Cheating on camera

Guilt, hurt, anger, acceptance... Bollywood may rarely stray into the theme of love outside of a marriage, but Hindi cinema is slowly treating infidelity with more maturity

Legendary Hollywood actress Bette Davis once said: "An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring ... I ought to know."

However, according to a recent survey, only one out of every 20 married men strays! An interesting guesstimate that seems to (or does it?) veer towards a conservative percentage. Interestingly, in Bollywood too, the number of films made on extramarital affairs has an unremarkable count. And from the few films made on this ever-interesting theme, only a few show a keen sense of psychological acuity; or refrain from assuming the role of conscience keepers.

The earliest film I recall that dealt intensively with the topic of adultery is the Sunil Dutt-Leela Naidu starrer, Yeh Raaste Hai Pyaar Ke (1963). It dared to show the heroine involved with another man though she is married to the hero.

In the film, presumably based on the headline-making Nanavati case, pilot Anil (Sunil Dutt) entrusts the care of his raised-in-France wife, Nina (the exquisite looking Leela Naidu) and his two kids to best friend, Ashok (Rehman). Ashok, a suave rake, takes it as a cue to seduce Nina.



The seduction chapter of Yeh Raaste Hai Pyaar Ke is extremely well-handled and compels you to feel sorry for the woman because the man's moves are premeditated while her reactions are straight from the heart. Ashok is gradual and persistent in heaping on the charm till Nina drops her defenses and cheerfully goes for drives, dinners and dances with him.

When she refuses a drink, he flatters her, "Sharaab ko sharaab pesh karna gunaah hai" and then emotionally manipulates her to drink for the love of her absentee husband. However, after building up a very convincing case for seduction, the director loses his nerve and shows Ashok spiking Nina's drink before taking her to bed. Anil tries to reconcile with his wife when he discovers her indiscretions but mournfully admits to Nina, "Tumhara yeh qusoor hai ki shayad yeh gunaah kiye bagair tum mujhe baksh nahee sakti thi u2026 Mera yeh qusoor hai, ki ab main tumhe kabhi maaf nahin kar sakta."

It brings to mind actress Jessica Tandy's quip, "When he's late for dinner, I know he's either having an affair or is lying dead in the street. I always hope it's the street." This inability to forgive and forget is the aspect most explored by filmmakers when it comes to the cinema's approach to extramarital affairs, whether it is Dastaan or Dhund.

Anil Kapoor once told me, "It is very important for a married man to be faithful. It keeps society together." He was echoing the sentiment of a successful B R Chopra film on the subject of adultery Gumraah, on which the 2005 Anil-Akshay starrer Bewafaa was loosely based. In Gumraah, Mala Sinha is torn between her loyalty to her husband, Ashok Kumar, whom she marries out of circumstantial compulsion, and her first love, Sunil Dutt. Dutt torments Mala with 'Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayein hum dono' and reasons 'Woh afsana jisse anjaam tak laana na ho mumkin, usse ek khubsoorat modh dekar chhodna acchha'. But the lovers still cling on to memories; till Mala virtuously asserts her marital status and literally slams the door on his face.u00a0

Two decades later, Ravi Chopra revisited Gumraah with his Jackie-Meenakshi-Raj Babbar starrer Dahleez, as did Dharmesh Darshan with Bewafaa two decades thereafter; but the films keeled over. By the eighties, films such as Ek Baar Phir, Grihapravesh and Rihaee, albeit not in the mainstream, had begun to explore adultery with a more sardonic eye. There was an obvious shift in the audience perception of the way the subject of infidelity needed to be tackled.

Yash Chopra realised as much when, like brother B R, he too was seduced to make a film on extramarital affairs. For me, his Silsila fell short because of the heavy justifications supplied for the characters' infidelity and also because it didn't have the nerve to show Amitabh and Rekha, married to Jaya and Sanjeev respectively, having a full-blown affair.

The truant twosome traipsed amidst tulips, and then returned to their spouses wearing expressions of errant children returning home after a forbidden romp. The director did manage to give us an insight into the hurt and simmering acrimony felt by Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya (watch her pinched expression in the 'Rang barse' song while Amitabh and Rekha enjoy a public moment of love; he throws caution, and she her dupatta, to the winds). But Yash gingerly skimmed over the capturing of Amitabh-Rekha's raging passions.

Today, filmmakers no longer walk on the mild side. Perhaps buoyed by changing trends, Karan Johar could be much more daring when he made Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, in which his characters dealt with adultery in a more adult fashion. The film may have not set the box office afire or kept carping critics at bay, but it definitely pushed the envelope for similar films. The film not only showcased a 'physical' extramarital affair but also showed the 'errant' twosome ending up together. Compare that with Kagaz Ke Phool, in which the extramarital affair plunges Guru Dutt's life into a vertiginous downslide leading to his death.

Though KANK (rather glibly) ended with the lead couple being forgiven by their large-hearted spouses, ultimately the film became an examination of guilt. While discussing the film with me, Karan said, "When my characters Dev (Shah Rukh) and Maya (Rani) get together towards the end, I firmly believe that they would be unhappy because as Dev says, 'Most couples share their happiness and sorrow, I want to share my punishment.' I know of people who have been in a similar situationu00a0a financial burden can be eased; a health burden can be taken care of; but an emotional burdenu00a0how do you resolve that?"

The general consensus though I don't share it seems to be that the biggest flaw in KANK was that Rani had no reason to cheat on her husband, Abhishek. Unlike Guide, which had an ageing lecherous man (Kishore Sahu) playing Waheeda's husband before she hooks up with Dev Anand, KANK had eligible Abhi as Rani's hubby. Karan avers, "A lot of people have told me that Abhishek's character seems like a perfect husband, so they couldn't fathom what Rani's problem was. My question is: 'How do you explain a lack of passion in a man-woman relationship?'"

Recent cinematic ruminations on adultery have often forwarded no ponderous justification for the heroine to have an extramarital affair. In fact, she has been often cast as the predatory femme fatale (Jism, Aitraaz).
Akshay Kumar, who starred in Aitraaz had quipped once: "80 per cent of men continue to have affairs even after marriage. I am trying to be in the 20 per cent that don't (laughs). With women, I would say 50 per cent are faithful. So they are better off than men."u00a0

But psychiatrist Judith Lipton, MD, who authored, The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People, opines, "The only completely, fatalistically monogamous animal we've been able to identify is a tapeworm found in the intestines of fish. That's because the male and female worms fuse together at the abdomen and never separate afterward."

In our films, we continue to celebrate monogamy, and those who are, if not taped together at the abdomen, joined at the hip by holy matrimony. But, both filmmakers and the audience are in a phase of tentative transition and are willing to explore further. Even when the straying heroine is provided the same old justifications (spousal neglect, marriage of convenience) as in an Astitva or Murder, they also boldly talk about a woman's sexuality.

Earlier, indiscretions were attributed to rainy nights, inclement weather, firesides and undersized Turkish towels. Believe it or not, in one film, the eloquently named Ek Hi Bhool, Jeetendra slipped literally and figuratively when a siren slips on a bar of soap and falls into his much-married arms.

I liked Pati Patni Aur Woh because B R Chopra was busy laughing at and not sermonising or making excuses for a married man (Sanjeev Kumar), who gets drawn into an affair with his secretary to deal with his midlife crisis. Recently, Biwi No 1, Masti and No Entry have carried variations of this joke to corny limits.

As far as films on extramarital affairs go, Arth arguably left the biggest impression. In Arth, I liked the way director Mahesh Bhatt created a graph for Pooja (Shabana). Her first reaction on realising that her director husband, Inder (Kulbhushan) is involved with his actress, Kavita (Smita) is to weep. Later, she hopes the storm will blow over. When all else fails, she implores her husband to give her a second chance and even pleads with the girlfriend to leave her husband alone. Fortified with alcohol, Pooja publicly spews venom at Kavita and even degenerates to calling her a whore. She and Inder, physically abuse each other, an incident she regrets on hindsight.

But she doesn't end up as a 'she devil', ravaged by revenge. In Pooja's meticulously detailed evolvement, the big push comes from unexpected quarters. Her maid murders her two-timing alcoholic husband and Pooja volunteers to bear the onus of her child's upbringing. Hereafter, she finds courage to turn away her husband's plea for reconciliation and even gently dissuades an amorous young suitor.

From Shabana Azmi screaming 'randi' at Smita Patil in Arth to an uber cool Preity Zinta exhorting Rani to renew contact with her (Zinta's) now-estranged husband in KANK, Hindi films have travelled a distance. Having said that, I would like some filmmaker to make Arth from Smita's point of view; and without taking the Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki moral high ground.