Gone are the days when dumped Bollywood wives would pour out their broken hearts and bitter bile to the glossies. That name-calling and finger-pointing is a thing of the past. Now, we have the to-be-divorced couple decorously sharing a joint statement about their mutual decision to amicably part ways, how they will continue to be devoted parents to their offspring, etc. In recent times, divorced couples like Adhuna and Farhan Akhtar, Mehr and Arjun Rampal, and Malaika and Arbaaz Khan, have shown us how it’s done.
Of course, much will be read between the lines of the shocking missive from Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan… Was his alleged dalliance with an actress 27 years his junior, the real reason for the split? Did the wife simply refuse to look the other way just so she could continue to enjoy the perks of being Mrs. Khan? Did love simply die? Is marriage supposed to be about ‘love’, anyway?
Reacting to the news, Upper Crust Editor Farzana Contractor, aptly wrote, “Who knows why two people fall in love or out. It’s all about happiness; when that runs out, people with strength and character and depth take steps…”
Well, Kiran and Aamir certainly have. Kudos to them too, given the barrage of scrutiny and conjecture it naturally places them under. In India, with the divorce rate at less than 1%, simply staying together because “log kya kahenge?” is often the easier option.
In Rao-Khan’s case “15 beautiful years together” did not automatically translate into a marriage that lasts a lifetime. We are assured, “Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquillity of a lovely sunset’? (Thank you, Ann Landers). Unfortunately, tranquillity is not for everyone, is it?
Just yesterday, actress Kirti Kulhari, who had announced her separation from husband Saahil Sehgal earlier this year, declared, “I have understood that I am not someone who is probably made for marriage.” She added that she was open to the idea of falling in love, and would be in a relationship again. This appears to be the current motto: the pursuit of personal happiness.
We do not see the likes of Arjun Rampal, Farhan Akhtar and Arbaaz Khan rushing to enter into wedlock, though all the three aforementioned gentlemen are in delirious relationships with young new loves, and Rampal even has an adorable new tot to further brighten his life. Taking a leaf out of Hollywood’s book, our celeb brigade is again at the forefront of rewriting old societal mores, and making the shocking, acceptable and even commonplace.
Infidelity remains the main cause for marriages breaking and yet Hugh Grant probably speaks for many when he says, “I think there’s something unromantic about marriage. Do I think human beings are meant to be in 40-year-long monogamous, faithful relationships? No, no!”
With two divorces on his card, Aamir Khan might well have had enough of matrimony for good. With the irresistible, infamous shaadi ka laddoo though, there really is no saying, is there!
