This was enough for us to let loose our imaginations and enough to send most biologists into spasms of annoyance. Roses don’t get off that way, they snorted. Two birds yes, but two flowers?

The muse of many a Hindi film lyricist, roses have wooed a reluctant beloved’s heart, even inspiring countless comparisons with her blushing cheeks and coquettish airs. Jerry Pinto freezes the guest appearances of the rose in popular Bollywood hits...

In one of those moments that makes Mughal-e-Azam such a three-bars-of-chocolate film, Prince Salim is entertained to a qawwali, a competition between Anarkali who speaks for love while Bahaar speaks for a slightly more worldly form of dalliance. When Anarkali makes her claim for immortality (Mohabbat humne jaana zindagi barbaad karti hai /Yeh kya kaam hai ki mar jaane ke baad duniya yaad karti hai) and the last chorus of Teri mehfil mein kismet aazmaakar hum bhi dekhenge dies away, Salim must choose. He rips the thorns of the rose, hands the flower to Bahaar and gives the thorns to Anarkali. Cinematic magic.

What would lyricists do without roses? A beautiful woman was a gulbadan as in “Eh gulbadan, eh gulbadan, phoolon ki mehek, kaanton ki chubhan” as Shammi Kapoor crooned to Kalpana in Professor. That was in 1962. We knew what Jalal Agha meant when he sang to his mehbooba, Helen, “Gulshan mein gul khilte hain/ Jab sehra mein milte hain.” That was in 1975.

Almost 20 years later, the rose was still around.

Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga, hums Anil Kapoor in 1942 – A Love Story (1994) and the first image that comes to his (and Javed Akhtar’s mind) is “Jaise khilta gulaab”. You couldn’t turn around without bumping into a rose in Chandni and Lamhe. Yashji (Chopra), always a long-time admirer of the power of the rose, allowed some tulips into Silsila but as soon as it was Lataji’s (Mangeshkar) turn to sing Neela aasmaan so gaya, Rekha got some roses to match her lip gloss for glossiness.

Today, we do see the odd rose or two. In Armaan, Preity Zinta takes a bath with an equal volume of water and red roses. But it isn’t the same. Because when Mallika Sherawat and Himanshu Malik kiss 17 times in a single film (Khwaahish, if it makes a difference), we do not see 32 roses. We see Mallika and Himanshu kissing.

We miss the roses.