Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Dhairya Karwa’s upcoming film Gehraiyaan is all over the news ever since its trailer was dropped. The film talks about complex relationships and highlights the issue of infidelity and sexual attraction.
However, before Gehraiyaan bursts on our screens on February 11 through Amazon Prime Video, here’s a look at some of the most popular Hindi films that dealt with adultery much earlier.
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Haseen Dillruba
The most recent film before Gehraiyaan that dealt with infidelity was Haseen Dillruba starring Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey and Harshvardhan Rane. In the film Taapsee’s character Rani gets into an extramarital affair with Harshvardhan’s character Neel in the film after getting married to Vikrant. The film was release on OTT last year and received mixed reviews.
Bombay Talkies
Bombay Talkies stars Rani Mukerji and Randeep Hooda as a married couple. Randeep who plays Dev is a closeted gay. Dev and Gayatri’s (Rani) marriage is miserable as neither can live their lives fully. This instalment of Karan Johar’s four-part film is titled Ajeeb Dastan Hain Ye. However, the film takes a different turn when Avinash, Gayatri’s pleasant intern (Saqib Saleem) not only manages to make her laugh but also offers her husband a good experience. The short’s unique take received a thumbs up from critics.
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is a film about two couple who are unhappy in their marriages. Directed by Karan Johar, KANK stars Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan. SRK and Rani are married to Preity and Abhishek respectively, but fall in love and have an extramarital affair with each other.
Life In A… Metro
Anurag Basu’s anthology Life In A… Metro dealt with adultery in various ways. Shilpa Shetty (Shikha) starts developing romantic films for a theatrical artist played by Shiney Ahuja even though she is married to Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon). However, her relationship is nowhere as adulterous as her husband who is having an affair with his assistant Neha (played by Kangana Ranaut). The film’s adultery was true to life as was the ending where Shikha chooses to stay with her husband and family as Basu believed that is what most Indian women would do.
Astitva
Mahesh Manjrekar’s directorial Astitva was one of the most compassionate and comprehensive examination of adultery, infidelity, male chauvinism and spousal abuse. The film stars Tabu, Sachin Khedekar, Mohnish Bahl, Ravindra Mankani, Smita Jaykar, Sunil Barve and Namrata Shirodkar. Tabu and Khedekar play a married couple whose lives are turned upside down when her lover’s will pronounce her the sole beneficiary. The husband, after knowing about his wife’s extramarital relationship accepts her as his wife but refuses to have any friendly connection with her and is buoyed down by his feudal ideals. The film depicts the disparity in treatment between men and women and captures the essence of astitva.
Murder
Simran (Mallika Sherawat) rekindles her college affair with Sunny (Emraan Hashmi) after getting married to Sudhir (Ashmit Patel). However, things take an ugly turn when a murder allegedly takes place. The film directed by Anurag Basu is a revenge thriller and shows the devastating consequences of extramarital affairs.
Biwi No 1
David Dhawan’s Biwi No 1 starring Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Sushmita Sen in the lead touched upon married men seeking newer pastures outside marriage. Salman, who is happily married to Karisma with two kids in the film, falls in love with Sushmita and starts an extramarital affair with her. The film was much loved for its humour quotient and how Karisma’s character made her husband realise his mistake with assertiveness.
Pati, Patni Aur Woh
The 1978 film deals with infidelity with a sense of humour. Ranjeet (Sanjeev Kumar) and Sharda (Vidya Sinha) are happily married with kids until the man gets a roving eye that lands on his secretary Nirmala (Ranjeeta). The film was remade in 2019 with Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Pandey as the other woman. The film took a modern route and a bit convoluted but got people thinking on how low men can stoop to.
Silsila
Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Rekha, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor played the lead roles in the film. Following Shekhar’s (Shashi Kapoor) death in an airplane crash, his younger brother Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) gets married to his pregnant fiancee Shobha (Jaya Bachchan) instead of his girlfriend Chandni (Rekha). However, things come to a twist when Shobha miscarries and is treated by Chandni’s doctor-husband played by Sanjeev. The reunion of Chandni and Amit fuels back their romance. The film was a landmark with soulful music and real-life affair between Rekha and Big B.
Arth
Starring Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Kulbhushan Kharbanda Arth brought to fore the extramarital affair with aplomb. Inder (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a filmmaker deserts his wife Pooja (Shabana) for Kavita (Smita) an actress. However, Pooja rises to the occasion and comes into her own.
Guide
Dev Anand’s and Waheeda Rehmaan’s film won a number of National Awards and remains one of Bollywood’s most iconic films. Raju (Dev Anand) and Rosie (Waheeda Rehman) begin an illicit affair even though Rosie is married to a much older guy named Marco. The film is a landmark not for the affair but for the fact that women back then were portrayed to have a voice in a relationship and could acknowledge their passion.
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