Zeher Hai Ki Pyaar Hai — Of The Garden of Eden

Today, I spent about three hours watching videos of Hindi songs from the 1990s. You can call me a loser who wastes his time in such silly shenanigans, but this was the most fun time I had in weeks. And, I do not know who the original author of the quote is, some say Betrand Russell and some say John Lennon, but they have said, "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." From the super awesome expressions of Sridevi in Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja to the unending types of background dancers, which include beggars, traffic police, women with raincoats and umbrellas dancing in the sun, women dressed like shaadi bandwallahs with pom-poms, constables, jokers and all possible cartoon characters in Ruk Ruk Ruk Are Baba Ruk to Suneeta Rao crooning zevar na sahi, nail polish leke aaja, saaree na sahi jeans pant leke aaja in the title song of Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge, there is so much nostalgia and pleasure in these songs, which remind of a completely different era. I was amazed by one particular song Zeher Hai Ki Pyaar from Sabse Bada Khiladi. I had no idea that that this song would force me to read on Adam and Eve. We all know Adam and Eve were the first man and woman created by God. The story goes that God planted a beautiful garden, the Garden of Eden. It had beautiful trees with delicious fruit — everything a person would need to eat. God took Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it, and told him, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Adam was all alone in the garden with no one to help him. So, God put Adam into a deep sleep and took one of his ribs and formed it into a woman to be Adam's wife. Adam named her Eve. A serpent comes and tricks Eve into eating the fruit, depicted as apple. She picked the fruit and ate it, and she gave some to Adam to eat, too. The fruit was called the forbidden fruit, and has been commonly used to describe something that gives you pleasure but is considered immoral. Now, the song Zeher Hai Ki Pyaar actually depicts this concept of the forbidden fruit. 

In the first few seconds, Akshay Kumar, with a teeka on his forehead, has an apple in his hand.

Then, dancers bring an apple with a serpent, like in Adam and Eve's story. 

So, to confirm again, we see a portrait of Eve with a serpent and an apple tree in the background. 

More apples in the background.

Akshay starts playing with the serpent and in a hilarious moment even scares Mamta Kulkarni with it.

And, since this is a secular film, his pelvic thrusts out gulaal. Just amazing.

The supercool masks of the background dancers and yes, more forbidden apples.

More biblical paintings and I have no idea who they are. Akshay eats the forbidden fruit, and in fact, the lyrics of the song zeher hai ki pyaar hai tera chumma — it is like the forbidden fruit, whether her kiss is like poison or love, he does not know.

Then, he does some more awesome pelvic thrusts.

Finally, he forces himself on her and kisses her as if this is all normal. Yes, blame the Hindu patriarchy for this.

And, in between, we see some really cool dance steps and lyrics (sample: tu na mujhe dasti, chadhti na masti), one has to see the song to believe it. 

How can anyone not love Hindi films? Next time, I will pick another song. Are there any songs of the 1990s that are so good? 

Dialogue of the day:

"Baap ke naam kaa sahara kaamzor log lete hai."

— Jugnu