Ishqiya is a film that explores the theme of “love” through an examination of the realms of the personal, social and political. Set against the backdrop of a rural landscape, the story revolves around three characters: Khalujaan (essayed by the evergreen Naseeruddin Shah), Babban (Arshad Warsi) and Krishna (Vidya Balan). To escape the wrath of their ruthless master, Khalujaan and Babban seek refuge in their friend’s “a village goon” place.
The story unfolds in all its complexities when the above male characters discover the untimely death of their friend and gradually start developing romantic feelings for his widow Krishna. The plot goes back to a time when Krishna’s husband Vidyavardhan Verma (played by Adil Hussain) was alive and politically engaged in caste wars of Naxalite movement. Situated at the lower strata of society’s hierarchical caste/class structure, Adil’s character voices the issues concerning the marginalized (dissatisfied) sections of society who are forced to resort to arms and ammunition in order to combat the military regimes of the State that always worked towards suppressing the voice of the oppressed. A 15 year old in the film, a product of the underbelly depicts the fate of all those children who are thrust with weapons and machinery in their formative years itself.
However, the film also explicates Vidyavardhan’s patriarchal notions about femininity as he constructs his wife as a model of domesticity. His patriarchal ideology constructs her naïve political understanding as a deterrent to his political engagement; a pretext upon which he feigns his own death to rid himself from the “clutches” of his wife’s love and affection.
Gender prejudices lay exposed in the final scene too when he explains his act of a death pretence to Krishna. His expectation of unquestionable subservience from his wife does not allow him to perceive Krishna as a potential comrade to his political engagements.
Krishna is no reactionary. She is a revolutionary in her own terms. She abuses, is sexually active and knows how to exercise her agency. Her expression of sexuality completely dismantles the dominant perception of womanhood as epitomizing docility, propriety and demure conduct. Khalujaan’s perception of Krishna as virtue and purity personified gets shattered when he discovers her dancing wildly with Babban. The Madonna-whore dichotomy comes into play when a disgruntled Khalujaan labels her as a “ tavaeif” from an erstwhile “angelic” representation.
Krishna’s political grasp and acumen comes across when she plans a kidnap of the bourgeois industrialist (Rajesh Sharma; himself involved in a bigamous relationship and import of arms trade from Nepal)) to further her own motives with pretence of helping Babban and Khalujaan procure ransom for their master.
The love-hate relationship shared by Khalujaan and Babban is amazing and leaves the audience in splits at a number of junctures in the film. The old-school style of love manifested by Khalujaan is juxtaposed with Babban’s unabashed exhibition of sexuality. Naseeruddin is at his best in the chartbuster hit “Dil toh Baccha hai jee.” His performance is par-excellence and the audience actually feels sad when his love does not get reciprocated. Vidya and Arshad are no less; their performances have given a new dimension to the field of acting with a promise of good cinema in the years to come.
An absolute delight, Ishqiya continues to live in the hearts of many.