Breaking down the trauma in Gehraiyaan

Gehraiyaan is an attempt to narrate a deeply layered story. It takes a detour from the conventional Bollywood dramatic romance. A bold script, that largely addresses childhood trauma, family secrets, and most evidently, the darker side of love; the film has a lot to decode and process.

Deepika Padukone, who plays Alisha, carries the film to its end. She’s experienced acute trauma at the onset of her childhood, when she witnessed a suicide – that of her own mother. Her behavioral patterns even in adulthood strongly reflect the scarred images and experiences of her past. She utilizes this memory as a parameter of progress of her own life. Alisha is an emotionally damaged and scarred character who blames her father for everything that goes wrong in her life, be it her mother’s death, her dissatisfied and average education, or the vacuum in her equation with her cousin, Tia. Alisha strives to maintain a tough exterior, but her vulnerability and unprocessed trauma win out. Alisha often suffers from acute anxiety and panic attacks.

Zain too had a rather troubled upbringing, having witnessed brutal, physical abuse, firsthand. Zain reveals that his father struggled with rage issues, which resulted in a deeply destructive and abusive household. While Zain deludes himself into believing that he doesn’t identify with his father, the audience is well aware of his predisposition to anger issues.

On meeting Alisha, he shares this heartbreaking story from his past. Their trauma bonding creates space for an intense lust story, strengthened by exiting the moral compass of fidelity. Their intimacy creates an escape from their complex realities. Alisha clings onto Zain, tight, as she finds her safe space within him. Zain on the other hand, chooses to independently manipulate his existing variables (romantic interests) to abnormal extents to achieve everything that’s important to him, with complete apathy, and without questioning his consequences.

Both Tia as well as Alisha, being such heavily reliant characters, Zain is easily able to exploit the two while strategically victimizing himself under his circumstances. Tia is a highly insecure character, whose mental state is constantly manipulated by her mother. Her mother forces her judgements on Tia, which is why she grows up to be naïve and extremely indecisive. Zain views Tia’s insecurity and over-reliance in light of decision making as his opportunity of exploitation in order to deal with his corporate crisis.

While Zain tries hard to manage his anger, as situations begin to heat up, his triggers result in overtly abusive tendencies. His thoughts of hurting or murdering Tia, amplify his cognitive processing and toxic coping methods. In the end, his attempt to kill Alisha grips the audience as he is willing to act upon his bloodlust thoughts as well. Alisha’s childhood trauma sets into her present when she feels complete neglect from Zain. Her indulgence in self harm as a result, is fueled by feeling emotionally lost, broken and mentally burnt out.

Gehraaiyaan finds its emotional momentum in the last few minutes of the movie, in a wonderfully moving scene between Alisha and her father (played by Naseeruddin Shah). It’s a scene of wisdom and weariness, where her father gently imparts a life lesson about the importance of forgiving ourselves and others and letting go of the past.

The characters’ complex dynamics, brings its fair share of emotional baggage to its audience. However, the concept of therapy has not once been mentioned. Could the depiction of an environment that’s completely safe, unbiased, and free of judgement, to process one’s experiences, have been a great taboo tackler for the Indian community that’s so heavily influenced by mainstream media?