Life in a metro or Love Unconditionally?

I guess most of us would have watched the Hindi movie “Life in a Metro”. Accidentally I happen to stumble upon the songs from the movie…
“In dino… dil mera mujhse hai, keh raha…. Tu khwab saja….
Tu jeele zara, Hai tujhe bhi ijazat kar le tu bhi mohabbat”

The gist of the song concentrates towards finding love... true love.

No this write-up is no movie review, it’s about my thoughts towards the lives in the movie… the few lives that try to find true love without fancying going against the shackles of the traditional society… the few lives who just want to love and be loved. Strange isn’t it? Are they asking too much? Is love difficult to find?

Bollywood veteran Dharmendra plays the role of Amol, a grand dad who has returned to India to spend the rest of his life with the one lady he had always loved Vaijanti, played by Nafisa Ali.

Vaijanti a widow happens to be the aunt of Shikha [Shilpa Shetty] and Shruti [Konkona Sen] and is staying in an elder home.

Shikha is married to Ranjeet [Kay Kay Menon], but the marriage has turned sour as time silently moved by. Ranjeet on the other hand has found solace in the arms of Neha [Kangana Ranaut] who grants personal favors to her boss to climb the professional ladder. Rahul [Sharman Joshi] who works in the same office, silently loves his boss, Neha.

Akshay [Shiney Ahuja] a struggling theatre artist and a divorcee meets Shikha and instantaneously fall for her. Their romance takes off even as Shikha is torn between her love for this new man in her life and her fidelity vows towards Ranjeet.

Shikha’s sister and Neha’s room-mate Shruti desperately wants to get married and settle down. She encounter’s Debu [Irfan Khan] through the internet and finds him not fit for her soul-mate. Co-incidentally they happen to be working for the same firm and Debu loves her, though she hates him.

Amol and Vaijanti have got only a few years left in their lives. Amol hads come all the way to rekindle memories with Vaijanti who has been left back in an elderly home by her kids. Amol and Vaijanti want to go into a live-in relationship. They have nothing to loose and there are no reasons other than “true love” to be together. At that age I guess its companionship that matters than physical love. They want to live the memories of their youth together. What threat can they be to the society or to anyone for that matter? But the same society which shelter’s them is against it. Well, we may find it quite annoying about what our society does… but ask yourself what you would do if you would had to choose between staying in an elderly home or finding love in that age? What would you do if you have no family left with you and an old memory eager to be stirred? What would you do if your heart promised you companionship? However practical we may want to sound, had we been in that place, we’d have wanted ourselves to be together with the love of our lives…
Just a change in setting now… instead of ourselves imagine our parents. Would we allow our widowed moms or widower dads to go that way? Would we prefer them to stay in an elderly home devoid of the love of a family and still deprive them of the only chance of making the remaining days of their lives memorable for them? And who are we... the very society.

Shruti hated Debu. The reason is nothing but stupid. Just the first time that she met, Debu seems to glance quite more than often below her neck every-time she was talking. Of course that’s a reason enough to find someone annoying… but not after knowing that the guy meant no harm and that he simply loved you. He makes her a part of everything that he does… right from having lunch together to even his wedding shopping. Debu shows her that life is not that complicated, provided we are ready to make it simpler. But Shruti had written him off. They are a perfect couple, they compliment each other. And believe me, at times opposites do attract. But once we have an impression, we stick to it. We are the society.

Shikha and Akshay came so close but could not carry the relationship any further. She was bounded by her wedding vows, while there were nothing more than the words left in her marriage. She had just started living a lovely live again with Akshay. She had started enjoying life. Her relationship with her husband had nothing left. But the very society did not allow her to go ahead. Not that she had not tried fixing up her marriage, but it had passed all limits of repair. They were just playing the part of a family, probably for the kid. This is not life. Life is full of love… and when there is no love, there is no life. We find many such instances around us but we do not want to discuss these. We do not want our people to love and to live. We are the society.

Neha realized sooner than later that at one point in time, we want true love. But she had gone too ahead and expected true love from someone who was no suit for her. Ranjeet had left her. Suicide, though a quick solution is not at all a solution. A life is a gift from God, learn to love life. There always are new beginnings. Rahul was completely aware of what had happened between Ranjeet and Neha. After Neha’s suicidal attempt he was the one to take care of her. Of course seeing someone we love being in someone else’s company is painful. But loving when that same person needs love is humane. Rahul inspite of the tormenting facts, had loved Neha… and truly loved her. After her suicidal attempt Rahul ensured that she did not retry. Once unable to find her where he has last seen her, he rushes from one room to the other, only to find her enjoying the rain in the balcony. The sight of finding our love enjoying life is wordless. The fact that she had once had been in a relation with her boss had not deterred him from loving her. Why should it? Rahul had concern and love for Neha. Does Neha not deserve love? Are we so heartless to deprive someone of the love that they deserve? But let’s keep ourselves in Rahul’s shoes. How many of us can love Neha? We are the society.

The name of the movie according to me should have been “Love Unconditionally”. These incidents are true and are enough to open our eyes and embrace the facts thrown at us.

Had I been Vaijanti’s kids, I would have allowed her to make her life loveable. Afterall I care of her happiness.
Had I been Shruti, I would have seen that Debu compliments me and not base my views on the first meet.
Had I been Shikha I would have started a new life with Akshay.
Had I been Rahul, I would have loved Neha… and love her unconditionally, because she deserves to be loved.

No I am no rebel and I mean every word I write. I am also a part of the very society that I live in. And I know that we live as long as we love.



After publishing this post, I received a few comments that though we say that had we been so and so, we'd have done this... done that but its not true. Its not possible.

Though I did not reply, but I realized that its all in the mind. The limitations, the reservations and the inhibitions. Had there been unconditional love, every hurdle would have a solution. After all we want to live. We want to love.