After all this time ? Always...

Warning : Nerd alert.

Fellow (old time) blogger Nisha had commented on her opinion of Jab Tak Hain Jaan and how it failed to move her. After seeing the movie, I have to say I agree with her. A lot of people online talk of how awesome a love story it is. Try to talk about the most basic flaws ( the very premise for the couple's separation and the 'cure' for the second twist ) and they say - it's Bollywood. This is acceptable.

Only it isn't acceptable. 

I can accept that a man turns into a green raging monster called the Hulk.

I can accept that an ordinary guy finds out he may be the messiah within the Matrix and perform gravity defying acts.

I can accept that a guy is soon going to come from the planet Krypton wearing a blue superhero outfit ( though I am still skeptical after all these years as to why he wears red underwear on top of his blue outfit )

I can accept these simply because there is an explanation for these events within the given storyline of the above movies which claims to be about people with super powers. But in a normal every day world, I don't see how you can ignore such basic flaws of depicting love, especially when 90% of the Bollywood movies deal with love stories.

Which brings me to what I wanted to ask you : 
In your opinion, if you had to choose just one true expression of love ( either from a book or movie ) as an example which touched your heart the most, which would it be ?

For me, it is a very unlikely choice : a gaunt, villainous character whose motives we never trusted. A man who never got to even tell the woman he loved how he felt. A person who for six and a half books, made us and the lead protagonist hate him only to reveal at the end a stunning reversal of character. 

I am, of course, talking about Severus Snape from the Harry Potter movies. 

Having done everything possible to make us hate him ( including killing Harry's best chance of a defense against Voldemort - Professor Dumbledore ), there really was no way we could have seen redemption for him when the final book / movie released. And yet, in his final memories which he 'gave' Harry, we realise how big a sacrifice the character chose. 

Having lost his childhood love Lily to his school nemesis James Potter, he had begged Dumbledore to protect them when he knew Voldemort was after the couple. When that too had failed, Dumbledore had given him the task of surreptitiously looking after Harry and being a villain in his eyes. Dumbledore had clinically set forth a long term plan to defeat Voldemort should he return, knowing fully well that his plan would require the sacrifice of Harry Potter at some stage. 

But Snape did it for the purest reason possible - for the girl he had loved and lost. Even though Harry was a constant reminder of his loss in love, he protected him because of his love for Harry's mother, Lily. 

It is best manifested in the Patronus charms which reflect some strong emotion of the wizard who casts them. Lily's charm was a doe, reflecting her love for James ( whose Patronus was a stag ), Tonk's patronus changed into a wolf ( depicting her love for Lupin, the werewolf ). Harry's own Patronus charm was a stag, depicting his idolisation of his father. 

At moments when Harry was at his weakest, he ( and we as the reader ) would find a Patronus charm of a doe coming to his aid ( when he first faces the Dementors and later to find the sword of Gryffindor ). Like Harry, we too assumed that it was a manifestation of his late mothers Patronus in some form. It was only at the end that we realise that the doe was also Snape's Patronus. 

When Lily died, Snape's Patronus changed into a doe, depicting the strongest emotion of his heart even decades later - his selfless love for Lily. 

  

And that, for me, is the truest form of love that could be depicted. A love that lived on after losing the girl he loved to someone he hated. A love that persisted even after her death. A love he kept hidden even as he willingly allowed himself to play the villain for the public. An oath he took to look after the child of the man he hated... because he was also the son of the woman he loved. 

It is equally impactful, both in movie and text format... I still remember the audience in the theatre watching this sequence with pin-drop silence. In 7 minutes at the end of 8 movies spread across a decade, we find ourselves uncovering the biggest twist of the series - a love story that was hidden in plain sight all along.

“So the boy . . . the boy must die?” asked Snape quite calmly.

“And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential.”

Another long silence. Then Snape said, “I thought . . . all these years . . . that we were protecting him for her. For Lily.”

“We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength,” said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. 

Snape looked horrified. “You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?”

“Don’t be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?”

“Lately, only those whom I could not save,” said Snape. He stood up. “You have used me.”
“Meaning?”
“I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter —”

“But this is touching, Severus,” said Dumbledore seriously. “Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?”

“For HIM?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!" 
From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

“After all this time?”

“Always,” said Snape.

                                 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

For that one word at the end, Snape wins my vote for the truest form of love depicted ( both in the book and also as portrayed brilliantly by Alan Rickman in the movies. ) 

When you think of love in books/movies, which is the one character that comes to your mind ?


Author note: August 21,2013 - This has been submitted for the Harry Potter festival.