THE SILENT SMILE

September 07, 2012

Yesterday morning, I had written a Post titled, ‘The Window to Love’. A routine ‘Good-morning’ message had instantly triggered off my thought process and I had written that Post.

I still, can’t get over it:

Yes, we love others the way we know how to love them…

And, others love us the way they know how to love us…!

In the evening, I and my wife watched ‘Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi’ in a multiplex. We both loved the movie… light, heart-warming and quite innocent, I must say.

As both, my wife and I, like Boman Irani’s versatile acting, we both came out liking the movie immensely.

Farhad, is a forty-five-year-old Parsee. He had been having a tough time finding a suitable girl. He is just a salesman in lingerie store… An introvert, he is too shy, honest and innocent to manipulate his way into the girl-finding process. So, he keeps getting ridiculed and rejected…

On the other end, there is forty-something Shirin (Farha Khan) who too is left groom-less. Unlike Farhad, she is an extrovert… very bold, blunt and aggressive. Still, at heart, she is a very loving and committed woman.

So, as destined, one day, they meet in Farhad’s store, and their hearts are stirred… and, yes, they find themselves in love with each other!

“Love doesn’t come with an expiry date,” Farhad, once declares before others. I loved that statement. Hey, love makes the man at forty-five… or eighty-five… feel equally strong and elated as the young-man at eighteen! Is that not true? I was thinking aloud.

On their first date, Farhad, confidently (term it innocently or stupidly, if you wish) tells his sweetheart that he knows her tastes: That her favorite color is black… that her favorite drink is Mangola… that her favorite dish is …….! And, he also lets her know as to how he is able to know and tell her that: because they are his tastes too!

“Look, how 'perfectly' we are made for each other!” the honest Farhad points to his heart-throb.

What is endearing about this scene is that Shirin doesn’t disagree with what her man claims… She greets his claim only with her smile.

And, thus, the love story goes through its usual – predictable – roller coaster ride. The shy and silly Farhad, is very innocent and honest. He is madly in love with Shirin. His unassertive behavior has already landed his lady in great pain. Now, one last chance: he has promised her that he would come to take her to the New-year party. She is dressed-up in her favorite color and she is waiting. But, right at her gate, Farhad’s silly character-flaws drag him into some ugly scene and he is now taken to the police station… He is unreachable… and, the Shirin waits, all heart-broken, frustrated. Finally, she falls asleep next to her coma-ridden father.

It is past midnight. Already the new-year has come…

And, our Farhad, too!

Farhad appears with his tattered looks, and straight away talks to his lady’s unconscious father that he loves her with all his heart and he has come to claim her hand. Shirin is shown opening her eyes… and speechlessly watching the proceedings… A smile adorns her face as Farhad, her man, places his hand over hers and assures her unconscious father…

“How sweet!!!”

Not “How silly!!!”

“Wow, you have come!!!”

Not, “Why the hell you are so late?”

And, yes, she does tell him, in pain and frustration, in one of the earlier scenes, that her favorite color is red and not black… that her favorite drink is tea and not Mangola… and her favorite dish is……. And yes, she cries out saying that they are not ‘perfectly’ made for each other as he so ‘stupidly’ thinks…

“It is all over,” she blasts at her idiot boy-friend in that scene…

And, now, in this final scene, Shirin is shown speechless and smiling… when, actually, she should have been at his throat at the loudest possible voice and meanest possible words!

“No, that is how

Farhad is going to love me

for the rest of my life!”…

I heard Shirin telling

through her silent smile.