A TITANIC Revelation

At the outset I would like to give a full credit to my old friend Gaurav Harit for this piece. We came to know each other at IIT Delhi, though not immediately after joining. We were both in Masters, but in different streams. Both stayed in the same hostel, yet in different floors. Some casual discussion on dining table on a random day made us friends. Gaurav - a thorough gentleman from Rajsthan – used to be simple, studious and a keen observer of life possessing rational opinions. This all-India 5th ranker in GATE (Electrical) is humbleness personified. The last I know, he was doing PhD from IIT and I am out of touch with him since last 6 years or so. Hope he reads this blog someday.

On one Sunday morning, Gaurav spoke to me about Titanic, the movie he had seen the night before. He seemed to be in an enlightened state of mind. He told that he had seen numerous movies, particularly the Hindi ones, where ‘love’ is an integral part of the storyline. While reflecting back on those, he could never used to convince himself about the plot. He used to feel something was missing; something was inappropriate – but could never able to make out what that ‘something’ was. However, Titanic turned out to be so perfect that he was feeling nothing more to be seen, nothing more to be explored as far as movies based on love theme is concerned.

Gaurav was the first person to make me philosophize that love, in principle, has to be without violence. When one loves somebody, one in turn falls in love with the world. Hence, a person in love cannot be violent to anybody howsoever nefarious that anybody may be. Violence germinates from ‘hatred’; and hatred gets no place in a person who is in love. One must have witnessed in the movie Titanic how the hero and heroine did never think or discuss ill of the villain (to whom the heroine was engaged), let alone cause physical harm to him. They do not strike back when they were chased or attacked – they just ran away. This is quite unlike of Bollywood movies, where the hero conspires with his friends to eliminate the villain and finally emerges successful in his violent mission. One’s violence thoughts and deeds just reflect how much away one has fallen from the state of being in love. Gaurav was not able to convince himself how it is possible for a person immerged in love to cause damage to others as naturally as depicted by conventional movies. A wholly non-violent couple in Titanic was nothing less than a eureka for Gaurav’s long sought completeness in movies based on love theme.

Another aspect of Titanic love story is the associated selflessness. Love is painful when self interests are involved i.e. expectations are attached with love. Many would agree this pain accounts for the tears people sheds or the beers they consume when they have a break up with their loved ones. They feel their dreams are dashed. But selfless love is always painless, and Titanic is a splendid show of the same. It is a classic example where love is depicted beyond any personal agenda. In the entire movie the lover duo spends the time together in both happy and difficult situations without expecting any selfish gains out of the relationship. That was perhaps the reason for the fitting end of the movie where the heroine did not end her life after the hero died protecting her.