Movie Reflection: Ijaazat (1987)

All Gulzar films have a clichéd compartmentalised plotline. Estranged people meet at a juncture where time makes relationships things and ascribes relationships to things. An article here, an object there, and the mind goes down memory lane. I call this formulaic storyboarding as the Gulzar flashback, which he uses so judiciously and masterfully in his films. Ijaazat is just one of them. And even though its story is adapted, it has that Gulzar touch, of maturing relationships while nurturing moments and vice-versa.

Source: IMDb

Mahendra (Naseeruddin Shah) is caught in a love triangle with fiancee Sudha (Rekha) and lover Maya (Anuradha Patel). He gets engaged to Sudha but has to reimagine life without Maya's fatal attraction towards him. This is the premise of the film. In other words, it does not begin here. 

It begins at a railway station, where the estranged couple meet. Mahendra and Sudha, who were once a promising couple, now sit a distance from one another. One thing leads to the other and their bond starts to rekindle. But what can be considered as a meet-cute by the cameoing station master, is actually an amend in their maturing relationship, the final amend, settling scores, with permission, of course. 

Me, Maya and my maazi (past) form the crux of the story. The entire story, in a way, can be considered as an egotist account of the two failed romances of Mahendra, who starts with the hollow hubris of young passion and ends with the same unrequited vanity. Throughout the film, he's figuring out who he loves more, or who loves him more. Who can he be comfortable with? The past? Or a dynamic future welcoming him with new relationships? Mahendra seems clueless throughout the film. 

Sudha, on the other hand, can be considered submissive to time, and can be considered as a victim of Mahendra's complex love life. Her placid and at many times apathetic demeanour towards Mahendra masks the torrent of emotions which make her sink day after day in silent remembrance of a broken relationship.

Who is Maya then? A poet. More privately, a self-obsessed, narcissistic individual with low self-esteem and tons of vulnerability. What more can a foundation of neglected childhood and insecurity beget? 

Who do you side with? The two-time lover Mahendra? The dutiful wife Sudha? Or the obsessive lover Maya? Nobody and everybody. That's the power of grey writing and character development. To top it all, the lyrical dialogues and the ensuing story weaving songs.

The movie has 4 songs, interestingly helmed by a couple: R. D. Burman and Asha Bhosle. Bhosle songs all the songs. To find no male voice in the album might have seemed odd to some people, who would brush it off as an "art movie thing". But did the songs become a rage!

From the classic "Luggage Song" ("Mera Kuch Saaman") to the pitter patter waltz of "Katra Katra", each song had the prowess of the Pancham-Gulzar duo. 

Overall the movie, as the "Luggage Song" quotes, is all about returning immaterially material memories, with permission of course.