In times of short sound bytes and an SMS brand of courtship, it was reassuring for audiences to watch Squadron Leader, Veer Pratap Singh, proclaim old-fashioned, unconditional love for Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Muslim girl from Pakistan, who comes to India to immerse the ashes of her surrogate Hindu mother.

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.

Dancing, of a more Hindi phillum style, is what makes a prince ready to forsake his kingdom for love. When court-dancer, Anarkali, seduces the heir-apparent to the Mughal throne with a "Mohe panghat pe Nandlal ched gayo re…", the latter falls so hopelessly in love with her flirtatious smile that he is ready to defy the autocratic Akbar to marry her. K. Asif's magnum opus, Mughal-E-Azam - re-released 44 years after it first appeared on the silver screen - is a monumental love saga in the traditional mould.

Love plays itself out amidst fountains, bowers and court intrigues. It is lyrical in beauty, yet when Prince Salim strokes Anarkali's face with a feather to the strains of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan's music, it is much more sensual than all the passion play of today's films. And, surprisingly, the spaghetti strap generation was as enthralled with Madhubala's veiled oomph and Dilip Kumar's fiery whispers as the burqa-clad viewers of an earlier age.

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.In times of short sound bytes and an SMS brand of courtship, it was reassuring for them to watch Squadron Leader, Veer Pratap Singh, proclaim old-fashioned, unconditional love for Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Muslim girl from Pakistan, who comes to India to immerse the ashes of her surrogate Hindu mother.

There are no explicit love scenes. As is typical of Chopra's oeuvre, mustard fields, music, Punjabi festivals provide the backdrop for love of the platonic kind. "When my hero looks into my heroine's eyes, it is the most passionate expression of love possible," states Chopra, disapproving strongly of the 'murder-sex-nudity formula' many of his contemporaries use to seduce viewers into the theatres. Sacrifice, respect for parents, family ties - these, as always, play an important role in Chopra's love story.

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.Unlike Rewa of Naach, she unabashedly uses Raj to promote her career. As one viewer put it, this is a film about passion beyond morals.. Of course, eventually, Abbas and Mastan, the directors of the film make morality triumph, with the heroine of the film, a fresh law graduate, exposing Sonia's modus operandi in court. Slickly packaged, the film finally upholds traditional virtues with a wife fighting to save her husband's reputation at any cost.

From the classic to the contemporary, films of different genres tapped one emotion that has survived the vicissitudes of audience taste. Love, in its many splendoured form. 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.