Considering the populist, across-the-floor and appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator pan-Indian (in name only; in actuality, Hindi Cinema has always a very pronounced North India-centric and Mumbai-centric tilt) format in which Hindi Cinema treats its narratives, the concept of 'moving on' from a relationship that is not working is not a common, or even remotely popular one. Here. at the end of the customary two and a a half hours, the hero and the heroine must unite, or (at least one of them) must die "to unite in the Afterlife". This is a concept that's more in keeping with Cinema of South India.
No wonder then that the best examples of 'moving on' I've come across in the highly unrealistic and often immature domain of commercial Hindi Cinema, the only two memorable instances, in fact, appear in two little-known Hindi translations of two South Indian films. Coincidentally, both Hindi films released within a few months of each other in the early years of this millennium and in the final years of the pre-multiplex era.
The first is Tusshar Kapoor's debut film 'Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai' (2001), a remake of the Telugu film 'Tholi Prema' (1998). In the film, the hero is an immature and just a tad spoiled young man, who falls in love with a girl, the daughter of a family friend, who comes to live with his family. He's smitten and tries hard to get her, but keeps failing as she has her eyes set on higher studies and a career and doesn't want to lose focus of her goals. Ultimately he realizes that in order to get the girl of his dreams, he must grow up and make a man of himself, so he lets her go in the hope that when she is ready, she'll come back to him. The film ends on an open-ended but hopeful note. Most importantly, the hero harbours no bitterness, because by now he has figured out what he needs to do with his life.
The next one came a year later, in early 2002, and starred Aftab Shivdasani and Ameesha Patel. 'Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai' was the remake of the Tamil film 'Love Today' (1997). It is somewhat similar in terms of plot premise to MKKH, but different in that at the end, after the hero has lost his elder brother who was a friend philosopher and guide to him, he realizes that there's more to life than romantic love, and that more often we are in love with the idea of being in love. So he decides to make something substantial of his life as a tribute to his late elder brother, and although by now the heroine has fallen for him, he rejects her, though not spitefully or sadly, and goes off to chart out his own life path.
I believe it's because of the fact that both the films had their genesis in South Indian Cinema, we get to see a rare brand of maturity that's always been missing in the populist overindulgence of Hindi films.
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