Holi In Bhansali’s World

‘Lahu Munh Lag Gaya’

If the appliance of gulaal on the face of the lover is a gesture of affection returned — in ‘Tum Tak’ from Raanjhanaa, ‘Haule Haule’ in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and ‘Tere Rang’ in Atrangi Re — Bhansali, in ‘Lahu Munh Lag Gaya’ from Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram-Leela (2013), turns this gesture into foreplay, blurring the calls for of affection and lust. 

One of many many mythological tales that underpin Holi, celebrating the love of Radha and Krishna, is of an anxious Krishna, darkish skinned, questioning if truthful Radha loves him. His mom pushes him to ask Radha to use coloration on him, which Radha does, staining his face and validating his love, their love. That this story sees equity bestow affection on darkness, that the divine darkish skinned lover is looking for, in each insecurity and anticipation, a response, is given a fragile interpretation in Bhansali’s cinema, the place the actresses are all the time just a few shades lighter, given the politics of desirability in business Hindi cinema, inflected by each patriarchy and racism; fragile, as a result of the one looking for validation will not be all the time the darker one. 

‘Lahu Munh Lag Gaya’ turns into a peacocking, arousing within the different a warmth, via the choreographed gesture of making use of gulaal on the self — Leela’s fingers stream as she strikes her stained fingers from cheek to neck, like water, fluid, a boneless grace that runs previous the ridge between cheek and neck. When Ram mimes, with gulaal that she ought to coloration the parting of her hair — a logo of marriage — after which slips his fingers down his face to rub the sides of his decrease lip — a logo of intercourse — Leela flings the gulaal within the air, creating within the midst of all that chaos, their very own sealed cauldron of need, and kisses him, the pink on his lips, now on hers. Making use of coloration on the lover is given a brand new, extra passionate studying. He’s dazed. She winks — to the beat, it is a Bhansali stamp the place each nip within the muscle is choreographed. Ultimately, as Ram is pulled away by his mates earlier than the Saneda males pummel him, you see Leela trying again at Ram’s fingers because it disappears into the group. The look is now not of lust, however longing. The tune, then, turned the stretch through which lust is renegotiated as love.