Dil Se..

probably should've picked a lighter film to watch on my birthday... dil se remains to be as striking and as impressive as it was on first watch, a maximalist and operatic film about two conflicting personalities clashing in a climate of political unrest & terrorism, independence that was promised but never given, childhood that was robbed, houses and villages that were pillaged. there are multiple sequences in dil se that i want to write about. The opening on the train station, the radio scene where Amar recalls his first meeting with Moina, the scene between both in the radio station where the swinging door blocks & unblocks light, i could go on and on about the never ending magnificence of this film, but on this third watch,one scene stood out that previously i didn't pay much attention to. After the intermission, as moina sits in her house, she once again hears Amar's voice on the radio as he plays "ae ajnabi", she walks over to the radio and internally battles over whether she should shut it off or not, eventually she does....before turning it on once more and then finally shutting it off for good. This represents Moina's want to escape so well. She knows her people were wronged,she knows she was wronged, she wants to take revenge but she is sick and tired of a life with only death,hate and tragedy, Amar's voice travelling out of that radio, is her escape. She knows that he would help her escape, she hesitates before turning off the radio but she does it. she doesn't love him, she knows he is an obsessive harraser with a neoliberal outlook on life, but she knows he is her escape, all her interactions with amar are not ones where shes romancing with him, shes romancing with escape.