Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

The movie is inspired by the tragic Ghalib verse :-

Hazaaron khwaishein aisi ki har khwaish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle

It is but natural that the movie is a serious movie. It must be the best love story I have seen in recent times. And it feels great to see Indian movie making come of age.

The movie describes the love triangle between Siddharth (Kay Kay), Geeta (Chitrangada Singh) and Vikram (Shiney Ahuja) and is set in the early 70s.

The movie is told in a simple style like its script was written with a pencil. There is no ambitiousness at all in the script and is its strength. The music is fantastic as is to be expected from any sound track backed by the brilliant Shubha Mudgal these days. This time round, the music director is Shantanu Moitra, the same guy who brought," Ab ke Sawaan" to our parched souls a few years ago. One could gauge from listening to Shubha Mudgal in her interviews in those days that "Ab ke saawan" became popular, while she raved about 'Shantanu', to expect that something spectacular was in the offing, from this guy. In addition to the haunting melody of the title track rendered by Shubha Mudgal, there is the "Baawara Mann" track which is also very appealing to someone looking for a classical sounding modern melody. The entire sound track has a folkish feel to it.

Now for the characters - Siddharth is born to a Bengali mother and Muslim father and can speak neither Urdu nor Bengali, in his own words. He sets out to set right the many wrongs in the country and leaves for Bihar, right after college. Geeta is a fellow student from an Andhraite family. Geeta is crazy about him, but leaves India to study (England, Miami, Nairobi, etc). Vikram seems evidently Punjabi and is crazy about Geeta. When the trio part, Vikram makes his way in the power packed 70s starting with converting an old palace to a hotel. Eventually he ends up schmoozing with the likes of a Sanjay Gandhi lookalike.

Sometime later, when Geeta (then married to an IAS officer), meets Vikram , she realizes how time has passed. Like an alcoholic returning to his drink, she leaves for Bihar 'dumping' her husband in search of Siddharth and her own calling. Like she tells him at some point in the movie, its not only about him. Vikram, in the meanwhile can't get her off his mind and gets her out of trouble more than once. And all Geeta can say is "Thanks for everything, like always!" And Siddharth burns with unrequited love, while outwardly retaining his charm and replies to a query on how he's doing with "...making money at an astonishing rate!" Once the Emergency is in effect, Siddharth and Geeta get into a wild mess, which results in 'string pulling' all around - the old judge worried about his idealistic, hot blooded son and the power broker in search of his only love, despite his marriage.

What the trio manage to find themselves with, at the end of the movie, leaves the viewer with a mixture of awe at the boldness of the director to have tried something like this, cynicism (at the idealist Naxalite) and poignancy at the outcomes of love. The last scene is pure poetry.

Go watch it.