Love another day
Unusually early in the year, Hindi cinema has quietly overturned two long-standing traditions. In an industry where heroes become brands — Salman is Tiger, Devgn is Singham, Rani is Mardaani — it is rare to see a couple in their sixties emerge as the defining face of a franchise.
That, however, is exactly what happened with Vadh (2022), led by Sanjay Mishra, now 62, and Neena Gupta, 66.
“I felt a dhad-dhad in my heart, wondering if it would be accepted,” Mishra once admitted about carrying a film on his shoulders at this stage of life. Initially, Vadh didn’t even recover its modest budget of ₹4 crore. But critical acclaim and strong word-of-mouth on Amazon Prime Video transformed Jaspal Singh Sandhu’s crime-and-conscience drama into something far bigger. By the time Vadh 2 went into production, it had quietly become a brand.
Ironically, the film had nearly slipped into oblivion. Unsold for nearly three years, it was almost forgotten by its own makers. “We had actually moved on,” Neena Gupta recalled, until producers Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg stepped in. “That’s when we finally got our mai-baap,” she joked.
Even the title Vadh was a late decision. “We kept calling it Gwalior,” Mishra said. “When Luv Ranjan changed it, we resisted.” The reasoning eventually won them over — a crucial line in the film that distinguishes murder from moral reckoning: ‘Humne khoon nahi kiya, humne vadh kiya.’
Thus was born a franchise driven not by youth or spectacle, but by lived experience. “I call it ‘drama after 50’,” Mishra laughed, while Neena admitted she lost sleep after seeing how tightly Vadh 2 was edited. A rare satisfaction, she said, to see stories finally being written for lives beyond middle age.
Valentine’s Day, minus the sugar
This quiet rebellion extends to Valentine’s Day itself, which no longer promises candlelight and soft-focus romance. Vishal Bhardwaj’s O Romeo arrives wrapped in profanity, raw desire, violence, and dark humour — unmistakably Vishal, yet undeniably a love story.
Among its cast is 76-year-old Farida Jalal, playing Shahid Kapoor’s mother, still checking items off her bucket list. After Heeramandi, Vishal Bhardwaj was next. “The first thing he asked me was, ‘Will you abuse in one scene?’” she laughed. She said yes. O Romeo may have music and movement, but it’s unlikely to deliver Valentine’s Day comfort food.
Contrast this with the romance of the 1970s, when Bobby promised devotion so absolute that a lover would offer himself to a lion. Today’s love stories are far less idealistic — and far more dangerous.
Love, but make it terrifying
Another Valentine’s Day release, Tu Yaa Main, flips romance into survival horror. A remake of the Thai film The Pool, it traps a couple inside a swimming pool — with a crocodile. As survival instincts kick in, romance erodes, replaced by blame, bitterness, and brutal honesty.
Produced by Aanand L. Rai, whose love stories often carry an undercurrent of darkness, the film is directed by Bejoy Nambiar. Known for thrillers, Bejoy leaned into the idea of “Date Night Fright” rather than traditional romance. He deliberately avoided watching the original, choosing instead to reimagine the tension fresh from the script.
The pairing itself is unconventional: Shanaya Kapoor and Adarsh Gourav, the latter globally recognised for The White Tiger. For Shanaya — after a shelved debut and a box-office failure — this becomes a crucial turning point. Perhaps she’s the Kapoor no one expected to surprise this year.
Love, redefined
What unites these films is not romance as fantasy, but love as conflict — shaped by age, fear, regret, survival, and self-awareness. From Vadh redefining heroism after 60 to Valentine’s Day films ditching sweetness for scars, Hindi cinema seems to be saying something quietly radical:
Love doesn’t always arrive with butterflies. Sometimes, it arrives with consequences.
