Why the bad guy is good for you

Last Saturday -as is my weekend routine - was spent watching movies. I half-heartedly went to watch Rowdy Rathore with someone I hadn’t met for five years and, quite unexpectedly, it turned out to be a ridiculously hilarious evening. What I learned: never say never.

I got home with the intention of pulling an all-nighter. Having heard so much praise about it, when I finally got the download from a colleague, I couldn’t wait even a day more to watch Bridget Jones’ Diary. Also, the colleague has given me a covetable collection of rom-coms to last a good whole month. God bless her.

I started the movie with a lot of expectations from it; and it didn’t disappoint. You just can’t get enough of her and so I stayed up till six a.m. to finish the second part too. I cannot say I like Bridget as much as I like Rebecca (from the second movie). Rebecca is sexy, tall and a super smart lawyer. Mark didn’t hook up with Rebecca not because he loved Bridget but because Rebecca did. If she was straight, you’d have known that Mark Darcy is no saint. Am I the only one who thinks that Mark Darcy is too perfect to be real? Okay, I LOVE how he loves Bridget (especially his “high regard” for her “wobbly bits”) but in this world, there is no Mark Darcy.

We’re more likely to be floored by a Daniel Cleaver first. I think every girl has a Daniel Cleaver in her life; someone who is so charming that he sweeps you off your feet, so sexy that your knees turn to jelly and so shameless that you hate his guts. But in a way, as much as you hate to admit it, Cleaver was good for you. Where Mark is happy with “just as you are”, Cleaver gnaws at your brain, breaks your heart and you strive to improve your life simply as a way to get back at him. Notice how she got fitter and found a better job after dumping him? It’s like a whole new improved life; the sweet smell of vengeance. She needed Daniel Cleaver: to realize the worth of Mark Darcy. And to realize her own worth too.

We become who we are not only by the choices we make but also by the choices circumstances make for us. If that ladyboy hadn’t interrupted them in Thailand, then Bridget would have most definitely slept with Cleaver and her life would have turned out to be very, very different. I am glad they were interrupted.

Because Mark literally traversed the ends of the world to rescue her J

Forever believing in miracles and a sucker for happy endings,

Signing off,

Wannabe Wayfarer.

First Love

Precursory statement: This is not about my first love.

So, yet again, I bunked yet another class for yet another movie. Ek Deewana Tha today. And the world may give it half a star or none, I loved it. I loved it because it’s one of those movie experiences where I’m stuck to the seat even after the credits have started rolling and the movie itself plays in my head for the rest of the day.

The possible scenarios for all typical Hindi romantic movies (not mutually exclusive):

·         A lot of focus on “You never forget your first love”

·         LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

·         Crazy jobless mawaali woos shy delicate princess

·         Love vs. friendship

·         A happy ever-after against ALL ODDS

There was nothing new or fresh about Ek Deewana Tha. Except Prateik. His dancing skills, acting and just him being so cute in love! For people who’ve seen (or will see) the movie, notice the way he hugs her at the Taj Mahal! ^_^

Okay, less than 3 hours since I saw the movie and I cannot recall the name of his character. But his portrayal of that “i-would-die-for-her” kind of lover is etched in my mind. For the moment atleast. Probably because I’m being very sensitive about love this month. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the winter. Winters always make me want to cozy up to somebody and thereafter realize that my ugly pink teddy bear needs a wash. Only during winters, I let myself go “Aww” on mush. Or when I’m eating a half kg tub of ice-cream.

Re-focusing (though there isn't much of a focal point here), while watching this typical romantic movie on a wintry February morning snuggling my hoodie, there were a few couples who came to my mind. I love real-life love stories and so I’ve heard a lot of them. Some were strikingly similar to this one. More than one was a LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. So fact remains, even if I have never experienced it, love at first sight happens. It’s one hundred percent real and possible. Though, in all the love stories - real as well as fiction- that I can think of, the whole love-at-first-sight emotion is stronger for the man. Because apparently the girl of his dreams is so shy, she doesn’t even look into his eyes. Pfft! I couldn’t be that shy even if I tried. So is the phenomenon exclusive to the ‘bashful boy – timid girl’ pair?

The way he looks at her… sigh! THAT, THAT makes me wish that someone falls in love with me. Just one look, and he decides, “She is the one. The girl I will marry. I love her.” Surreal.

In most cases, like in this movie, the man’s first love is his love at first sight.

I want to be somebody’s first love. Someone he is madly in love with. Someone he will chase to the ends of the world. Someone he will never give up on. Someone who, for him, is his “biggest audience”.

Now, some bubble bursts:

• I don’t think love happens just once. Can’t you love more than one person to the same immeasurable extent?
• Why is the woo-ing and chasing customarily boys’ domain? I want to pataao guys, cheesy pick-ups et al, without being labeled unpleasant things. I want to do crazy things for the one I love. Hmm.. Okay, this question I think I’m answering for myself. I would want to do all those things only if I’m sure he loves me back. Boys are probably more rejection-resistant that way.
• For the normal, non-breathtakingly-beautiful variety of human beings with a zillion things to work out, does love really find us?
• Also, my over-analyzing alter ego, who I try to keep suppressed as much as possible, has a very disturbing theory; that one rarely marries the love of their lives. Most passionate love stories have depressing ends – war, death, or simply (and possibly the worst of its kind), living different lives with different people, away from each other. Apparently, the original EDT has a different ending – one where she ends up marrying a bloke from U.K.; not the happy ending which the audience sees.
• Now that the alter ego is on the fore, might as well get this out of my system: Maybe it’s never about love. It’s just a trade-off. Weighing of options.  The ‘U.K. + parents’ approval + stability + rich hubby’ package probably tilted the scales as opposed to ‘love’. Bleh.

Signing off,

The Ever Optimistic

Wannabe Wayfarer.

P.S.: I do not know how to add audio, but if possible, listen to the music of Ek Deewana Tha. Particularly, Hosanna in Tamil. A.R. Rahman creates magic!