Saathiya - 2002

The usual fairy tale Indian love story ends with the lovers getting married followed by a flashy title card that reads ??And they lived happily ever after. That is of course what any escapist audience would expect and why not? 'Saathiya' sings a different tune ? one rooted a little more in realism. The beauty of the film lies in the fact that it embellishes this theme with the same escapist flair and deeply touching vibrancy that characterize the tradition of Indian cinema.

Aditya Sehgal (Vivek Oberoi) awaits his wife Suhani Sharma (Rani Mukherjee) at the railway station. She is nowhere to be seen. We cut back a year to watch them meet and fall in love in the usual masala routine. When their parents meet to arrange their marriage, class conflict creeps in to squeeze out their respective superiority and inferiority complexes. Aditya leaves home and Suhani is thrown out for disrupting her elder sister's marital plans. The couple starts a new life together, mutually agreeing to shun their parents. The new apartment is dilapidating, but all that matters is that it is their home. She for him and him for her. Then what went wrong in this paradise? Or was it ever that?