Monday, September 3, 2012

Is Meherjaan’s love any less intense than Romeo & Juliet ? by Niru


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

4 comments:

  1. BEAUTIFULLY STATED....
    I get the point of "restraint"....
    I am glad my critique elicited some feedback...
    That's what they are meant to do...
    And I couldn't agree more with the question..... "if they are so much in love why
    didn't they search for one another..."

    My other REALLY big problem with the film is that it is "presumably" about the
    child of rape searching for insights into her mother...
    All she (and we for that matter) get is "your mother became a soldier"
    We needed to see her as a soldier...we needed to see why/how she gave up her child..
    but the film abandoned her...

    Whose story is this film?
    Or was the arrival of this rape child just the impetus for us to learn about the
    unrequited love story

    And I think whoever said my view is "cultural" is probably 1000% correct
    I am not that attuned to the taboos of Asian cultures


    Louis B. Hobson

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    Replies
    1. Meherjaan and Wasim Khan certainly did not have time or circumstances on their side but I have to agree with Louis. The director could have shown more passion in their parting since they were both aware that it was the last time they will be seeing each other. Also, they could have picked a better actor to portray Wasim Khan. He was a good looking man but there was something wrong with the way he spoke. Finally, it is unfair to compare Meherjaan's story to that of Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare, the best known chronicler of human emotions while Meherjaan was a debut film by Rubaiyat Hossain. I think it was a brave and beautiful effort.

      Sumeet Sekhon

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  2. I would say their love was not as intense as Romeo and Juliet because R & J were willing to give up their lives for each other.

    Richard Martin

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  3. I am dissenting from the last line which reads "The only thing I found lacking was that neither of them ever attempted to find "the other" in the the ensuing 40 years." It is my understanding that they probably tried to find each other since they saved each other lives. But could not do it due to the circumstances, for example, displacement which is common during war times. Also, we do not know if Wasim actually went back to Pakistan and lived rest of his life there or became a deserter because he disobeyed official orders. Lastly, Meherjaan's love is no less than Romeo or Juliet's or any other in the history of mankind.

    Kellar Kahn

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