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Journalism of Courage
There is a Devdas in each one of us, symptomatic of the times we live in. That was the first thought that struck me when I found the crowd cheering Devdas, as the protagonist hit the bottle on losing Paro.
In fact, Devdas is a loser in every sense. He loses his beloved, loses his senses, loses his family, loses his home and, ultimately, loses his life. This is the man we are cheering. This is the film that fetches the highest ever collection on the first day and is now declared a hit!
Not so long back we had theatres reverberating with 8216;Rang de basanti chola8217; but there were few takers for Bhagat Singh.
Not even a master story teller like Raj Kumar Santoshi could make the box office respond because we live in a time when we identify with losers not fighters.
Bhagat Singh battles against heavy odds and lays down his life for a cause worthier than any other. Devdas also lays down his life 8212; but for his beloved. What a poor specimen of the human spirit he is! He could, instead, have chosen to fight on. It is living that signals victory not dying. That8217;s what Hemingway showed in The Old Man and the Sea.
The human spirit is indomitable, irrepressible. One is reminded of Bimal Roy8217;s Do Bigha Zamin and Balraj Sahni in the immortal role of a farmer-turned-rickshaw puller who comes to Calcutta.
So, in fact, does Shahrukh Khan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali8217;s Devdas. But Sahni is struggling for life and Shahrukh is struggling for love! Sahni sweats it out pulling rickshaws and Shahrukh tries to forget his love by watching nautch girls and plunging into the abysmal depths of alcoholism.
Unfortunately, people today identify with Devdas, a wastrel, not with the rickshaw puller who makes life triumph with every drop of his sweat and blood.
I sometimes wonder why love is always portrayed with an element of defeatism. All the legendary lovers from Laila-Majnu to Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal get their love 8216;glorified8217; in death! Why should death bring consummation and not life? Is love life-giving or death-giving? There are hundreds of lovers every day getting separated by life8217;s inalienable circumstances. Are they rushing to die? Should they? I have serious doubts about this kind of cult propagated by the high priests of love!
I recall a tragedy involving a friend of mine. He was in love with a girl but family pressure made her marry somebody else. This friend of mine was so broken-hearted that he locked himself up for days and one day he consumed some pesticide.
What I remember most of all is that when he was dying, he cried out,8216;8216;I want to live, not die, please save me.8217;8217; He could not be saved. The vice of love had got him. And today this is the vice that Bhansali is celebrating with an opulence that is just mind boggling.
Instead of endorsing a culture that makes a fighter out of the puniest of men, we are endorsing a love that takes you away from life towards death.
