bhaskar saikia

This question often resurfaces whenever a movie depicts a love so intense that it borders on obsession—like in the movie Saiyaara. The film tells the story of a struggling singer who eventually becomes famous, but at the heart of his journey is the love of his life, a woman who later suffers from Alzheimer’s. His success, his fame, even his identity as an artist, are deeply tied to her presence in his life. When she slips away into the haze of her illness, his love transforms into something larger than love itself—it becomes obsession, because she is not just the person he loves; she is the reason he became who he is.

Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir explores a similar intensity. In the book, the protagonist’s wife, Esther, disappears without a trace. He has everything the world admires—fame, money, recognition—but none of it brings peace. His thoughts are consumed by her absence, and his love becomes The Zahir—from the Arabic concept of something so deeply present in your mind that it overtakes everything else.

Interestingly, Coelho has explored this theme before in By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. That story captures how love can fill a person’s entire being, turning life itself into an act of devotion. It shows how love, when it seeps into one’s identity, can become both transformative and overwhelming—sometimes blurring into obsession.

These works remind us that love is not always just about care or affection; sometimes, it is about what we become because of someone else, and when that person is gone or unreachable, we cling to the memory not just of them, but of who we were with them. That is where love can tip into obsession—not out of control, but out of longing for the part of ourselves that feels lost.

So yes, when movies like Saiyaara portray love that consumes and defines every action, they are not exaggerating. Love can turn into obsession—a powerful force that can elevate and undo us all at once.