I am fan of Imtiaz Ali(Indian movie director) yet I haven’t seen all his movies(quite a hypocrite!). Yesterday, I had time and Netflix shown Jab Harry met Sejal as one of the option. I choose to watch it after getting agreement from my wife who anyways fan of Shahrukh Khan. The movie progressed and despite being a different story, it has many common elements with other movies of Imtiaz Ali. These common elements are:

Good LocationsProtagonist who is not happy with his current life scheme and feeling a void or something missing in his life. Protagonist who is confused about his love life. Imtiaz Ali’s fascination with Punjabi culture particularly Sikhs way of living.Good music , lyrics which are relatable to storyline. Is this a movie review?

No, neither this is a movie review nor review of director rather it is about a constant theme of Imtiaz Ali’s movies. It is about a relatable state of modern beings, it is about protagonist who is feeling a void in his life. Everyone (I can comfortably say everyone without any exception) at all times or many times in their life feel they are missing something in their lives. It can be success, fame, wealth, car, comfort, company, children, soul mate or can be anything else. It can be boundation of not having enough choices in life or boundation to the profession or financial limitations. It can be of any nature however the void which Imtiaz Ali’s character experience is never about material nature. Its always about his strange state of emotions which he can experience but could not explain. He knows a tussle going inside him yet nature of tussle and limitation of words made impossible for him to explain them.

Take Jai Vardhan Singh of Love Aaj Kal, Harinder Singh Nehra of Jab Harry Met Sejal, Ved of Tamasha or Aditya Kashyap of Jab We Met. All these protagonist went through a phase of life where they were materialistically comfortable in their lives yet they are missing something, yet they are not happy. This is a common struggle each protagonist have while in the end of each story, every character feels happy after achieving missing puzzle of her life. Jai after meeting here beloved whom he earlier rejected for a dream job, Harinder asked his beloved to go away because she was already engaged with someone else, Ved was in wrong job which he later changed to his preferred profession and Aditya was being too serious in his life , so much that he ignored his personal favourite activities , something which he realized after meeting her lady love.

It seems Imtiaz in his own real life journey trying to find the reason behind the void he is experiencing.In my opinion, he looked for different options to fill that void but the search for reason behind the void gave him another story. Before, I talk more about the void, let me present another character from second edition of Love Aaj Kal. Raghvendra Raghu Singh or Raj, is someone who left his studies, his home for her love but got diverted to other worldly attractions, leaving his beloved alone. By the time, he realised what he actually longs for, it was late and his love actually moved on in her life, married and pregnant. He also moved on in his life, now successful ,rich,with other partners but the void is still there. He still misses his lady love.

What is this void about?

Going by the all above stories, it seems like the void is always due to lack of some materialistic(counting need of companion/love as materialistic) and Raj from Love Aaj Kal 2 does not get his love, he miss her even he found many other companions but the pain is still inside his heart. So it really about missing love or being in wrong profession? Raj from Love Aaj Kal 2 did not get his love yet he moved on in his life and was very successful. He had everything materialistic including other partner. Isn’t this human nature to always miss what they don’t have? May be his pain is not just of lost love or void rather of not getting most desired mate, may be its just mix of emotions, MAY BE!.

The constant theme of Imtiaz Ali movies suggest that his movie stories might have an end but in his life, he is still discovering himself, he is still searching himself, searching his own true definition.

I believe these options which respective protagonist choose in their respective stories are nothing but another external diversion from the void. The story or movie ends but in real life, sooner or later, as soon as the effect or hangover of the new choice disappears, the void will come to existence again.All stories end when people meet and its happy ending but if we look into story beyond happy ending is it really end of journey to look for the void? I am not sure as I did not wrote them. I believe the search for void does not end there, it was just a phase. If there would be any movie beyond happy ending point, discovery would have gone further in their lives.

Its not void rather discovery of self !!!

In my humble opinion, the search of these protagonist is not of the void. In their course of life, they started discovering themselves which lead to find what they are missing in their lives at that point of time. Their beloved, profession are one of the things they were missing in their lives however as I said it was just the beginning of journey to discover themselves. Amid the struggle of life, amid the way of life superimposed by society, family, surroundings, amid the parameters of success as told by industries and society, the individual suffers a disconnect with themselves. It wont be wrong to say that in current set up, the connection with oneself was never build. As child start learning language, about world around, the connection with oneself takes back seat and overpowered by external factors. Unfortunately, parents also don’t teach child to connect with own as they themselves are not aware. Schools or any other institution including religious ones don’t tell you to listen to yourself. They all want you to listen and agree to what they are teaching. No wonder, young kids agree to wear bombs and blow themselves because they were taught they are doing right. Most of us, looking for appreciation and affirmation externally as we don’t know that what we are actually. We are told that we are strong or can be stronger due to which we forgot to listen to ourselves. We stop ourselves from getting emotional and try to win the love by mind, by earning good money, luxuries etc.

All of above reasons and even many more leave most of us unaware and suffering silently, loosing ourselves in struggle of material wealth, false success, alcohol, drugs as we are trying to suppress the voice of our subconscious mind, voice of our soul with all such false parameters of joy. There is too much to write about it but the crux is to recognize your self first. Good music is always best way to end anything on good note hence ending with a lovely, melodious and soulful song from my favourite movie Love Aaj Kal