1. Bobby(1973) : Every generation has its love-defining film. Mine was Raj Kapoor’s Bobby. With a dew-drop fresh pair Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor,so much in love and such innocence(they apparently didn’t even know about sex!) that it would seem laughable today. But that was the 1970s when Raj Kapoor wove a mystical magic around his modernday tale of a naïve Romeo and a saucy Juliet. By the time they eloped, we were out of our seats cheering for that thing called love.
2. Pakeezah(1972): “Chalte chalte yuhi koi mila gaya ttha” A man Raj Kumar from an artistocratic family gives away his heart to a fallen woman, a tawaif, after seeing her …feet! “Aapke paon bahot haseen hain inhe zameen pe mat rakhiyega,” he writes and tucks the note between her altaa-painted toes. For a large part of the film Meena Kumari lives with the thought of love. Never having seen the man , and the man never having seen her. Love as a sublime emotion…wah!
3. Devdas(2002): From the Bimal Roy and the Sanjay Leela Bhansali versions of Saratchandra’s timeless tale of doomed love, I pick the latter. Bhansali’s was a giddy opera of opulence, songs dances and heightened drama helmed by the star-crossed images of ‘Devdas’ Shah Rukh drinking himself to death for the love of ‘Paro’ Aishwarya Rai. Then there was Madhuri Dixit as Paro pining in unrequited love for a man who loved only himself and them maybe Paro…The complexities of the characters were all painted in bright dazzling colours. This was a flamboyant monumental ode to love.
4. Amar Prem(1971) : Shakti Samanta’s timeless film featured my favourite romantic pair Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna .But unlike the super-romantic Aradhana this time they did not have a single moment of shared physical intimacy. Khanna plays a lonely man whose wife has no time for him.Sharmila plays a prostitute who offers him drinks, a shoulder and solace. The songs written by Anand Bakshi and composed by R D Burman went a long way in making the relationship look pristine yet passionate. Is it possible for two such intense human beings to be so much in love that they never need to make love? Watch the two actors in this film. They define celluloid romance.
5. Namkeen(1982) : Gulzar Saab shot all his films on location in a woman’s heart. He has created innumerable heart stopping moments of love and longing . My favourite is Namkeen a film about three derelict sisters on a lonely hill station who fall in love with their tenant, a truck driver played by Sanjeev Kumar. The women Sharmila Tagore, Shabana Azmi and Kiran Vairale and their mother Waheeda Rehman made a dazzling gallery of unforgettable women all looking for ….love!
6. Anupama(1966) : Sharmila Tagore spoke no more than 5 lines to the poet Dharmendra in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film. Her eyes said it all. This is the story of a repressed unloved girl finding comfort in the arms of a man who weans her out of her solitude. Stunning silences run through the theme of romantic yearning.
7. Sadma(1983) : Kamal Haasan and Sridevi sharing what outwardly seems like a borderline pedophiliac relationship. But then you look at the soul of tenderness that pours out of the man into the object of his affection and you know this chemistry is unparalleled in the history of celluloid romance.He is the father-figure. She is child-woman. When he combs her hair, and sings a lullaby for her you know in that vivid glorious rush of intensity what true love means.Kamal Haasan plays the nurturer to child-woman Sridevi after she suffers mental regression in an accident. He oils and combs her hair, feeds her lunch, takes her out for bicycle rides . If Sadma doesn’t make you fall in love with love then nothing will. Balu Mahendra’s film simply made us grateful for that emotion which has gone out of relationships: compassion.
8. Bandini(1963) : Love as a form of self-destructive emotion. Kalyani, played by the incandescent Nutan is so in love with the aging freedom fighter(Ashok Kumar) she abandons all her social responsibilities, disgraces her family and self by running after him for better or worse. S D Burman’s song O re manjhi mere saajan hain uss paar embodies Kalyani’s unstoppable self-destructive passion. What do you do with a woman so much in love? Director Bimal Roy seemed to ask in despair.
9. Guide(1965) : Raju(Dev Anand)’s forbidden love for the much-married Rosy(Waheeda Rehman) celebrated in songs and music and dance, Vijay Anand’s timeless adaptation of R K Narayan’s classic novel told us that love can exist even in the most forbidden place as long as the ego doesn’t destroy it.This was epic love tale of a woman who dreamt and a man who dared.
10. Ek Duuje Ke Liye(1981) : K Balachander’s sweeping tale of a Tamil boy Kamal Haasan and a Punjabi girl Rati Agnihotri braving all odds to be together. Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music swept through the romance creating tidal waves of emotion on which rode the mutual ardour of the lovers in this tempestuous love-tale. They don’t build such dizzying romances on screen any more. Unless it’s a film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
11. Hum….Dil De Chuke Sanam(1999): The eternal dilemma faced by a beauteous woman who has to chose between reckless passion and stability, here represented by Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan. Aishwarya Rai in her most beautiful avatar, finally picks stability . But her scenes with Salman are among the most endearing manifestations of romance ever seen in Hindi cinema.
12. Kabhi Kabhie(1975): Yash Chopra was a diehard romanticist. To pick one from his odes to romance is to select one rose from a beautiful bouquet. But yes Kabhi Kabhie had incredible chemistry between Amitabh Bachchan and Raakhee Gulzar who never looked more beautiful. I’ve never seen Mr B share the same intensity of emotions with any actress, certainly not Rekha in the utterly artificial Silsila where every romantic line is mumbled for effect.Could Sahir Ludhianvi’s poetry and Khayyam’s music have something to do with undying ardour of Kabhi Kabhie? I don’t know . After numerous viewings I am still trying to figure out.
13. Mughal-e-Azam(1960): That one sequence where Dilip Kumar’s Prince Salim makes love to Madhubala’s Anarkali caressing her face with a feather as Hindustani classical vocalist Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sings Prem jogan…This ranks as one of Indian cinema’s highest peaks of romanticism.It helped that Madhubala was desperately in love with Dilip Kumar, though by the time the film was completed he had deserted her. Hence when Lata Mangeshkar’s imperishable vocals pierce the universe with Mohabbat ki jhoothi kahani pe roye , it’s not a broken heart we are looking at. It’s a lament to love for all ages, for all seasons.
14. Prem Patra(1962): A gorgeous Sadhana wooing a blind Shashi Kapoor,his eyelashes brushing against her lips. The chemistry was so palpable it makes our hearts beat with pulsating precocity even today. Catch this Bimal Roy’s most romantic film ever for the lead pair’s urbane charm that lights up every frame of this black and white masterpiece shot by Dilip Gupta who also shot Roy’s other romantic gem Madhumati. And yes the composer-singer duo of Salil Chowdhary-Lata Mangeshkar eked out the most exquisite songs of love and heartbreak obtainable to mankind.
15. Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se(1978): A tender charming adaptation of Erich Segal’s Love Story with Sachin and Ranjeeta playing out the Prince and the Showgirl theme with heartbreaking sincerity. Elegantly directed by the neglected Lekh Tandon and with a pleasing score by Ravindra Jain this romance stays with you long after its tragic finale.
16. Tere Mere Sapne(1971): Okay, most would opt for Vijay Anand’s Guide. But let’s get romantically reckless this time and opt for the neglected Vijay Anand gem where Dev Anand starred as a doctor who turns corrupt right in front of his starry-eyed wife Mumtaz’es misted eyes . She who thought she had married an idealist. As her idyllic world comes crashing down we can almost hear the sound of her breaking heart.Pyar tera doona ram jaane phir bhi kyon hai jeevan soona soona. Finally romance is felt most tangibly when it is gone.
17. Silvat(2018): If you haven’t seen this 2018 digital film which you can easily locate on Zee5, you haven’t seen what Kartik Aaryan is capable of. We can safely say it is a tailormade role for the young actor. Playing a Muslim darzi in the crowded gully of what looks like Mumbai’s Haji Ali locality, Kartik is every bit Anwar, the shy sensitive tailor who develops a secret passion for his favourite client: a lonely abandoned wife Noor(Meher Mistry) whose husband has migrated to Riyadh for a job with nary a glance back for the woman he has left behind.The focus of the passionate plot, pulsating with unspoken ardour, is Noor. But it’s Kartik’s Anwar who silently steals the show.There is no exhibition of outward passion here.And yet so much is said through Anwar’s eyes. Every stolen glance is laden with longing. When she asks if he would like a cup of tea, Anwar knows it’s just a ruse to make him stay longer than his job allows.His reply to the kind offer, ‘Maine kabhi chai ke liya naa bola hai?’ says everything without saying anything.This is Kartik’s only film with a female director. It is evident that he blossoms as an actor under the female gaze.I have always been fond of Tanuja Chandra’s work. She understands women , men and the dynamics that govern human relationships. In the 40 minutes of playing time in Silvat there are lot of unstated emotions. It as if the writers chose to leave the words out because they knew there was little time to waste here.Tanuja Chandra whips up a muted urgency between the couple. They know their love can never be .That there can never be a silvat(crease) on the bed as long as the husband is away.Tanuja’s eye for detail is astute and comprehensive. The interiors of Noor’s tiny home where most of the plot unfolds,is every bit what it should be, Functional, neat, desolate….The film is shot on location in a Muslim locality with streetside vendors frying parathas and malpuas, hawkers selling bangles . The bustle of the street is weighed against those heavy loaded silences between Noor and Anwar.They know they cannot cross the wall that divides them.A married young woman dutifully waiting for her absconding husband to return home cannot give in to her emotional and physical desires.This is 1997. And riots don’t happen only on the streets. Sometimes they also occur in a woman’s lonely heart.