Today I watched Wong Kar Wai's film 'In the mood for love'. The film trails the relationship between a neighbouring man and woman, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, whose acquaintance forms into a friendship when they come together to share their grief on the discovery of clandestine, illicit relations between their spouses. The film ends on a sad note as the man falls in love with the woman and leaves because she had said, "We will not be like them (the promiscuous spouses)."
Had my girlfriend been watching the film with me, she would have created a serious uproar. She was quite uneasy with unhappy endings. I remember her commotion when we had finished watching the Kamal Hassan starrer 'Ek duje ke liye' (Made for each other). As the last scene showed the hero and heroine jumping off a cliff into the sea in a successful attemt to commit suicide, she was enraged enough to smash the laptop screen, only if we were rich enough to afford such luxurious ways to vent out our anger.
"What nonsense! Why did they have to die?" She complained wildly gesticulating with her hands and stomping out of the room into the kitchen. As she reappeared seconds later with a glass of water, I explained,
"The hero was brutally beaten by the goons and all covered in blood. The heroine was raped by the villain. Their parents were not in their favour. They had nowhere to go to. What other ending would have been suitable to such a sad state of affairs? Committing suicide was very much instinctual of that moment. It was a natural and realistic end."
"What is so damn realistic about it, huh? These people just want to prove themselves to be very artistic and realistic, and that's why, they intentionally choose a tragic ending. Just look. They had met after waiting for each other for a year having passed through so many obstacles. Now, they could have gone far away somewhere, married and made for themselves a small lovely house. Tell me the reason as to why it was not possible to do that. What could have stopped them from doing so?"
I could well elucidate the reason as to how the contrary would have defeated the message inherent in the undercurrent - the brutalities of the world against lovers. I could have told her that the choices we make in life don't always follow reason and the tales of life don't always have the best possible outcome. Many a times, the reasonable happy ending, even though it's feasible, just doesn't happen for miscellaneous reasons.
But I thought better not to say it, since another word from me would have been enough to send her totally berserk. I nodded in approval, and rather reinforced her assertions to pacify her.
"Yeah, these people are very clever. Had it been a happy ending, we would have forgotton the film after some time. But now since it has disturbed us, it would be in our memories for much longer. People would talk about it more. These are the stints they adhere to, so as to create a buzz around the film."
She seemed to be rather relieved on hearing this, and had hugged me close to herself. Now, the times have changed, and I sometimes wonder how she feels about the end to our love story.
We broke up after having loved each other for years. Presently, I love her. She loves me. Both of us miss each other a lot. I drink sometimes to lighten the pain of her memories, while she has taken to smoking. Our parents had almost agreed for our marriage. There is nothing that would stop us even now, from running into each other's arms. Even then, the happy ending evades us and within a year, she would be married to someone else.
I wonder if the vision of those realistic film-makers has started appealing to her, or else why would she collaborate with me in writing this tragic end to the tale of our lives.
