Hidden Gems’ last screening was
Meherjaan, about a young desirous girl,
falling in love, against her will, with an enemy soldier. The film was a
poetic, visual odyssey, somewhat akin to Jean Campion’s Bright Star.
Louis
Hobson, our resident critic, compared it with Franco Zefferalli’s Romeo &
Juliet and found Meheerjaan lacking in passion! His comment pricked the Eastern
sensibilities and comments started pouring in from the audience.
Did
it loose something in translation? Some put it down to Cultural differences.
However, Love is the most universal of emotions and transcends across all
creeds and colours. Nevertheless, it is expressed differently. Meherjaan’s and
Juliet’s parting had the same intensity. But Eastern traditions advocate
restraint-until recently, kiss was not even permitted on the screen. It
reminded me of all the debate over Rhett Butler’s parting exclamation, “I don’t
give damn!”
Louis
would have liked to see blood dripping as the lovers clenched hands drifted
apart. I saw an invisible thread, first stretch as Meherjaan receded in the
distance and then break as Wasim’s boat turned the corner and disappeared.
Someone mentioned “sacrifice”, a concept quite foreign to western literature as
far as personal love is concerned. Love is there, to be conquered, - for
personal gratification. To sacrifice one’s love for someone else’s is
unimaginable in this hemisphere.
The
world has always pined after unrequited love: Laila-Majnu, Sohini-Mehval,
Heer-Ranjha, Romeo-Juliet. Meherjaan was evidently still in love with Wasim as
she never married. The only thing I found lacking was that neither of them ever
attempted to find “the other” in the ensuing 40 years!
The
only eternal monument to fulfilled love is the Taj Mahal.
Niru
