Whether it was Anarkali and Salim exchanging tender epistles in floating lotuses or Veer and Zaara sharing channa while crossing dangerous gorges, Abhi and Rewa tapping to an offbeat tempo or Sonia, Raj and Priya battling it out in court…lovers ruled the marquee.

Surviving the eras of dacoits, smugglers, dons, goons and ghosts, love (and lust) made their presence felt on the silver screen, as 2004 drew to a close. Alpana Chowdhury takes a look at four films that tapped the universal emotion of love in its many splendoured forms.

"I love you because you are so boring." "I love you because you never smile." "I love your coffee."

That's Abhinav baring his heart to Rewa, in Naach. Unusual reasons to love a girl, wot? But then Ram Gopal Varma's film is an unusual one. Love here is not about birds and bees. It's about passion of another kind, passion for one's work. Loving Rewa means completely empathising with her obsession for choreography. So, love happens as Abhi and Rewa tap dance together, love blossoms while she teaches him how to contort his muscles into poetic postures, it happens when her eyes ignite with excitement at signing a film, on her terms. Not surprisingly, the film did not fare well at the hustings. Quite clearly, it was far ahead of its time.

Doggedly carrying on the tradition of pure romance, Yash Chopra, the eternal romantic, released Veer-Zaara in the same week as Asif's epic hit the theatres in its new Technicolour avatar. Competition was stiff, but Chopra held his own with his cross-border love story. The film-maker who dared to weave a story around a love child in his very first film, Dhool Ka Phool and who has persistently produced odes to love, whatever the fads may have been, once again wooed audiences with his signature style. Those looking for logic and pragmatism were disappointed with Veer-Zaara but the masses, which are normally willing to suspend disbelief for the price of a ticket, came out of the theatres happy that love still rules our hearts.

While Veer-Zaara cut across classes and countries in its appeal, doing exceptionally well in India and abroad, certain sections of the urban population enjoyed a film like Aitraaz that projected values closer to reality - the reality of ambitious women unabashedly exploiting relationships to achieve their goals. Sonia is in love with Raj and not in the least coy about expressing her feelings, but marriage and babies are not for her. As one viewer put it, this is a film about passion beyond morals.

For the rest of the article, pick up VERVE’s January-February, 2005 issue