Furtive or candid, Mr Navalkar?

Is it odd that a man who can speak so sensitively of the travails of young love should be hell bent on suppressing its exuberance? It is odd but that is how it is. Over the last few months the self-appointed thought police in Mumbai has launched a campaign against hugging, kissing and other such `obscene’ and `vulgar’ behaviour. There have been rumours of activists breaking up lovers in a park and a peck between two veejays at a recent rock concert evoked a demand for their arrest.

That theprotest should rear its head in India’s most liberal city may seem surprising but the middle class has always been coy about physical manifestations of affection. The ban on kissing on screen in the past and the one-night-of-passion-results-in-pregnancy-and-ign-ominy routine in Hindi films has always reiterated a familiar theme: sex equals punishment and retribution needs must follow. The current controversy rakes up the same tired issues of guilt and Indian culture.

Yet take a look at how much society’s perceptions of love have altered. In February, Sanjay Dutt set the town afire by whisking long-time girlfriend Rhea Pillai off to a temple on Valentine’s Day. Mehr Jesia’s wedding with Arjun Rampal made front-page news. Madhu Sapre’s on-again off-again relationship with Milind Soman is the subject of endless speculation in the gossip columns. And everyone knows Malaika Arora is seeing Arbaaz Khan.

All the individuals involved are young, single, purportedly in love and open about their relationships. Howis all this so different from before? Take a look at some celebrated couples from the past Waheeda Rehman and Guru Dutt, Hema Malini and Dharmendra, Neena Gupta and Viv Richards, Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan and the difference becomes obvious. Somehow romance in the past often seemed to involve scandal and secrecy.

Sparks there must have been between single men and women as well but they were kept under wraps. Sharmila Tagore, who went against the norm by consorting with the very eligible Pataudi, invited a storm of censure. Predictably, since according to the ruling wisdom celebrities represented objects of lust, unhampered and available to fit any viewer’s fantasy. So married men in films rarely invited their wives to share the limelight.

Actresses warded off any hint of romance in the belief that it would make them less desirable. And when they did marry it was often seen to be for far more practical reasons than love, usually to men awestruck by their star quality: Mumtaz and Rekha. Even untilrecently actresses such as Meenakshi Sheshadri, Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi felt they needed to put a cloak on their feelings. A far cry from today when reigning heroines such as Kajol, Manisha Koirala and Juhi Chawla openly confess to the men in their lives and top stars Shahrukh Khan and Sunil Shetty proudly flaunt their wives and fatherhood without worrying about the likely impact on ratings.

Celebrities may appear less hampered by social mores than other people. But public response to their actions can be a vivid indicator of prevailing attitudes. And what the recent focus on celebrity couples seems to indicate is a growing acceptance of free-willed romantic relationships. Not just sex, because that would be reducing the phenomenon to one element. But the whole idea of a relationship with its joys, pains and consequences. What was considered sinful in the past is gradually being perceived as a natural contact between two people. A matter of gossip maybe, but not censure.

To many this would seem evidenceof maturity. To others it clearly isn’t. The issue is simple: love, as Mr Navalkar knows, will bloom in the most adverse circumstances. The question is, do we want it to walk confidently down the street or go back `tumbril’ in hand to the toilet queue?

Amrita Shah is a Mumbai-based columnist