Love: The starry way

doweshowbellyad=0; Devdas is an all-time Indian favourite (TOI Photo)The list of the Top 10 greatest love stories contain some classics. Experts tell BT what makes a love story perfect and timeless.
Great love story = perfect ingredients
Writer Mahesh Dattani deconstructs the truly great love story: “Writing it requires a special skill. You have to have experienced love, or have a keen desire to do so.It’s important not to be a cynic. A cynical writer will never be able to write a love story - never in a million years.”
A class act
When the lovers come from different backgrounds (Rhett and Scarlett, Heathcliff and Cathy, Elizabeth and Darcy), this works to create an interesting backdrop. The rich-boy-poor girl idea creates clashes and a romantic tension that takes the story out of the ordinary. “Class helps in creating memorable personalities,” says Dattani, “And it’s not just class by itself - it’s who the protagonists are because of their class: a poor boy might feel anger and resentment because of his class; a poor girl might have to make sacrifices, like Jane Eyre, who became almost a servant to Rochester in his later years; and Rebecca, where the second Mrs de Winter feels she can never match Rebecca,” he says.
Obstacles to bliss
When the sages said the path of true love never runs smooth, they were not wrong. A single insurmountable obstacle or several serious impediments creates dramatic situations. Family enmity between the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet and Scarlett’s blinkered love for Ashley and the American Civil War in Gone With the Wind prevents the lovers from getting together.
Dattani says in the truly great love stories, the barriers are rarely physical (except in Romeo and Juliet, in which the families play villain). “The hallmark of a great love story isn’t the physical barrier but one in which the egos of the protagonists become the barrier. Their personalities drive them apart.”
Doomed relationship
The tragic ending is another vital factor. Tragedy and a doomed relationship lend a poignancy to the narrative that makes it unforgettable. “All great love stories end in tragedy,” believes Dattani, “The central ideas are love, loss and sacrifice. For instance, when one lover lets go and marries someone else, it creates greater tragedy.”
The great divide
What is it about the great love stories that has changed? Or have they changed at all? Scriptwriter Atul Tiwari is reminded of a passage in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which two lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, are separated by a wall. In his frustration, Pyramus speaks to the wall, begging it to show a chink in it so that he can see Thisbe. “So love, as we understand it, is crossing a divide, be it between genders, bodies or even a wall. It’s just that over time the divides have changed,” he says. “In Romeo and Juliet, the lovers were divided by prejudice and not by class. One of the early films of Indian cinema, Achhut Kanya, dealt with the romance between a high caste boy and an untouchable girl. Here, the lovers had the obstacle of caste to overcome. And when we come to more contemporary films, the divide of age has been bridged: take the love story between Akshaye Khanna and Dimple Kapadia in Dil Chahta Hai, and Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in Cheeni Kum.”
The ending: always sad
Several of the love stories in the Top 10 end with the lovers being torn asunder, never to reunite (Romeo and Juliet, Heathcliff and Cathy). Filmmaker and scriptwriter of Shabd, Leena Yadav, says that it’s this kind of ending that makes a love story truly enduring. “Wuthering Heights is one of those stories you can’t get out of your mind for this very reason. Love is equally equated to pain. The stronger the element of pain there is, the greater the love story. It adds to the passion of the lovers. That’s why stories about unrequited love haunt you; you feel like the story hasn’t ended. Take Laila Majnu and Romeo and Juliet. They function on the same principles,” she says.