Fixing The Scales of
Justice:
a
brief ramble on Dil Ka Rishta
©
bollywhat.com 2003-2004
When
DIL KA RISHTA premiered in early 2003, critics dismissed the
plot as trite and the acting as uninspired, saving the bulk
of their column space for discussions of JISM, a noir thriller
released the same week. Many claimed that JISM's depiction of
predatory female sexuality stretched Bollywood's comfort zones.
But DIL KA RISHTA's subtext is far more subversive than JISM's
cliche meditation on the dangers of a beautiful woman. By adding
a "happy-ever-after" to a world in which the weak
are punished for the sins of the strong, DIL KA RISHTA turns
the standard Bollywood fairy tale of a morally just world into
a romanticization of injustice.
The
plot of DIL KA RISHTA is pure gothic melodrama. Jai, a rich
multinational businessman, falls in love with Tia, a teacher
of the deaf. But Tia is already in love with another man, Raj,
an orphan of limited funds and abundant charm. She rejects Jai's
suit and, despite Jai's increasingly obnoxious attempts to win
her away with exorbitant displays of his wealth, marries Raj.
Jai, despairing, turns to alcohol, refusing to surrender his
dreams of a life with Tia even after she and her husband have
a son.
One
night, while driving under the influence, Jai loses control
of his car and crashes into the car carrying Tia and Raj. Tia's
husband is instantly killed. Tia herself falls into a coma.
When she wakes, she has total amnesia and cannot remember anything
about her past. Because (according to the doctors) any reminders
could trigger emotional upset and a fatal hemmorhage, Tia's
mother accepts Jai's offer to relocate them to his home in South
Africa. Tia is told that Jai is an old friend, and that her
young son, Anshu, is Jai's son by his late (non-existent) wife.
Tia knows nothing about her past marriage, or her widowhood.
Gradually
Tia falls in love with Jai, who is guilt-stricken and unwilling
to take advantage of her amnesia. Tia's own mother, who considers
Jai to be little better than a murderer, conspires against the
match. But Jai's father finally convinces Tia's mother to abandon
her hatred of Jai, and the entire truth -- the cause of the
accident, Tia's widowhood, and Anhsu's parentage -- is revealed
to Tia. Although she has not regained her memory, Tia decides
that the past is past, and there's no use in focusing on anything
but the future. She reaffirms her love for Jai, and he admits
his love for her. The two agree to be married.
Most
Bollywood films have two things in common: the triumph of moral
justice, and, particularly in the case of romances, the happy-ever-after.
Although DIL KA RISHTA ostensibly fits this mold, doubts nag
the viewer. How can Tia genuinely set aside the past when she
does not even recall it? How "happy" will this "ever
after" be if she *does* one day regain her memory, and
recall the extent of her resentment toward Jai prior to the
accident, as well as the depth of her love for Raj? How could
this resolution possibly be conceptualized as satisfying? Most
importantly, how does DIL KA RISHTA conform to the accepted
model of most Bollywood films, in which moral justice ultimately
prevails?
The
answer: DIL KA RISHTA plays by a different concept of justice.
The storyline is resolved not in conformity with objective standards
of morality, but with the warped standards of its own universe,
in which blame is systematically dislocated to the least powerful
-- and the most powerful are lauded for not taking advantage
of it.
This
unjust system is most bluntly articulated in the hospital scene
directly after the crash. Tia's mother refuses Jai's offer of
help, verbally reviling him for the murder of her son-in-law.
In reponse, Jai's father advises her that she is wrong to be
harsh to Jai. Most drunk drivers, he says, would simply bribe
the authorities and dodge responsibility for their actions.
However, his son is taking responsibility and trying to help,
and should therefore be lauded, not reviled. The questionable
morality of the norm from which Jai deviates -- the willful
evasion of responsibility for a crime; the exploitation of the
weak by the powerful -- is not questioned. Rather it is accepted,
explicitly, as the standard by which Jai's actions should be
judged. The viewer is literally instructed to approve of Jai
(a thoroughly unlikable character until this point) for choosing
not to dodge reponsibility for his crime. This, the film informs
us, is his first act of redemption.
Likewise,
when the romance between Tia and Jai (which the film manipulates
viewers to support) is adamantly opposed by Tia's mother, her
stance is also "corrected" by a forceful assertion
of the (im)moral norm. For the bulk of the film, Tia's mother
considers Jai to be a murderer, and she thinks Jai should be
blamed and punished for this act, rather than rewarded with
Tia's love. She changes her mind only after receiving two gifts
from Jai's father. The first present she opens contains a traditional,
crimson bridal sari, with all its many connotations of the auspiciousness
of a "suhaagan," or married woman whose husband is
alive. The implications of this gift enrage her: she hurls the
sari to the floor, physically rejecting the idea of Tia married
to Raj's killer. The
second box which Tia's mother opens contains a white sari, the
traditional garb of widows. When she sees this sari, her entire
attitude alters.
Obviously,
Tia's mother has always understood that remarriage or widowhood
are Tia's only choices. Therefore these two saris must possess
some additional subtext in order for them to so radically alter
her stance. Ostensibly, the white sari represents the
colorless life which will be Tia's fate should she be forbidden
to marry the man she loves. But as the traditional outfit of
widows, it also inevitably conjures the whole assortment of
traditional accoutrements of widowhood: not only white saris,
but also the denigration, censure, and disenfranchisement that
accompany them.* Thus it becomes a literal threat, implying
the only alternative to remarriage to Jai is a life of vulnerability
and suffering.
Thus,
although Jai may be guilty of killing Raj, the saris remind
Tia's mother that if she continues to use Jai's guilt as an
excuse to forbid Tia's marriage, it will be the widowed Tia,
not Jai, who is punished for Raj's death. The justness of this
equation is not in dispute, or even considered relevant. Indeed,
the gift of the saris implies that justice should be immaterial
to Tia's mother's decision: her only choice is whether her daughter
will be a victim or a wife. The film is structured so that the
viewer approves when she chooses the latter; whether the choice
is a just one, or one she should be forced to make, is, in keeping
with the rules of this universe, deemed too irrelevant for discussion.
In
most films, the heroine would recover her memory and work through
the complicated landscape of her past before moving on to a
new future. But in DIL KA RISHTA, Tia remains an amnesiac,**
forgetful of her past in the same manner that the audience must
remain forgetful of Right and Wrong in order to reach the happy
ever after they crave. Forgetting everything we learned about
Tia's distaste for Jai in the first half of the film, we cheer
her love for him in the second half, although, in the normal
world, his past actions would render him unworthy of it. No
matter. We have accepted Jai's reformation, because we have
accepted as our standard a system in which a man should be lauded
for not stooping to the unjust and immoral norm; in which injustice
becomes the barometer by which one's moral worth is gauged.***
Unlike most films, DIL KA RISHTA does not manipulate the ending
to suit our moral sensibilities. It manipulates our morals to
suit the ending.
*
For info about the effort to improve widows' status in India,
see The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements
for Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990.
**One
could also argue that Tia's inability to recall her former husband
or married life is an easy way to pacify conservative film fans
who might find the remarriage of a Hindu widow problematic or
not sufficiently "romantic." In her mind, in her memories,
and in her accessible experience, she has never been married
to anyone. Her amnesia functions as a second virginity.
***For
those who argue that cinema has little connection with reality,
it is difficult to ignore the parallel between the film's benevolent
attitude toward Jai's "noble" decision to take responsibility
for driving drunk, and the real-life reaction to news that film
star Salman
Khan had, while driving under the influence, struck several
pedestrians and killed one man. His fellow actors (not to mention
his fans) came out in droves to support Khan, citing his immense
regret and his kindness in offering to foot the medical bills
for the victims of the crash. Ironically, Khan is the ex-boyfriend
of actress Aishwarya Rai, who plays Tia in DIL KA RISHTA.
