February 14th is round the corner. It is Valentine’s Day, the festival of romance. Restaurants, Malls, Gift Shops, and Cinemas will overflow with couples celebrating Valentine’s Day. Long before the commercialisation of love, there was romance in the Hindi films.

The filmmakers in the black and white era had a very different idea of romance. Any form of physical intimacy risked being censored. They used lots of innovation to create romantic scenes. The film that instantly comes to my mind is, “Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai,” released in 1960. This was an era, when a romantic scene on the screen meant, two flowers kissing each other. Romantic music played after the flowers kissed. In the next scene, the heroine coyly announced that she is pregnant. Imagine young children trying to keep away flowers in the garden because they didn’t want more siblings. Bad joke, I know.

This super hit film was directed by Radhu Karmakar and produced by Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor and Padmini played the lead roles, and Pran was the villain. The hero proposes to the heroine in the film –

“Shiv ji ki kripa hui toh, ek din phool sa ek chota sa lalla hoga mera Kammo ji. Aur uska naam main rakhunga Shri Ganga Prasad. Kammo ji kya aap mere us lalle ki Maa banengi(God willing one day I will have a cute little son. I will name him Ganga Prasad. Kammoji will you be my son’s mother)?

He soon realises that Kammo ji might not find, having just one Lalla romantic enough, he adds-“Kammo ji agar Shiv ji ne chaha toh Lallon ki line lag jayegi !!”(God willing Kammoji, we will have a line of sons).

The original video cannot be posted on the blog, I have posted a spoof of the original. Please don’t read the Hindi subtitles, they are bad. The boy in the video is not Raj Kapoor, the heroine is the same as the original. Some editing trick I guess, to escape the copyright issue. You can watch the original video on YouTube. Raj Kapoor was brilliant in the scene. Background music, after the girl hears the proposal, captures the mood brilliantly. It was ‘music to her ears’, has a new meaning for me after watching this scene.

There may be red flags for some people. Why only sons, why not daughters? Also, when the government slogan was ‘Hum Do Humare Do’, ‘Bachche Do Hi Achche’, why did he want a long line of kids? I want to focus on love and romance. The post is about Valentine’s Day.

Just like the previous years, there might be some moral policing this year as well. There is a Winter season, a Summer season and a “Trying To Stay Relevant Season,’ for some organisations. Some incidents like forcing couples to tie rakhis and forcibly trying to get people married might be reported. Media is always hungry for sensational news for their 24×7 channels. Some citizens might be harassed. The commercial side of the festival won’t be impacted. Indians are not unromantic for sure. Our rising population is a proof of that. Just like money, children don’t grow on trees.

The text and photographs are by Prerna Jain.