Review of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) by Thusme%20 R — 12 Nov 2018

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is an enjoyable Hindi film where two married couples involve a partner unable to love the other after years of marriage. As Dev and Maya, each married to other people, become closer and closer, they begin to realize the flaws in their marriage and how they deserve each other instead. This film about the after-marriage lifestyle is unique in the Hindi film industry. This film portrays "divorces," "breakups," and "eloping" look necessary and not always a disgrace to a family. We are able to see this when Rishi's father himself tells his daughter in law, Maya, to leave his son and go be with Dev.

What Dev and Maya had as a pair is very similar to the couple presented in Veer-Zaara, a film presenting a love that is on opposite borders: India and Pakistan. Both couples from the films always had their own space to run away to where they can seek happiness away from the world. In Dev and Maya's world, it was away from their marriages or significant other. In Veer and Zaara's world, it was away from Zaara's parents and hometown. In Divia Patel's "Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film," she mentions this similar idea of where these couples desire some sort of privacy where they are away from the universe against their love and conditions. It is exciting for the character to be away from normal, everyday life.

Towards the end of the movie, Dev and Maya lie to each other saying that after confessing their affair, each marriage remained in place. However, both were immediately divorced for their confessions and they each stayed alone for years. They did not bother each other's "peace" that one thought the other had. Similarly, in Veer-Zaara, Veer signed up to completely lose his identity and be locked up for 22 years to keep Zaara's life in peace while Zaara did not marry his husband and lived in Veer's village for the rest of the years after believing that Veer has died in a bus accident going back home. Overall, both couples made sacrifices that portray their strong love and desire to keep the other person at peace.