Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

I saw the movie last night with a friend of mine who was actually a production assistant on set. We drove all the way out to Long Island to see the movie! And then sat through 3.5 hours of it. As the closing credits came onscreen (and we both yelped when we saw her name on the credits), I realized I liked the movie. I mean, the movie was actually about infidelity- they actually make Bollywood movies on infidelity?? Not only that, the ending was unexpected. In short, it actually made me think. Which pretty much never happens when I watch a typical Bollywood movie that my parents bring home from the local Indian grocery store.

***spoiler alert below***

The movie is about two married couples, both with somewhat unhappy marriages. Each couple has its loser half and its winner half.
Dev and Rhea: Rhea is a succesful editor (winner), Dev is an injured soccer player who ends up becoming a little league soccer coach/housedad (loser) .
Rishi and Maya: Rishi is a succesful businessman (winner) and Maya is a frigid school teacher (loser).

The winners (the editor and businessman) love their loser spouses, but the losers (the soccer coach and teacher) don't love them back- and don't even seem to love themselves. In the movie, the losers Dev and Maya meet each other and fall in love amid a lot of guilt. As Dev later says, it just happens and they end up making each other's incomplete lives complete. He also says that love is a lot of times about circumstance.

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Anyway, Dev's words of wisdom are pretty much why I liked the movie.

I liked the idea that two incomplete people, at loss with the world and at loss with themselves, could meet and somehow fulfill the emptiness in each other's lives. I like that two unlikeable characters, unpopular and morose, could find peace in each other. The director didn't really make the two characters out to be super likeable- they were dull, full of flaws, cynical. Except with each other of course. That's a beautiful thought. Sometimes one gets sick of hearing about the ideal of successful pple finding love. What about the losers? They deserve love as well.

I also like the idea that love is about circumstance. That is so true. People fall in love at different stages in their life. I bet if these two characters had met at a time in their life when they were happy, they may not have fallen in love.

And finally, I like the idea that the movie portrayed marriage as a work in progress. It takes hard work. And it's never perfect. And I guess, neither is love.