Age is just a number...so why discriminate?

How many of you are watching Bade Acche Lagte Hain on Sony TV? Branded as a mature love story the show has Sakshi Tanwar and Ram Kapoor in the leading roles. This is a story of two different individuals who fall in love after marriage. The interesting thing is the fact that the leads are both over 30 years of age unlike the current shows that have teenage love stories. So why is it that this genre of mature love stories hasn’t much been explored on the small screen? Is it because by nature Indians are shy and would not want to watch older couples in love; more so on TV shows which are watched at home with the family? Or is it because even by nature elder couples even in real life are supposed to exercise restraint and showing them falling in love is not acceptable to society at large? In that context, we can say Bade Acche Lagte Hain is a progressive show as it touches upon a sensitive and delicate subject. All too often, older characters are treated as asexual caricatures. The irony is that one often sees aged heroes romancing girls half their ages. And this is pathetic. In Bollywood too one finds a similar scene happening. There are scores of young love stories but not many directors dare to make a mature love story. You rarely come across a Cheeni Kum which was an unconventional love story between a 34-year-old woman and an older man of 64. In 2005, one saw the film Pyar Mein Twist where the basic theme was that elders too can have something else in their lives other than children and family. The love between Rishi and Dimple is not an emotion of physical desires, but a longing to find a soul mate. But as I mentioned earlier these are rare attempts. On the small screen shows which focus on older couples in love are either dealt very superficially or insensitively that it doesn’t appeal at all. Mature love stories that reflect on companionship in the twilight years of life are waiting to be told. Our society needs to grow up to accept mature relationships and not frown on them. There is a serious message in such stories that needs to be sent to the society. Marriages between senior couples should be encouraged. When Astitva - Ek Prem Kahani was launched on Zee TV initially it did receive some flak from critics. The story which focused on Dr Simran Mathur – a gynecologist who marries a man 10 years younger – was a path breaking one and very well told. But not the same can be told of many others which just barely touched on this issue. Balaji’s Kasauti Zindagi Kay had an older Bajaj (Ronit Roy) in love with Prerna (Shweta Tiwari), a Dharamraj (Ronit Roy) marrying a very young Santu (Aasiya Kazi) in Bandini and a very young Gehna (Neha Marda) marrying a much older Basant (Satyajit Sharma) in Balika Vadhu. These may not be bracketed as all mature love stories but definitely fall in that category as showing love blossoming between such couples is not much shown on the small screen. In fact in Mukti Bandhan when one sees the lead I M Virani’s (Shiv Subramaniam) ex-love Chandraprabha (Deepti Naval) one can for sure notice some discomfort with the viewers. Older people do fall in love as falling in love is quite natural. In fact, it’s about time we touched on this subject and got more open about it. The stereotypical characters need to be phased out. Didn’t we all enjoy the very unusual show Dard in which a bold Neena Gupta marries an older man and then has an extra-marital affair with a younger man? Sure, this was a taboo topic and probably sent a wrong message to the society but isn’t this what one sees in day to day life too? Isn’t this as much real as a young couple falling in love? Furthermore, even from the actors’ perspective – for all those actors who are in the older age group – such roles are welcome. Most of them who have been phased out as they have crossed the age bar to play the typical hero or heroine do not get challenging work. How often are they offered roles that are more realistic and written for them keeping their age in mind? Now with some producers taking up such projects veteran actors are once again donning greasepaint. So isn’t this a win-win situation for all? It’s about time we stopped being hypocrites and accepted the fact that it’s okay to fall in love…be at any age. And yes, it’s okay to hold hands and exchange a kiss- age no bar! Read more...