by Gaurav Srivastav

The sad irony of the situation in which Abhay's character in Socha Na Tha was, his parents are getting him married to the 'love of his life' - a catholic girl he has been wooing and has fought for vehemently.

And while this is going on, he realizes that he is actually love with a sweet girl from his own caste who he had rejected initially. I had seen Socha Na Tha three months after its theatrical release, on a DVD.

And now, I guess I have watched it at least 10 times. The movie still feels fresh to me, the way chemistry between the principal characters was built can only be the work of a man who has experienced love in all its might.

What I have been trying to build up to is the simple fact that Imtiaz Ali has shown us that love doesn't need to follow the straight jacket path of hero meets heroine, falls in love and finally wins her over

. The best part about his efforts is that he never needed to rebel against the set procedures, he just had his simple way of telling the story and has driven home the point that love has its own unique method of getting its way, no rules can be defined for it, no amount of thinking can make us ready for the impact that it strikes us with. And it happens to us in the most unusual of circumstances.

Imtiaz has also shown us how we as individuals with all our 'intelligence' (pun intended) go about deciding about love and its implications and then fall flat on our faces with all our schemes coming to naught.

He has been successful in his attempts to tell us that the mightiest emotion that a being has is love, no matter how much we experiment with the ideas of handling it.

This brings me to yet another point that Imtiaz has exposed us to. A couple, first time on the Indian silver screen, has decided to split and is happily singing a song about it.

Incidentally, it's one of the most liked songs from his upcoming movie and is called 'Chor Bazari'.

Right now (having not seen the movie), we would not know how the story moves after the song in the movie, but we know for certain that Imtiaz has made us aware of one more aspect of love and has given us a song to celebrate it.

We don't need to break our hearts (or ourselves) when we part, it can be done with understanding and now, after the song, with panache!!!

Wishing you best in your next outing. We are grateful to you for bringing a nation that survives on Love, closer to it.

Thanks Imtiaz.