There is always pain, but Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota

He can feel no pain. He must learn to say 'ouch'. She lives a life of constant pain. She must learn to not flinch. Mars ko Dard Nahi Hota is a film of dualities and contrasts. Of how the world should be and how it is. Of the choices we make and how they define us even though many a times they're not conscious or within our control.

The lead pair, childhood friends and instant soulmates, are separated but continue to be tenuously linked through these dualities and eventually find their way back to each other.

Both have two father figures, one biological, one adoptive. Their biological fathers are weaker men, flawed although in vastly different ways. Their adoptive fathers are, at least on the surface, seemingly fearless and strong, teaching them to fight for themselves. But his fathers are both able bodied and loving, and he grows up supported and secure, able to embrace his inner strengths. Hers are both physically and emotionally crippled (even though at different stages of life) unable to give her the support she needs, and she grows up abused and traumatised, hiding her strengths and true power. Both have mothers that shape those choices  - his being a source of strength even though  dead, hers being a constant weakness even though alive.

Both want to fight cliched super villains but he can choose to do so, while she unwittingly locks herself into the cycle of abuse. And yet, they're both fighters, literally and metaphorically.

Her weapon of choice is external, a cloak to cover her, a noose or a veil. His runs in his veins, and gives life. He knows every muscle and bone in his body. Both have internal weaknesses - lack of a sustaining life force, but while he can replenish his strength with a quick drink of water, her dry well runs deeper and takes longer to fill up.

At the end of it all, they're both superheroes. These two misfits that somehow fit together. Through their journey they allow us to imagine how different life can be with or without the families we are born to and the families we choose for ourselves. It calls out and subverts our preconceived notions of strength - whether it be intangible like toxic masculinity, or corporeal, like what our bodies, with and without physical handicaps, are capable of. It is about rising above the pain, whether you feel it or not, and being the best version of your true self.