You know how sometimes you’re reading a classic Russian novel about existential crisis, loneliness, ek tarfa pyaar and you suddenly think, wait a minute… I know this from somewhere.
That’s exactly what happened when I read White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a sad, four-night-long torment of unrequited love, hopeful delusions, and one very lonely man who just wants to be seen. Argh! The number of Nice-Guy-Syndrome and Friend-Zone memes I witnessed when reading reviews of the book had me roll up laughing.
As I finished reading, I couldn’t stop but think that the book reminds me of some Bollywood movie that I know of. It took me right about 5 minutes to pin-point, and then I started thinking of more movies that fit the vibe.
So here’s how White Nights gave me full-on Bollywood love triangle energy — five films that duplicate the emotional chaos in the book, and the dreadful “I love you but like a friend…” moment.
1. Saawariya (2007) — Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Let’s start with the obvious one. Saawariya is literally White Nights dipped in Indian ink.
Ranbir Kapoor plays our dreamer — an emotionally sincere boy with no real job, too many monologues, and the kind of romantic idealism where he falls in love with the idea of people. He meets Sakina (Sonam Kapoor), a mysterious girlwaiting for a man who ghosted her a year ago, but it’s fine because she was in looooove or something.
Blue lighting. Committment issues. Friend zone. Towel dance. Romanticising Yoon Shabnami.
Internal torcher.
2. Barfi! (2012) — Anurag Basu.
Love Triangle but with an ending that I’ll defend forever. Duh!
Barfi could have been White Nights if Dostoevsky had ended the story with the narrator writing back a “f*ck you” to Nastenka.
Barfi (again, Ranbir Kapoor) is in love with Shruti (Ileana D’Cruz), who loves him back but… doesn’t choose him. Because of: society, the pressure of getting married to somebody well-settled, fear of being judged, and a classic case of “I’m not brave enough to fight for our love.”
Meanwhile, Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra) — his autistic friend — she simply exists, listens, and doesn’t flinch when he does the “friendship test.”
And here’s where Barfi is different and breaks the White Nights pattern. P.S. This is also why I really really love the movie.
Barfi doesn’t stay stuck on Shruti. He chooses the woman who chooses him back. The movie really reminds me that unrequited love might feel romantic. But mutual love with mutual effort is revolutionary and real-life like.
3. Raanjhanaa (2013) — Aanand L. Rai.
If the narrator in White Nights had a younger brother who followed into his footsteps, it would be Kundan from Raanjhanaa.
This man is a walking friend-zoned character. He’s blindly devoted, and with absolutely no sense of boundaries. He falls for Zoya (Sonam Kapoor), who’s emotionally attached to somebody else. She keeps him hanging, he loves being hung on her.
And eventually, instead of moving on, Kundan decides to stalk, manipulate, and self-sabotage. He also rejects a female-version of himself throughout the movie, Bindiya, who is played by Swara Bhaskar. Opposites maybe attract, but similars definitely repel.
4. Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) — Akshay Roy.
Abhi (Ayushmann Khurrana) is the narrator of this movie. And like our unnamed protagonist in White Nights, Abhi is telling you the story of the girl he loved — and he’s not trying to win her back, he’s trying to just… let her go.
Bindu (Parineeti Chopra) is wild, she’s unpredictable, and she’s permanently commitment phobic. And the story is all about Abhi navigating his life around Bindu.
This movie was all about nostalgia, emotional leftovers, and a big What If hanging in the air. A heartache that will only come from romanticising someone who was never really yours.
5. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) — Karan Johar.
This one’s for every person who has experienced love as a one-way street and hasn’t been able to concretely understand why in the world have they been friendzoned by somebody they absolutely are in love with. Hehe, the best part of the movie is undoubtedly the Shah Rukh Khan cameo. And of course, we had to have emotionally disoriented poetry lovers.
Ranbir Kapoor (yes, again) plays Ayan, who falls for Alizeh (Anushka Sharma), his best friend and emotional support. But Alizeh is still healing from her own heartbreak, she’s still holding onto a past love (Nastenka-core), and she’s not ready for more.
The two of them turn out to be the version of each other’s person in the deepest way. They are emotionally involved, they are both vulnerable, they get each other. But the romantic love is not mutual.
Ayan saying, “Ek tarfa pyaar ki taakat hi kuch aur hoti hai,” made us all question if one-sided love was really worth the hassle. Or maybe, he was just stupid. Should have picked another girl to swoon over, hai na?
Lol, the heart wants what it wants.
Dostoevsky x Bollywood has been fun.
The emotional DNA of White Nights feels so alive in Bollywood: We have men who fall too fast. Women who are still in love with ghosts of boyfriends past. So many emotional highs and fleeting connections. Friend zones that hurt more than heartbreak.
Somehow, none of this translates into real life where we are instead constantly talking about red, maroon, black, beige — all colours of flagged people. Busy with labelling people so much that we don’t have time to process emotions anymore. Anyhoo…
What I have eventually realized is — whether it’s 1848 Russia or 21st-century Mumbai, the heartbreak of unreciprocated love remains the same — we simply learn to vibe to this pain in a club with new releases from Arijit Singh.
Now excuse me, while I go listen to “Channa Mereya,” look out into the rain, and sip on a cup of coffee, trying to pry open the darkest parts of my life so that I can cry about something. It’s just a monsoon thing. Lol.
Loved writing this post; thanks for sticking around.
