Ek haseen nigah ka dil pe saya hai,

Jaadu hai junoon hai,

kaisi Maya hai

The 1993 Bollywood adaption of Madame Bovary – Maya Memsaab – went largely unnoticed, or perhaps did not receive the kind of attention it deserved. I watched it again after decades (it’s on Netflix) and the romance is unmistakable. But it’s not the boy-meet-girl kinda Bollywood romance. It’s darker, deeper and sexier.

Set in a small town, it tells the played of one Maya, played by Deepa Sahi, a free-spirited young woman married to doctor, Charu Das, played by Farooq Shaikh. Bored and unsatisfied, Maya has a series of affairs. And her predilection for all things luxe, lands her in financial trouble.

One of Maya’s lovers is Lalit. A younger man who pursues her and pulls her away from another lover. That Lalit is Shahrukh Khan. To articulate anything about his character would be understatement. His eyes sparkle with the innocence of a young man smitten by a married woman. He is confused, yet obsessed. Lalit is a man in love, unafraid to pursue the forbidden fruit.

There is something so special about Shahrukh Khan in this movie, from the floppy hair and baggy pants to the elegant slicked back hair and grey long coat. He has this irresistible boyish charm that literally transforms her. She goes from wearing saaris to leather jackets. The chemistry between the two is unmistakable. They are hesitant, they are inexplicably drawn to each other and most importantly, they are irresistible to each other.

There was such joy about SRK’s character – young, energetic, even a bit frivolous. Everything that Maya’s husband wasn’t. He waits under her window every day to catch a glimpse of her. And everyone wanted a piece of that lover, one who could make them feel younger and more desirable. It was also the first movie where we saw Shahrukh Khan in a purely ‘romantic’ role. His earlier releases saw him playing either a crazed, obsessive stalker such as in Deewana, or an less-than-the-lead role in Chamatkaar.

Was Maya Memsaab where we started falling in love with Shahrukh Khan? Watching him jump on benches, bring flowers and treat Maya like a princess made women feel like maybe they still had a chance at love. There’s also the physicality of the love that SRK’s character offers. He runs, jumps, and dances for her – not things a good doctor would ever do. Now if you go to the 3.13 mark in this video, you’ll see exactly where those iconic SRK moves come from.

Although not the first Bollywood movie to show a smouldering love affair, Maya Memsaab broke barriers. The movie had a steamy sex scene between SRK and Deepa Sahi. At the time, it was so hot, it was removed from the original release. Legend has it that the movie’s director Ketan Mehta, also Sahi’s husband, suggested that she and SRK spend a night together before filming the scene so it appears more authentic on screen. Apparently, both actors agreed and the scene was shot the next with only Mehta and the cinematographer in the room. Wild, right? So deliciously forbidden!

But the movie flopped. Perhaps it was ahead of its time. Perhaps the narrative wasn’t well developed. I’m not going to claim that Maya Memsaab was groundbreaking for Indian cinema. But it did give us a peek into what desi romance could be like, and the man we all wanted to save us – Shahrukh Khan.