Last weekend I watched a slew of romantic movies as Valentine's Day fell on Friday. Although I am not a fan of sad endings, the movie I really liked was Lootera, a movie loosely based on O. Henry's short story The Last Leaf.
It is a beautifully shot and acted (Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh are brilliant) romantic drama set in the 1950s and tells the story of an accidental, impossible love and its subsequent betrayal, to its ultimate redemption. Despite the sad ending, the tale moves from bitterness and despair into hope. Tragedy is transformed into triumph when Varun strains beyond his past in an unselfish act of love that costs him his life.
This is how the story goes. Boy meets girl. They fall in love but boy disappears, leaving girl standing at the altar. The double whammy is boy also cheated and stole from girl's father, leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Girl's father dies, a broken man, and girl is left alone, a sick, dying and embittered recluse. Their paths cross when boy is wounded running away from the police and seeks refuge in girl's bungalow.
Pakhi is still furious with Varun but does not turn him over to the police. It turns out that Varun did truly love Pakhi but ended up choosing his former life of crime because he felt he was unable to shake off his past to begin life anew.
Pakhi becomes very ill and is convinced that when the last tree sheds its last leaf in the wintry cold, she will die. Knowing this, Varun climbs the tree to tie a leaf he has fashioned onto a branch so that Pakhi will cling on to life. He does this repeatedly as he nurses her back to health over several days.
The police eventually suspect his whereabouts but instead of escaping, Varun stubbornly ties the last leaf one final morning, then slowly walks toward the waiting police and certain death. Pakhi awakes feeling better, and is left with the truth of Varun's actions.
What appeals to me in this love story is the conflicted courtship and the fractured relationship between Pakhi and Varun. Love is never an easy or straightforward course. There are no simplistic happily-ever-afters as it is usually portrayed in the movies.
Couples hurt each other. They make monumentally stupid choices. They destroy the very thing they seek at times. And there is no turning back the clock. And yet, there is this thing called redemption when love moves out of fear, hurt, despair, self-serving gratuity and social constricts into actions that sing of quiet sacrifice with no expectation of return. Pure, self-giving unconditional love.
The paradox of such sacrificial love is that it frees us to be who we are. In staying back, Varun made the most liberating decision of his life. Even though he will die for it, the price was paid willingly for it not only brought healing into Pakhi's life, but he finally became the man he wanted to be when he was with her - a better man.
In 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 22-23, the saint writes:
By obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves for a genuine love of your brothers; therefore, love one another constantly from the heart. Your rebirth has come, not from a destructible but from an indestructible seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
When love comes from the heart, it mirrors the love God has for us and therefore acquires a hint of transcendent immortality, enduring through time like a great masterpiece.
In O. Henry's short story, the last leaf is painted by an elderly artist to give hope to his young neighbour who is ill and convinced she will die when the last leaf falls. She recovers for she does not give up (as the last leaf does not fall), but he falls sick and dies after painting the last leaf on the wall, catching pneumonia himself. The artist who did not acquire any success in his lifetime, painted something priceless for he inspired hope and life.
My life may not be as dramatic as the movies or novels, but I can strive to love as genuinely as Varun and the artist Behrman did. And when I am dispirited or feel that my efforts are futile, my hope lies in the wisdom and love of my living God who is indestructible.
It is a beautifully shot and acted (Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh are brilliant) romantic drama set in the 1950s and tells the story of an accidental, impossible love and its subsequent betrayal, to its ultimate redemption. Despite the sad ending, the tale moves from bitterness and despair into hope. Tragedy is transformed into triumph when Varun strains beyond his past in an unselfish act of love that costs him his life.
This is how the story goes. Boy meets girl. They fall in love but boy disappears, leaving girl standing at the altar. The double whammy is boy also cheated and stole from girl's father, leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Girl's father dies, a broken man, and girl is left alone, a sick, dying and embittered recluse. Their paths cross when boy is wounded running away from the police and seeks refuge in girl's bungalow.
Pakhi is still furious with Varun but does not turn him over to the police. It turns out that Varun did truly love Pakhi but ended up choosing his former life of crime because he felt he was unable to shake off his past to begin life anew.
Pakhi becomes very ill and is convinced that when the last tree sheds its last leaf in the wintry cold, she will die. Knowing this, Varun climbs the tree to tie a leaf he has fashioned onto a branch so that Pakhi will cling on to life. He does this repeatedly as he nurses her back to health over several days.
The police eventually suspect his whereabouts but instead of escaping, Varun stubbornly ties the last leaf one final morning, then slowly walks toward the waiting police and certain death. Pakhi awakes feeling better, and is left with the truth of Varun's actions.
What appeals to me in this love story is the conflicted courtship and the fractured relationship between Pakhi and Varun. Love is never an easy or straightforward course. There are no simplistic happily-ever-afters as it is usually portrayed in the movies.
Couples hurt each other. They make monumentally stupid choices. They destroy the very thing they seek at times. And there is no turning back the clock. And yet, there is this thing called redemption when love moves out of fear, hurt, despair, self-serving gratuity and social constricts into actions that sing of quiet sacrifice with no expectation of return. Pure, self-giving unconditional love.
The paradox of such sacrificial love is that it frees us to be who we are. In staying back, Varun made the most liberating decision of his life. Even though he will die for it, the price was paid willingly for it not only brought healing into Pakhi's life, but he finally became the man he wanted to be when he was with her - a better man.
In 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 22-23, the saint writes:
By obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves for a genuine love of your brothers; therefore, love one another constantly from the heart. Your rebirth has come, not from a destructible but from an indestructible seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
When love comes from the heart, it mirrors the love God has for us and therefore acquires a hint of transcendent immortality, enduring through time like a great masterpiece.
In O. Henry's short story, the last leaf is painted by an elderly artist to give hope to his young neighbour who is ill and convinced she will die when the last leaf falls. She recovers for she does not give up (as the last leaf does not fall), but he falls sick and dies after painting the last leaf on the wall, catching pneumonia himself. The artist who did not acquire any success in his lifetime, painted something priceless for he inspired hope and life.
My life may not be as dramatic as the movies or novels, but I can strive to love as genuinely as Varun and the artist Behrman did. And when I am dispirited or feel that my efforts are futile, my hope lies in the wisdom and love of my living God who is indestructible.
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