Impossible Love

I am an NRI, translated into: no-real Indian. I follow Indian cinema in my quest to find only one million original films before humanity as we know it disappears. I will use the term Indian cinema sparingly because I only have access to Hindi films, not Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Nepali, Khasi, Dogri, Garo and other languages.

Sirf Tum deserves a place in my shopping cart for original stories because it is highly unlikely that you fall madly in love with someone you have never seen before. Let’s leave internet dating out of the equation for the purposes of this blog.

Ahathian’s film is about Aarti (Priya Gill) and Deepak (Sanjay Kapoor) who are brought together by her handbag. She is in a train in Delhi going back home after yet another unsuccessful attempt to get a job.

A thug snatches her handbag from the window seat. It has all the original college certificates she needs to get a job. A good Samaritan pays her train fare back home and even gives her some extra money to take the bus from the station.

Deepak boards the train and finds a woman’s handbag in the overhead luggage compartment. He wants to give it to the ticket collector but his fellow passenger says he will probably throw it away. Deepak takes it to Kerala with him where he works, wraps it securely and sends it to Aarti.

Her sister Bharati suggests that she writes to this kind man and thank him. Niranjan (John Lever) Deepak’s friend in Kerala also advises him about what to write.

After a few letters Aarti and Deepak finally decide that there are in love but they don’t exchange photos. Their correspondence is interrupted by a postal strike so Deepak cannot tell Aarti that he is being transferred to the Delhi office.

Nirmal, her brother-in-law does not buy the story that his wife’s sister is in love with someone she has never seen. He is also tired of giving her money to go to Delhi for job interviews. He introduces her to Prem (Salman Khan) who wants to marry her because he once saw her in a florist shop. Aarti gets desperate and cries all the time.

Deepak is also under pressure at work from his rich boss Neha (Sushmita Sen), who wants to marry him. He cannot take it anymore and resigns. He meets Preetam (Jackie Shroff) a friendly auto driver. Deepak cannot find another job and ends up driving an auto. The climax of the film takes place on a rainy day when Aarti goes up and down looking for a man she has never seen.

Sirf Tum is also original because of Deepak’s resignation. Jobs are very hard to come by and many people in the world stay in jobs they hate because they have bills to pay, big bills like the mortgage, the car, private schools for the children and health care. It is highly unlikely that a poor man would turn down a marriage offer from a rich woman like Neha, because he is in love with someone he has never seen.

Sirf Tum has some funny moments like when Aarti, all drenched and tired tells the beautiful and rich Neha to forget Deepak because he is hers. Mind you, she doesn’t know what he looks like.

It also has little scenes that warm your heart. Deepak calls Preetam ‘sir’ when he first arrives in Delhi. Preetam says nobody has ever called an autowalla ‘sir.’

Sirf Tum is a simple story told tenderly by the director Ahathian. There are no lavish costumes and there is not a single song shot in the studio. The only instrument is Deepak’s guitar. There’s an interesting song at the station where autowallas try to comfort the grieving Deepak.

They use their plates, spoons and bottles as instrument. The scene is a little bit on the dark side. The director used little or no lighting, but it is understandable because it is at night.

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