Pyaar Mein Twist

Male-female love is an eternal truth reappearing every moment and at every place in this mortal world since the times of Adam and Eve. In science, it is asserted that opposite charges attract each other and similarly the opposite ends of the a magnet attract each other. And perhaps in the similar fashion (designed by the Almighty), opposite sexes attract each other, irrespective of cast, religion, race, province, language, appearance and age as well. Love has been facing challenges and opposition from multiple sides for ages, yet it survives. Kuchh Baat Hai Ki Hasti Mitati Nahin Hai Pyar Ki. Whether it's a palace or a hovel, whether it's a metro city or a very small remotely placed village, whether it's a posh area or a slum and finally the involved persons are children or the youth or the aged ones; love happens. It's the biggest gift of the Almighty to the mankind (in fact, almost all the creatures in this world).

As I have mentioned in the first para itself, opposite charges (and sexes) attract each other. Hence mutual attraction, infatuation and finally love can take place between a male and a female at any age and in any phase of life. When it can happen in young age, then why not in old age ? The functioning of heart and the sentiments embedded therein remains the same in the old age as it is in the young age. In fact, the fascination and the love in old age tend to be more mature and meaningful because it gets more platonic than sensual.

And that's how this beautiful and touching movie has been made which I had seen in its year of release itself (2005). I sincerely thank esteemed MS reviewer, Deepa Swaminathan (@deepa.s) for inspiring me to write the review of this movie which I found very close to my heart when I watched it. It happens with many ladies (and gentlemen too) who, after devoting decades of their lives, including the complete youth phase, get nothing in return from the beneficiaries. What such lonely people do when life provides them a second chance to get their happiness and some worthy fellow's love ? Pyar Mein Twist provides the simplest answer - they should not let the opportunity go out of their hands and grab their share of joys and satisfaction too which they, as human-beings, are entitled to.

Initially titled as Pal Tham Gaya (the moment paused) and later retitled as Pyar Mein Twist, this movie tells the story of two lonely fellows - Yash (Rishi Kapoor) and Sheetal (Dimple Kapadia) who are single parents and have spent almost the entire period of their golden years, fostering their children and managing their lives, ignoring their own. Life brings them together and then they have to make a decision whether to lead the remaining part of it as the erstwhile one or choose the option of living together with love of each other. The negative and non-understanding attitude of their children is the biggest obstacle with an additional one for the lady whose daughter (Soha Ali Khan) is engaged and she can ill-afford to let her image maligned before the would-be in-laws of her daughter lest the matrimonial alliance should be broken. However, her aunt (Farida Jalaal) gives her strength and encourages her to spend her remaining life for herself and not for the sake of others. And then our (now) aged pair of Bobby (1973) repeats its teenager act of Bobby itself by fleeing away from their homes without letting their family members know their whereabouts. The exercise of their respective families of searching them reduces the mental distances between the concerned people and finally they come to understand that their parents too are, after all, human-beings only and possess a right to love and be loved.

Director Hriday Shetty has handled this simple script quite skillfully and maintained interest for the viewers throughout. Technically the movie is OK. Music by Jatin-Lalit has nothing to boast of other than the repeated (in piecemeal) song - Pal Tham Gaya and the remix of a hit song from Rishi Kapoor's old movie, Khel Khel Mein (1975) - Khullamkhulla Pyar Karenge Hum Dono. However the biggest strength of this movie is its lead pair only. Obese, yet attractive, Rishi Kapoor and the ever-gorgeous Dimple have proved that they can recreate the Bobby magic even after a long gap of 32 years. They deserve a big hand indeed. The supporting cast, including the debutante Soha Ali Khan, has done its part well. Satish Shah and Farida Jalaal stand out and make their presence felt.

Abraham Maslow kept love in the middle of the pyramid of his need hierarchy starting from physiological needs and reaching upto the need of self-actualization. However I consider it as the basic and the most important need for a sizable chunk of human-race. As stated above, those who do not love or give importance to love, also need love. And there is no rule that you cannot date with or romance with someone of your choice in the mature age. I salute Sahara India for producing such a loving and touching movie. If you put a premium on love, this movie is just for you only.

A wonderful, wonderful premise where an out-and-out mainstream Hindi film revolves around the romantic relationship between two middle-aged people. Both are in their mid-to-late 40s (or probably more, in his case), both are widowed and have grown up kids. Their relationship is just beautifully portrayed, and yes, there's indeed an added value in portraying the romantic affair between two people of their age, making it far more interesting and refreshing than your run-of-the-mill mainstream rom-coms. The big flaw in this film is that despite the modern setting of new-age, urban families, at the end of the day when the relationship between the two leads is revealed, it becomes an issue among the kids, which is weird. I highly doubt any person of their social milieu would consider it wrong. In this regard, a fresh concept goes really downhill by becoming a reversed version of Bobby, where instead of parents, it is the children who oppose the relationship, which doesn't really ring true.

Where the film does score is in the casting of the two leads, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. The two have a perfect chemistry which takes one right back to the magic of their Bobby days in the early 1970s (I think Saagar wasn't a very successful film in this regard). Kapadia is a delight, just a delight all the way - stunning, with extraordinarily commanding screen presence, and always so real. The late Rishi Kapoor was at his very best in the latter phase of his career as a character actor, as it brought the best in him and revealed his true acting prowess otherwise hidden under the fake 'hero' persona that he as every other Hindi film star had to playact. He is just excellent here, and it was just the beginning of many great performances that would follow. Indeed, the pairing of the two is marvelous, as they bring experience, familiarity and great nostalgic value. It really is reason enough to watch this otherwise poor film.

The same cannot be necessarily said about the younger players, whose character are caricatures of selfish youngsters. Instead of making a film that would totally rest on the extraordinary pairing of the two main stars, and there's plenty to rest on considering how good they are, the film succumbs to the commercial film format by enhancing the stories of the young players. In so doing, it shows how lacking in confidence it is and how little it trusts its stars to captivate the audiences. On top of that, the young players are sadly just not up to the mark so instead of contributing to the film with their youthful presence, they actually take away a lot from its credibility and depth and make the entire product quite messy and lacking in focus and conviction. As said above, it is not their fault, the characters are just badly written. But who cares anyway, sometimes even weak films like this are more interesting to see than other seemingly better films when they have what this film has, a great nostalgic pair.