The anatomy of love

The search results for Gunahon ka Devta on Wikipedia are akin to my own faint memories of this rather poetic oxymoron — a gloriously insufferable 1990s Bollywood revenge melodrama, starring Mithun Chakraborty. Apart from its rather memorable title, it has little to do with Dharamvir Bharati’s almost otherworldly love story of the same name.

It is to Poonam Saxena’s credit that I am able to discover the beauty of the original Gunahon ka Devta with all its nuanced romance and tragedy. Each word of the title expands through the pages capturing the varied contradictions, passions and tortured dimensions of the author’s young hero.

Chander & Sudha is a confident and well-crafted translation that renders Bharati’s effervescent novel accessible to a whole new legion of fans. The bestselling Gunahon ka Devta has been consistently in print since its first publication in 1949 and this statistic alone is testament to its enduring popularity.

There is something about this tragic tale that draws you right into the heart of things — a charming city where time itself slows down. Mid-20th century Allahabad is the perfect backdrop for young lovers. The opening lines of the book speak volumes:

‘If people still believe in city or village deities, I would say Allahabad’s reigning god is assuredly a romantic artist.’

It is an old-young city, a city of the past that is starting on a slow march towards the future, a renaissance city where poetry, art, culture and a certain tehzeeb thrive. The stage is set for the two lovers — Chander and Sudha — to play out their parts in an Allahabad that allows such impossible loves to flourish. Chander, Sudha and Gesu spend languorous afternoons daydreaming, take walks under the perfumed mango blossoms of Alfred Park, and live in the charming Civil Lines with its colonial bungalows and sprawling compounds. Theirs is an untarnished world touched by an old-world etiquette. Yet, it is also an Allahabad that is a bastion of Brahminical social structures, rigid caste divisions and gender inequalities. Hindus and Muslims mingle but the segregation is rigid as ever and there is barely any possibility of an inter-caste meal, much less a marriage. The story revolves around the well-educated youth of the day pursuing higher studies at the prestigious Allahabad University. They have the freedom to form their own opinions and ideas and yet they are trapped by the conventions of the day. It is this struggle between the old ways and the new that causes them to falter and often shatters their illusions.

‘Such is the nature of love, such is this strange ploy/

The one who remembers its lessons will never find any joy.’

This strangely melancholic couplet is recited during one of the earliest exchanges between two young college girls — Sudha and Gesu — who discuss life and love on a lazy afternoon. Their conversation is a window into the world of poetry, high art and philosophical musings. The characters seesaw between a romantic idyll and real-world social constraints and it is this contradiction that creates the unique context for Bharati’s novel.

At the heart of Chander & Sudha lies a simple and oft-told tale of star-crossed lovers. However, it is Bharati’s frank and refreshing take on their relationship that makes it stand out. The novel is an exercise in understanding the anatomy of love — a universal preoccupation of poets, artists and lovers themselves. The love that it describes is far removed from today’s bold and hectic declarations on social media. It is slow-paced, tender and rambling.

The characters are like untethered boats tossed about in a storm and they have to negotiate a sea of temptations and sacrifices in order to love and be loved. There are debates about the purity of love and the nature of platonic and filial affection. The boundaries of friendship are tested and sex becomes a catalyst for suffering and disaster. Sudha, Binti, Pammi — each of these characters represent a different kind of love for Chander and through them, he is able to experience the entire spectrum of emotions. Love for Chander is both a thing of joy and also fraught with pain. His burning desire for Pammi becomes his purgatory while redemption lies in his pure and unadulterated devotion towards Sudha. There is a line from Plato’s Symposium : ‘He whom love touches not walks in darkness’, and yet it is also love that pushes Chander and Sudha over the edge into madness and despair.

As the older generation dictates customs and makes autocratic decisions, it is their children who live out the consequences, often to disastrous ends. Teetering between love and lust, duty, loyalty and passion, Chander transforms into the titular gunahon ka devta while Sudha goes into a downward spiral. Their unrequited love makes each moment spent together more poignant. Every teasing gesture, affectionate glance and word assumes new meaning and becomes a lingering bittersweet memory.

While Bharati’s later novels Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda and Andha Yug have received greater literary acclaim with their strong social commentary and literary technique, it is Chander & Sudha that continues to sparkle with freshness. It expresses quietly and simply what it feels to be young and in love — and to live and die by its vagaries.

Diya Kohli is a Mumbai-based freelance writer

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