Saurabh Shukla' Love in later life is just as beautiful

Mumbai, March 9 (IANS) National Award-winning actor and filmmaker Saurabh Shukla believes that love does not fade with age, saying that the feeling only evolves over time.

Saurabh’s latest release is “Jab Khuli Kitaab”, which follows the story of an old couple Gopal and Anusuya's decades-long marriage, which faces upheaval when a revelation surfaces. As secrets emerge, the family navigates emotions both touching and comedic, exploring love, companionship, forgiveness, and rediscovering one another.

Speaking about his latest project Jab Khuli Kitaab, the 63-year-old star told IANS that the film explores romance and companionship in the later stages of life, a theme that is still relatively less explored in mainstream Hindi cinema.

“When I was writing this script, many people in good intention asked me whether Gen Z or younger audiences would like a story about an older couple. But I never had a doubt because of the way the story is told and the way the characters are,” he told IANS.

Saurabh explained that the film portrays an elderly couple who appear to be leading a settled life until an emotional shift rekindles their youthful spirit.

“You see this old couple which is leading a perfect life. Obviously, with whatever is the tragedy of life, they are leading it, everything is settled. Then something breaks inside and it just moves the waves in their life, and they become like kids. They start fighting like kids.”

According to Saurabh, the characters may appear old on the outside but are youthful in spirit.

“They start expressing and their emotions come out of nowhere. So they are the youngest old people, you know. So I said, why youngsters will not connect with the story, because this is a story of two old-looking young people,” he added.

The actor also reflected on how romance in cinema has largely been associated with youth, while love in later stages of life has rarely been explored.

“Yes, see, we can't live without love, we always love. The expression of love keeps changing, and obviously, it's way much more physical when you're young because your hormones are jumping.”

He added: “So the power of hormones, the love that has a lot of physicality, a lot of things, a lot of haste, a lot of excitement, physical excitement, that is a type of love, and usually we connect with that.”

However, he stressed that the essence of love never disappears.

“But we never stop loving, you know. We keep loving. It's a beautiful, lovely, love feeling that when you open your eyes, the best person in this world is next to you sleeping,” Saurabh said.