Recently there was a discussion amongst my friends on what was the most emotional scene in a movie that made one cry. Lots of scenes came up for discussion, and me being brought up with a constant staple diet of emotionally charged Malayalam movies, found most of them just “theatrical”. But then someone said about the song “Meri Maa” from the movie Taare Zameen Par. Its been almost two years since the movie got released; but still the movie evokes tones of emotional overturns in everyone’s minds. I too had to admit that it was indeed one of the most touching scenes on a movie screen. People started recollecting their experiences while watching that song. One said that his macho instincts told him not to cry [for him crying is an entirely feminine trait], but was shocked to feel tears rolling down his cheeks. Another said he tried not to cry all the way, but then when this song came, he could no longer hold back his tears. He looked around in the movie hall just to see the all the people sitting next to him cry, after which it seems he let himself cry as well. He is certain that those tears well worth leaving, as it released a whole lot of pressure from within himself. The stories sounded similar for all of us while watching that song, but one thing was common – all of us cried at that moment, giving up the entire so-called male ego.

I too had a similar story to tell. Think it was the beginning of 2008 when I went for this movie at PVR, Bangalore. It was one of the last films that I went along with my best buddies AR and AJ [after a few months AJ decided to go overseas, thereby ending what was one of the most important activity amongst us friends – going for movies together]. We knew that this was a very emotional movie; and wanted to test our tear-threshold. All of us started watching the movie, and this song comes up somewhere in the mid-way of the movie. There were plenty of emotional scenes in that movie till that point, but all of us were successful not to let our tears out [we were keeping a tight vigil on each other to catch anyone crying]. And then this scene came. AJ’s brother who had seen this movie earlier had warned us that this scene is going to be very difficult to handle. And indeed difficult it was. It created an overwhelming wave of emotions inside me, like a tsunami in all its fury trying vent upon a coast. I could sense my eyes getting watery; but was not ready to get it corrected with my hands – as that would be a clear indicator that I am crying for AR and AJ. I tried withholding my tears; but deep inside I knew I was waging a loosing battle. And finally it broke the banks… a stream of tear came out of my eyes. I wiped them off with my hands in spontaneity. Only while wiping, I remembered the word amongst us. I was caught; and have lost out on the bet.

Now that I have cried, the next thing that came into my mind was to see if AR and AJ too have tears rolling down. If that happens, it would be a case where no one has won the battle. I was sitting between the two of them, and as I looked towards AJ, the answer came to me immediately “Don’t look at me”. I realized that he too was crying; ditto with AR as well. So the scene managed to break the banks for all three of us. I was relieved within to realize that I was not the only one who cried; and went back watching that song. That scene indeed was one very touchy one – especially the flip-book scene.

Many a times after that I had asked myself, why is that scene so heart-breaking. Almost always I came to an answer that it reminded us about our mothers. As we live in Bangalore away from our parents, the hectic work schedule used to hide that pain of being away from our parents; and when this song came up along with the lyrics, it wedged a sword of agony through our hearts. Indeed, our mothers are the ones with whom we are most attached. The umbilical chord that connects the mother and her baby surprisingly stays all through our lives – all be it in an invisible mode.