Jalebi 2018

Aisha, Rhea Chakraborty, is a budding writer and an independent, progressive woman from Mumbai who travels to Delhi with a friend to research for her upcoming book. She meets a local guide, Dev, and they fall in love. They marry, and a few months later Aisha learns she is pregnant. Dev is elated, but Aisha feels hesitant about motherhood. Dev convinces her, and they settle into a hopeful happiness, imagining a baby girl they might name Disha, a portmanteau of Dev and Aisha’s names.

Tragedy strikes when Aisha suffers a miscarriage, and Dev’s family blames her. Aisha feels humiliated and leaves Dev. A few days later, Dev and his family try to bring her back, but she does not return. She challenges Dev to meet her in Kashmir if he truly loves her, but he does not come.

Seven years pass. Aisha, still in love, calls off her second wedding and decides to face her past. She travels toward Delhi. On the way, she encounters Anu, Digangana Suryavanshi, and her daughter Pulti, and learns that Anu is Dev’s second wife. She also comes face to face with Dev on the same train.

During the journey, Aisha recalls their life together. She discovers that Pulti is not Dev’s biological child; Anu reveals that Pulti was sired by Anu’s boyfriend. Dev, however, had an immediate warmth when he first laid eyes on Pulti, and even before any marriage, he had one condition: the girl should be named Disha.

The train reaches Dev’s station. As they prepare to part ways, Anu thanks Aisha for giving Dev a life with meaning and tells her that she knows Aisha was Dev’s first love. Dev steps down and, at Anu’s urging, considers telling Aisha the truth about Kashmir. He confesses that he had come to Kashmir to see her but realized that she would not be happy with that revelation. He also shares that he has read Aisha’s novel many times. The embrace that follows is emotional, and both acknowledge that their destinations are different, yet their love endures.

Dev tells Aisha that he will wait for her next novel, and they part ways to live two different lives and two different destinies. A year later, Dev discovers Aisha’s new book, Jalebi, a novel that recounts, in fiction and memory, their shared love story.