Waris Shah in Love

Waris Shah was a legendry sufi writer of the 18 the century famed for writing the most famous version of Heer. Heer is in the conciousness of all those born or bred in Punjab. The movie attempts to acknowledge the debt of Heer to Bhagpari, his muse. The effort can be somewhat compared to the Hollywood movie Shakespere in Love which superimposed the story of Romeo and Juliet in the life of Shakespere. When his muse deserts him, Shakespere is inspired by the devotion of a young girl to his poetry.

Shakespere's Lady Viola is all passion, fire and brimstone, just like Juliet. The movie and the drama move parallel to each other. Though unlike Juliet who dies in the end, Lady Viola marries her bethrothed and moves to the new continent of America instead.

Makhdoom, Waris Shah's guru (peer murshid), tells him that his writing will not be effective unless he has experienced the pleasure of love and pain of seperation. Makhdoom forsees the events in the life of his best pupil and orders Waris to go to Malka Hans and compose Heer to keep the tradition of music and poetry alive in Punjab. The Mughals in those times were dead against music and poetry and it was deemed a crime to play music or recite poetry. The sufi's took it upon themselves to create music and poetry clandestinely, even at the cost of losing their lives.

Waris Shah arrives in Malka Hans and runs into Bhagpari. and is smitten by her beauty. She becomes an inspiration for Heer. However, Heer was a beautiful tempestous firebrand who would brook no opposition to her passion for Ranjha. According to the epic, the lovers take a roller coaster ride through life, never losing sight of their love for each other. In a sea of corrupt, false people, they stand out as true, upright and beautiful examples of Love.

By contrast, Bhagpari and Waris's romance moves along at a slow decorous pace, ending tamely with Bhagpari submitting to the man she is married off to. The outcome is realistic, in real life, lovers move on, forget their passion.

There are some filmi touches, songs and melodrama. The best part is the frequent recitation from Heer by various characters, in the traditional way. Which made me scoot right off to the music shop for the CD. When Gurdas Maan sang the first verse of Heer - the invocation to God quoted below, shivers ran down my spine:

Awal hamad khuda da vird keeje
Ishq kita su jag da mool mian
Pehlan aap hi rabb ne ishq kita
Te mashooq he nabi rasool mian

"First of all let us acknowledge God (who is self-evident), who has made love the worth of the world Sir, It was God Himself that first loved, and the prophet (Muhammad (SW)) is His beloved Sir "

To my most sore disappointment, the recitation was missing from the music album. For me, the heer is the best part of the movie. Juhi plays Bhagpari well, Divya Dutta as the evil saabo who tries to throw spanner in the works of Waris Shah is also very good. The music by Jaidev is good, I am glad he kept the traditional recitation style of the heer couplets intact. Though the qawwali in praise of god could have been better, seeing that it is supposed to have transported the evil hearted subedar into ecstasy. Waris Shah seems to have been a handsome man. Gurdas Mann is getting along now, and cant play a chikna hero anymore.

All in all, a commendable effort.