Brigadier Shekhar Sharma’s Abscence by Victoria Carter
In the central broken family of Main Hoon Na of Ram and his father separated from Lucky and his mother, Ram’s father did not have any good options when this bastard child showed up at his door. He could either lose his wife and baby, or abandon his new-found son. In my opinion, he chose the more honorable of the two.
That being said, I think he was disproportionately punished for his mistake. Yes, he was unfaithful, but should that really mean that he be separated from his son for his entire life? He is blamed for the fact that his wife has not slept for 20 years and has lived like a widow when it was ultimately her choice to leave. He is also blamed for his son’s ridiculous, rebellious tendencies; while again, he loved his son and wanted to be part of his life.
As a side note, Lucky is an interesting result of an absentee father that we have not seen before. He seems like a much more caricatured western idea of a rebellious child without a father with the long hair, ridiculous clothes, failing to graduate for 3 years, pulling silly pranks, etc.
It is then confusing that while Mrs. Sharma thought it was appropriate to cut Shekhar Sharma out of their lives, she still feels the weight of his death, as does Lucky. She cries over photo albums, while Lucky cries alone in his room.
I suppose it is just interesting to me that Ram is so willing to pay for the sins of his father, when it is Mrs. Sharma’s inability to forgive or compromise that most harms every member of the family for 20 long years. Though I suppose that is the message of the film: forgiveness and compromise are essential for progress, whether within a famiy, or a country.
Filed by torey413 at April 20th, 2013 under Uncategorized
I think I disagree on how their father was disproportionally punished if thats the word for not being having a child outside of his marriage. With that said Yes the father could have gone back and visited but Lucky and Madhu but maybe they would not have been satisfied. Continuing, I do think its ok for the dad to take the harsh blame for not being around because he hurt both of them, they were abandoned. Thinking of this as a real life situation, children suffer greatly when parents separate wether they still see the other parent or not. If that child finds out the separation was because their father has another son and chose to be with him he’s going to have great animosity toward him and feel unwanted like Lucky. Children tend to act out in situations like this hence Lucky’s rebellion. I do agree that Mrs. Sharma’s pain dealing with her suffering is kind of her fault by not forgiving. The father should only be accountable for cheating and leaving. I also think you make a very valid point on Lucky’s rebellion being more westernized and how Ram, yes he pays the sins for his father but I feel like the movie it was more about the mother forgiving than Ram suffering to bring the broken family together.
Comment by jdenn918 — April 22, 2013 @ 9:58 pm