Laila-Majnu is a legendary love story of arabs. It is quite famous in india. In the movie “aaja nachle”, they enacted this story as a play for 15 mins. Movie wasn’t that great but this enactment was beautiful. Indian version of this story is quite indianized.
In original story of arabs, majanu departed from laila in teenage. He met her only once after her marriage to another guy. After departing from her, He wondered around in dessert and recited poems in her memory. She died after few years of her marriage and majanu died next to her grave within few months after her death. There was not much of drama in their story but more deeper symbolism.
In indian version, it is much more dramatic. Watch aaja nachle to see the drama. 🙂
This story was one of the inspirational tales of sufi tradition. Sufi tradition can be called a form of mystical Islam. In sufism, devotee is in love with God. He becomes one with God. His actions can’t be understood by real world people. In the laila-majanu story, Laila symbolize God. Majanu is devotee. Her husband is organized religion. He does weird actions which can only be understood by a true devotee. For example, he once get a chance to meet her alone after her marriage. Majanu could have touched her and be with her for a while but ,all of sudden, he runs away in dessert. Story doesn’t explain why he did so. Mystical tradition of sufism says that this can only be understood by a true devotee.
Isn’t it great that you need lots of historical background to understand these kind of stories, which on the surface makes little sense.
I don't know 