Sangdil (1952)

To be very honest, I only got invested in the movie once the Madhubala-Dilip Kumar romance started for real. Before that, I was almost ready to give up- I found the pace slow and meandering, and I was unable to build up any real interest in the proceedings. However, those two lit up the screen, and I had no option but to be fully invested in their story. 

Bonus points to the song "Dil Mein Sama Gaye Sajan" and the very last line Dilip Kumar says- I honestly thought more about how the movie ended than about anything else. Not exactly an unconventional ending, and not quite a conventional one either. Also, Madhubala looks gorgeous in every single frame from every single angle, but we been knew that already. I really liked the cult angle as well- it kind of gave a new layer to the original text, and made me that much more invested in this Jane Eyre reboot.

Now, coming to the topic I lowkey don't want to talk about at all- the fact that this movie is an adaptation of what used to be one of my favourite novels of all time, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. I like to think that I have outgrown that book, especially after discovering all the colourful ways in which it is problematic during my literature degree, but the truth is, I have always had, and probably will always have, a soft spot in my heart for the Jane-Mr. Rochester pairing. There is something so wild about that story, for lack of a better term, and something so unearthly, that pulls me back in every single time. As for this adaptation, I have to say that it retained the wild and unearthly aspect of that romance particularly well, even though the Jane & Edward characters here had different histories and backgrounds. And since they did justice to my favourite aspect of my ex-favourite novel, I really can't come up with any complaints except that I wish the first half had been better taken care of. Oh well, that itself was quite reminiscent of my first reading of the book at age 13, when I was frankly bored by the first half, but so obsessed with the second that even today I can recite some paragraphs verbatim. Yes, I was a weird child. What about it?

In conclusion, I don't think I am emotionally stable enough to grasp the significance of it right now, but I am so glad that we got Madhubala as Indian Jane Eyre. Amen.

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