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Relationships have always been portrayed on the screen in different shades and textures in our films. Generally, boy meets girl, falls in love and with or without the consent of her parents gets married. These and similar scenarios are quite common in our films. But what concerns us on the screen off and on are the relationships, which are frowned upon by society—relationships that are devoid of social sanction and are unconventional. Such relationships when presented on the screen have always unleashed shock waves in our society. Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd presents a different face of Indian cinema by telling an unorthodox tale of love of a 60 years old man with a girl of his daughter’s age. The film shows the storm that creates havoc in a man’s mind when he is caught in the plight of heeding to his own feelings and in doing so, breaks taboos. The release of the film witnessed protests in many places. But this is not the first time that such unusual and different sorts of relationships have been shown on the screen. Only sometime back, Mukta Art’s Joggers’ Park set the screen afire by depicting a dangerous liaison on the screen. In the film, we are first introduced to a celebrity judge (Victor Bannerjee) who has recently retired from service. After an illustrious career at the Bench, the judge is struggling to settle down into retired life. What is remarkable about this judge is that he has never nurtured any friendship or relationship either with his wife or with his peers. But Jenny (Perizaad Zorabian) enters into his life like a breath of fresh air during his morning walks at the local joggers’ park. Their acquaintances turns into mutual admiration, trust, loyalty, and friendship and eventually love. How both of them cope with their difficult relationship was well brought out in that film without anyone raising an accusing finger at the film-maker. In another offbeat film Shaukeen, three senior citizens — Utpal Dutt, A.K. Hangal and Ashok Kumar fall in love with a young and pretty girl, Rati Agnihotri, and relive their youth. The film was uproarious with a display of excellent acting prowess by these stalwarts. Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai explored the relationship between a bachelor painter, Siddarth (Akshay Khanna), and Dimple Kapadia, a divorced mother of one. Siddarth loses his friends Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan over a fight concerning the choice of the older woman. In Leela, Dimple Kapadia seduces her own student, who is her friend’s son and is 20 years younger to her, in a fit of anger and jealousy. In Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker, Raju’s unconventional relationship with his schoolteacher, Simi Grewal, pioneered a sexual revolution of sorts. His teacher, Mary, entered Raju’s fantasies when he comes across her changing her clothes after a dunking in the stream. He nurtured dreams of wooing her but ends up being the best man at her wedding. According to Ram Gopal Verma, his latest venture Nishabd was inspired by the biography of renowned author Ayan Rand titled Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Brandon. According to Verma, the subject of Nishabd is disturbing. But the sad thing about age is that only the body ages, not the feelings. Therefore there is no control over desire. Among black and white films also, the subject of unusual and unsanctioned relationships had been explored. In Kamal Amrohi’s Daera (1953), Meena Kumari played Sheetal, a 16-year-old girl, who has been given in marriage to an old, ailing man, often mistaken for her father. Meena Kumari presented the agony of her character very well. In Shantaram’s Duniya Na Mane (1937), a young woman’s family coerces her into marrying an aged, progressive lawyer. She refuses to consummate her marriage in protest against the injustice done to her. Her husband moves from incomprehension to rage and frustration and finally commits suicide; on his deathbed, he makes his young wife promise that she will marry again. Fire by Deepa Mehta dealt with the relationship between two women, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, both of whom are frustrated with their husbands and find comfort and solace in each other’s company. Live-in relationships, though not so common in India as in the West, have often found expression in our films. Based on R.K. Narayan’s novel, Guide was the story of a man Raju (Dev Anand) who has no qualms about exploiting the woman he loves. If Raju was unlike any Hindi film hero, then Rosie (Waheeda Rahman) was anything but a holier-than-thou virgin. The neglected, young wife of an ageing architect, she was easily drawn into an affair with the man she just met. She walked out on her elderly sterile husband and moved in with Raju. Though redeemed by Raju’s death, Guide was a path-breaking film. Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth revolved around illicit relationship between a film- maker, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and a film actress, Smita Patil. Pooja (Shabana Azmi) walks out from a soured marriage holding her self esteem above everything else. In films like Silsila, Swami, Gumrah, etc., the unusual different relationships stabilised with forgiveness and acceptance after snowballing into a catastrophe. Artistes who played Gabbar Singh, Sexy Sam or a 60 years old man in Nishbad, etc did not play their roles because they personally related to any of those characters but because these characters provided them with a chance to explore their potential as an actor. The above-mentioned films had novelty and were made without bowing to the pressure of genre or tradition.
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