I think sometimes the reason I like Horror so much is because the
things that are scarier than monsters under the bed, or demons hiding
in the shadows, is the conflict we feel within ourselves. Our
feelings can hurt us; actually break our hearts and destroy our
lives.
The monsters under our bed, they’re probably not real. Even if they
are, the harm they cause us won’t last as long as a broken heart
does. One doesn’t really recover from a broken heart so readily. It
can last days, months and sometimes even years.
It’s a torture that we inflict on ourselves because we cannot
control who we feel for and who matters to us. When those feelings
are not reciprocated, the hurt is far worse than any physical injury.
It’s about living with gloom, the persistent ache in the chest, the
feeling of despair that nothing could come close to what you felt for
that person.
Heartbreak is the worst feeling in the world. The fear of falling for
someone and ending up with such a suffering is far worse than horror
movies.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is the kind of movie that isn’t
forgettable mainly because it touches on a subject that we can all
relate to. At one point or another, we may have fallen for someone
who didn’t return the love we had for them. That heartbreak, that
one-sided love, is what is all the movie is about.
In fact, the worse feeling in the world is seeing the love of your
life, marrying someone else. Then its when you plead for them to
reciprocate your love. And then it is seeing them walk away from your
life, permanently. That is also what the movie is about.
My first thought after watching the movie was- this is what Karan
Johar had wanted to make ever since he got into direction. Since Kuch
Kuch Hota Hai, he has been been trying to tell a story of
‘incomplete’ love, but couldn’t dare to showcase a movie
without the archetypal, sappy, bollywood ending.
But who doesn’t like a happy ending? To be honest, while watching
ADHM, I almost did want it to end on a happy note, just
because...just because.
Ae Dil… is bold enough to
be realistic. Yes, the guy loves the girl, but she had always made it
clear from the very beginning, that she only saw him as a friend.
Whereas in Kuch Kuch Rahul
realizes that he does love Anjali, even though in the very beginning
he tells his mother that ‘you fall in love only once, and marry
only once’, he quickly changes his tune when he meets Anjali
because she has become more womanly now. You know, his type.
That was my one problem with Kuch
Kuch… That Rahul readily
forgot Tina, his first love and wife, and that Anjali had to change
who she was so that Rahul could be attracted to her.
For me, Ae Dil was
more realistic. Sometimes when a guy likes a girl, it so happens that
the girl doesn’t like him back and only sees him as a friend. There
may be a very fine line in the friendship between a girl and guy, but
I am so glad that Alizeh didn’t relent until the very end and told
Ayan, even as she was dying, that she only loved him as a friend.
The movie has all the elements that
make it memorable- good actors, impeccable acting, memorable songs,
but most importantly, a compelling, pragmatic story. The first half
may be a bit slow, developing the story between two friends, who grow
so attached to each other- one even more so. It’s about two people
who learn to grow out of their shells, together.
Ayan wants to sing, but needs to let
go of his inhibitions. Alizeh needs to learn to forgive and be with
the true love of her life, again- Ali.
In the second half, even though
these two characters are apart, their love for each other is palpable
throughout. Ayan has fallen deeply in love with Alizeh who is now
married to Ali. He meets poetess Saba, who helps him enrich his
singing career and even gets into a relationship with her. It is not
until he meets Saba’s ex-husband, that he realizes the value of
‘one-sided’ love. He calls Alizeh, who gets super excited to
finally receive his call.
They rekindle their friendship, but
Ayan ruins it all again- why can’t Alizeh feel the love, he has for
her?
They separate again. In the
meantime, Ayan becomes even more successful, while Alizeh has left
her husband. Ayan searches for her and finds that the love of his
life is dying. He does what it takes to be with her and towards the
end, has another confrontation with her.
Alizeh is dying, but she still can’t
give Ayan what he wants from her- the love she had for Ali. What
follows is the cliched airport scene, except Alizeh fakes a
respiratory attack to have her deplaned. In the ambulance, she
finally tells Ayan- ‘I friend you’. That’s the closest Ayan
will have to an ‘I love you’.
The end is a tear jerking moment
wherein Ayan ends his interview that makes him reminisce about his
love for Alizeh. He sings in her memory, tears in his eyes. Even
after all this time, even after achieving all this success, he has
not forgotten the girl who helped him sing with his heart- a broken
one.
Perhaps that was the scene that
neatly ties up the movie and you walk away from it with a heavy
heart. Because you’re finally shown that there is a side of love
that can be so hurtful, so pure, yet it can give you a kind of
satisfaction and happiness, knowing that you have at least loved
someone.
Even if it is one-sided, it is the
best feeling in the world that opens up the shell you had encased
yourself in.
That, for me, was what Ae
Dil Hai Mushkil was all about.
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