Mundane Musings

My mother loved Rajesh Khanna's Aradhana movie. She gushes about it even now. Among the many reasons why she liked it so much, was that  this was one of the very few movies she had watched in the theater, where she had participated in the budding romance of Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna, had watched it with like minded relatives and then most importantly, because it had made her cry. Yup. That's right. She felt it was poora paisa vasool that she had walked out of the theater with many others, wiping their kohl lined eyes with the edge of their sari pallu, mulling over the courage of a young Sharmila who single-handedly brings up her child. A part of her trauma is depicted in the song "Saphal hogi teri Aradhana". Can you believe that? Well, if my reaction to Barfi! was anything to go by, I could believe it too. And it could be true if you see the success factor of earlier movies with similar paisa vasool factor - Mother India, Mughal-e-azam, Bandini, Guide, Anan...