Do people beyond a certain age have the right to get married?
That’s a fairly valid question and it emerges from the creases of comedy in Mere Baap Pehle Aap. In the film the son arranges for his aging father to marry the woman he loved and lost.
Two years ago Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia, known in real life to have share more than a passing fondness, played aging single parents who find love. The film Pyar Mein Twist bombed. So did Hamare Tumhare where Sanjeev Kumar wanted to marry Rakhi. Basu Chatterjee’s Khatta Meetha got a slightly better opening. Maybe Ashok Kumar and Pearl Padamsee looked like they were married anyway. So nobody minded.
The alarming part of Mere Baap Pehle Aap is that Paresh Rawal and Shobana who are supposed to be ‘old’ people discovering belated love together, are both in their 40s.
Is that old? Especially in an industry where women are too taken up with their careers to worry about their biological clock. They tend to ‘settle down’ a little late in life. Or not at all. Look at the screen divas who made it, and those who didn’t. Hema Malini and Sridevi found love and motherhood in the arms of a married man. Both Hemaji and Sridevi in spite of breaking the social code have conducted their married lives with extreme dignity and grace.
The entertainment industry gives you a chance to be what you want. Surprisingly second marriages and extra-marital affairs have always been carried out with far more dignity in our industry than in any other.
A very successful actress of the 1960s remained devoted to a filmmaker without ever contemplating breaking the man’s home. “It was a given between us,” she confided. “No marriage. Only commitment. I didn’t mind because I knew what I was getting into right from the start. It’s only when you plunge into such a liaison with your eyes closed that you end up messing up two homes.”
Why do glamourous actresses get attracted to married men? Not every ‘other woman’ is as understanding as the actress-friend of mine. And it doesn’t take long for actresses to insinuate themselves into filmmaker’s or leading man’s life first as a means to up their equity and then because they become genuinely involved with the man they sought to befriend initially to further their career.
How many times and in how many ways has Vikram Bhatt moved away from his marriage? From Sushmita to Ameesha... they’ve all been ‘serious’ involvements. So serious that when one of his lady-loves slipped up during a world concert with an events organiser Vikram called me and did an interview clearing her name. I found that extremely moving... and also indicative of the way relationships go in the film industry. Vikram reminds me of Raj Kapoor in Mera Naam Joker. ‘Saaya hi apne saath tha, saaya hi apne saath hai.’
God knows what happened between Waheeda Rehman and Guru Dutt. Maybe he would’ve died even if he hadn’t met her. Or perhaps in creating the perfect, unattainable beauty in Pyaasa, Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvi Ka Chand the creator fell in love with his muse.
This happens all the time. Subhash Ghai who has ‘created’ celluloid dreams as Manisha Koirala and Madhuri Dixit told me that directors who think they’re in love with the actress are actually in love with the characters they create. Vijay Anand may have referred to Waheedaji as ‘Rosy’ during Guide. That didn’t stop him from falling in love with the actress behind the character.
I find the Lara Dutta-Dino Morea-Kelly Dorji triangle very tragic and symptomatic of the cruel blows of fate that manoeuvre relationships in showbiz. Kelly was Dino’s best friend and Lara was Dino’s forever-girl. But now Kelly is out of the picture. In one messy stroke he has lost both his girl and buddy. Life in showbiz would be so much less complicated if everyone decided to get out of the bedroom affairs to focus on world affairs.
But that isn’t possible. As Madhur Bhandarkar says, earlier Bollywood’s anthem was Jeena yahan marna yahan. Now it’s Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahan par.
