Ijaazat
Is there anything perfect in life? Are there any relations that are perfect? Haven’t come across yet and if they would be perfect will it still have that essence of being true to each other and organic? Too many questions, right? Answers to all this questions and showcased in the most subtle yet effective way is a film made by the great Gulzar Sahab – Ijaazat (1987).
Film starts in a waiting room of railway station and right from the word go, director gives us metaphor for the waiting conquest going on in both, Mahinder’s (Naseeruddin Shah) and Sudha’s (Rekha) life. A divorced couple met after years in a waiting room leads us to the unapologetic journey of love, pain, lost and some unanswered questions. Mahinder married Sudha inspite of having a girlfriend who stayed away, Maya (Anuradha Patel) due to some reasons.
Movie is about a Love triangle which neither glorifies nor disgraces any of the three characters. Usually, there is someone who’s right or wrong at some point but here it’s so real and relatable that no character is right or wrong. It’s way above all the norms set and layers are created within each and every relationship here. The story revolves around the complexities of their lives and relationships in the most simplest way. Gulzar Sahab unfolds every scene with such maturity and relatable that you are dragged into their lives and start thinking what one would do in such situation and also have you ever faced such things and did you dealt it this way.
There’s one scene where Sudha finds Maya’s stuff like her goggles, her clothes and other accessories in wardrobe and how graciously she asks Mahinder to go and give her back as they would get wasted. Ijaazat which means permission but here the permission is about living lives on own terms and the relationships you prioritise in your life.
Music by the legendary R. D. Burman is nothing short of magic and specially the ever classic song, ‘Mera kuch saaman’ sung by Asha Bhosleji and penned by Gulzar Sahab himself. There is a fun fact behind the recording of this song. It seems that Ashaji was about to leave after recording and she forgot something back there and when she returned, she said the same to Gulzar Sahab. Gulzar Sahab asked her to wait and he penned down the song then and there and they recorded the song in some 45 minutes to 1 hour. This song depicts what writer wants to say when he means, ‘Mera kuch saaman tumhare paas pada hai’. It gave life to what Maya felt when Mahinder was married to Sudha and her expressions were captured in this instant cult song.
Ijaazat is not a regular love story or a love triangle, it is a matured story about love in itself. How relationships evolve and how layers are unfolded, is beautifully shown here. Some relationships are forever and some have expiry but they both come with a price and consumes the you from you and either makes you or breaks you. Ijaazat captures it all in the most maturely simple way yet the most complex one.
Disclaimer: The above review solely illustrates the views of the writer.