Late Blog post: Of Love, Coffee and Chai

    I realize that the topic for this blog sounds bizarre but I’m going to try and rationalize it. Or better yet provide glimpses of why I thought that chai and coffee are intricately related to the idea of love/ romance in Dhoop Kinaray.  The first time Zoya invites Ahmar to her house, a cup of coffee and a candid chat with Baba follows. Zoya specifically calls Anji to make the coffee and Anji notices saying “kya baat hai, aaj tak itnay special tareekay say coffee kisi aur kay liye tou nae bani?”  The scene that follows shows Sheena setting the table but Ahmar does not show up. So ultimately Zoya’s coffee takes precedence over Sheena’s lavish candle lit dinner. Then there are the casual mentions of “chai piyo gi?”, “coffee piyo gay?” but we, as audience should not take the chai/ coffee business lightly. The scene where Ahmar goes out for lunch, with Sheena can be directly juxtaposed to the scene where Zoya and Ahmar “cafeteria main coffee pinay gaye hain” since both the events trigger the same emotion, i.e. jealousy in the women.

    Added to this is the all-important serious discussion that occurs between Ahmar and Zoya, when Zoya is sitting alone on a bench at the end of a garden and Ahmar comes carrying two cups of chai. He hands one cup to Zoya and what follows is a serious conversation about public and private space and Ahmar informs Zoya “aise bohat sari batain hain jo aap nahin jantey kay mujhe maloom hain”.  Chai as a motif persists even in the scene where Zoya tells Sheena the difference between “muhabbat” and “Dukandaari” since Zoya is shown to be busy with the electronic kettle when Sheena continues to talk.

          Even in the conversation that Dr. Irfan has with Zoya when, he, through puns and wordplay talks about Sheena as the “banjaran” to Zoya and warns her of Sheena’s manipulation (which Zoya says she doesn’t understand) he offers her a cup of chai first, “Hum nay soocha aap tou yahan hoon gi hi tou kyon na aik naiki ka kaam kar  k aap ko chai pila di jaiy”.

    Finally towards the very end when Zoya is shown to be extremely upset with the ghazal playing in the background Fazilat is worried and Zoya tells her that she’s not well to which Fazilat says “Apnay hakeem lukman Dr. Ahmar ko bula lo”, in order to avoid the conversation Zoya  says  “Fasi aik cup chai bana dain”.  And Fazilat exits saying “Hum say tou kuch baat mat karo, har waqt chai ka keh do bus”. Thus- as crazy as it sounds- chai and coffee are important in the presentation and development of the love plot between Ahmar  and Zoya.