie successful, the songs were truly magical too. How can any Aashiqui be as heartbreaking as this? I was so deeply disturbed after seeing it that I had to write a post to get it out of my system. Do give it a read.
Dil Se
When Shahrukh Khan danced his way into our hearts with “Chaiyya Chaiyya” little did we know what Dil Se had in store for us. It was a story way ahead of its time with sensitive handling of terrorism. Part of a liberationist group, Manisha Koirala uses his position as an AIR program executive to evade search while preparing to be a suicide bomber during Republic Day celebrations in Delhi. Shahrukh, madly in love, naïvely abets her but ultimately foils her attempt by sacrificing himself with her.
Shahrukh Khan might have gotten his romantic mage from DDLJ but this movie does perfect justice to it. His eyes talk volumes, his smile makes you go weak in your knees, and his pain kills you from within. Koirala has performed her career-best role as well. A happy ending wasn’t feasible but couldn’t it have gone another way? Sigh!
Sadma
This has to be the saddest one here. It was on late-night Doordarshan when I saw it and could never venture again (the last hour, no adult stuff). We kids didn’t know much about the story apart from the basics that Sridevi had amnesia and Kamal Haasan was tending to her. It was all fun, laughter, and a little bit of hope until the climax scene which broke us all down. Sridevi regains her memory but forgets the entire time she spent with him.
Amazing performances by both have made it a masterpiece. Yesudas’s “Surmayee Ankhiyon mein..” and Suresh Wadkar’s “Ae Zindagi Gale Laga Le..” are timeless classics. Kamal Haasan’s desperate eyes as he continues to hurt and fall but tails her while she leaves by train thinking he’s insane isn’t an easy sight to forget. Why could this not have a happy ending? Gave the audience a Sadma for sure.
Truth be told, seeing them once shook me enough. Others like Kal Ho Na Ho, Rockstar, Rang De Basanti or oldies like Naam, Masoom, Dosti were real tearjerkers that made me repeatedly reach for tissues. Willingly signing up for heartache isn’t my thing yet I expose myself to it. Am I overreacting? Maybe. However, books can have the same effect on me too. The Kite Runner, for instance, left me shattered for days. People say we should treat a story like one but some of us can’t switch off that easily. That doesn’t mean we are soft, right?
This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle ’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Dr. Preeti Chauhan.
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