Of Love stories and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge
Before i proclaim one of these movies to be the greatest romantic movie ever made in Hindi Cinema, let me mention the ones which were in contention but somehow do not have that universal appeal or repeat value to be the number one movie
1. Mughal- E - Azam - The romance in the movie was very subtle, the dialogues flawless, settings enormous, performances towering. The impact of the movie when you see it can not be explained in words, however the bottomline is that it was/is tough for the average indian middle class person to relate to that kind of romance. An indian girl can't imagine herself to be Anarkali and a guy himself to be Salim.
2. Ek Duje Ke liye - The love story with a different climax. The movie where lovers who couldn't unite in life find love in death. Excellent execution of a simple story and the chemistry between Kamal Hasan and Rati Agnihotri is for their for everyone to see. However the movie was an average budget movie with some pretty ordianry supporting cast and actors. The lead pair and the director did an excellent job but the movie was just not big enough to be counted as the best ever in hindi cinema
3. Maine Pyar Kiya - Sooraj Barjataya brand of film making to the core. That genre of film-making makes all of us feel nauseatic these days.(Remember Hum Saath Saath hain and Main prem ke diwani hoon). However Maine Pyar Kiya was different. The movie was launched post QSQT and had two new faces Salman Khan (seen in Biwi ho to Aise before that) and Bhagyashree. Those two generated unprecedented excitement in the youth at that time. I can still remember one of my friends in school who watched Main Pyar Kiya 25+ times just to keep ogling at Bhagayshree. Salman Khan posters adorned bedrooms of all young girls. Archies was out with " Friend" cap and schools the only line you could hear was "Dosti kee hai nibhani to padegi". The euphria was tremendous however when i see that movie now 15 years later the movie and situations look a lot cliche. It still is right up there amongst the top love stories ever made but not the number 1
And finally my vote for the all time greatest romantic movie goes to DDLJ. Sure, it's a romance, (what is new we have seen that). And we've seen enough candyfloss 'boy flips for bride-to-be after it's too late to cancel the wedding caterers' movies.
What made this movie different was for once, an ultra urbane couple, Raj and Simran both bought up
in london decide to get married only if their parents allow them to. There was nothing like we will commit sucide if we dont get married or we will run away from our homes and blah blah blah too much melodrama.
Apart from this theme which forms the soul of the movie(as mentioned above) the first half of the movie covers some exteremely memorable fun filled encounters between the two main protagonists and this action is spread over some of the best locales in europe. This in someway appealed to every youngster and will continue to appeal to youngsters for some time. SRK has played the spoiled brat with utmost perfection, the twinkle in his eyes the filratatious attitude made many a guys his fan forget girls. He gives a fabulous performance, redefining the Lover for the 1990s with great panache. He's cool and flippant, but sincere enough to appeal to the junta. The performance itself is, like the best in the business, played well enough to come across as effortless, as non-acting. Sadly he has tended to overact ever since.
Simran was one girl every guy in every town/city of India wanted to marry. She was smart and ambitious. Her appeal was in her being conservative and yet sporting at the same time. And finally she was one girl who was willing to chase her dreams and most guys like girls who can dream because they themselves cant.
The film on the whole is made with great cleverness. All credit to Aditya Chopra It was a modern film with a different look, a feasible storyline, and lots of urbanity in terms of character and dialogue. However, it is crafted to be a blockbuster, and so there is a lot of pandering to the front stalls -- there's a gruff but essentially understandable Amrish Puri looming in the shadows, his hands veritable slapping weapons; there's the Welcome To Punjab song, Ghar Aaja Pardesi; there's the typically clichéd use of background score, rising to a raucous crescendo to coincide with heightening of emotion; and then there are the dragging bits of Ma-Beti dialogue, the only bits in the film that one is weary of after countless viewings.
The magic is in the balance. The film works because it treads the fine line between commercial and interesting cinema with an awful lot of flair. And it staunchly refuses to age. Multiple viewings bring out nuances in scenes, gestures, dialogue -- things we might have missed the first half-dozen times we watched DDLJ.
And then there are the little bits of detail that the director wisely didn't go into -- for one, I'm a firm subscriber to the idea that Raj snuck a peek at Simran's diary (probably the night she got drunk and he wrapped her in his white shirt), without which it would be quite unthinkable for him to mouth words like 'andekhe anjaane' (unseen stranger) to play at wooing her.
We all have our favourite moments from the film -- Raj's valiant AlPacino-AlPacino attempt at Europeanese; Anupam Kher's befuddled attempts at engineering marital bliss, unaware of the bride in question; Tujhe dekha to jaana sanam, when Lata Mangeshkar sang as gloriously as gold; an alarmed Raj stammering 'beer' instead of lassi to Amrish Puri; and there are women, I kid you not, who actually swoon each time Shah Rukh, driving a convertible during Ho gaya hai tujhko to pyaar sajna, runs a hand through his windswept hair.
The movie has broken the record of Sholay for maximum contiguous screenings in a theatre in Mumbai. 500 weeks and still going strong.
People like me can't just have enough of DDLJ and i am sure all of you who are taking the pain of reading this long boring article about some movie released 10 years back can't have enough of it either
1. Mughal- E - Azam - The romance in the movie was very subtle, the dialogues flawless, settings enormous, performances towering. The impact of the movie when you see it can not be explained in words, however the bottomline is that it was/is tough for the average indian middle class person to relate to that kind of romance. An indian girl can't imagine herself to be Anarkali and a guy himself to be Salim.
2. Ek Duje Ke liye - The love story with a different climax. The movie where lovers who couldn't unite in life find love in death. Excellent execution of a simple story and the chemistry between Kamal Hasan and Rati Agnihotri is for their for everyone to see. However the movie was an average budget movie with some pretty ordianry supporting cast and actors. The lead pair and the director did an excellent job but the movie was just not big enough to be counted as the best ever in hindi cinema
3. Maine Pyar Kiya - Sooraj Barjataya brand of film making to the core. That genre of film-making makes all of us feel nauseatic these days.(Remember Hum Saath Saath hain and Main prem ke diwani hoon). However Maine Pyar Kiya was different. The movie was launched post QSQT and had two new faces Salman Khan (seen in Biwi ho to Aise before that) and Bhagyashree. Those two generated unprecedented excitement in the youth at that time. I can still remember one of my friends in school who watched Main Pyar Kiya 25+ times just to keep ogling at Bhagayshree. Salman Khan posters adorned bedrooms of all young girls. Archies was out with " Friend" cap and schools the only line you could hear was "Dosti kee hai nibhani to padegi". The euphria was tremendous however when i see that movie now 15 years later the movie and situations look a lot cliche. It still is right up there amongst the top love stories ever made but not the number 1
And finally my vote for the all time greatest romantic movie goes to DDLJ. Sure, it's a romance, (what is new we have seen that). And we've seen enough candyfloss 'boy flips for bride-to-be after it's too late to cancel the wedding caterers' movies.
What made this movie different was for once, an ultra urbane couple, Raj and Simran both bought up
in london decide to get married only if their parents allow them to. There was nothing like we will commit sucide if we dont get married or we will run away from our homes and blah blah blah too much melodrama.Apart from this theme which forms the soul of the movie(as mentioned above) the first half of the movie covers some exteremely memorable fun filled encounters between the two main protagonists and this action is spread over some of the best locales in europe. This in someway appealed to every youngster and will continue to appeal to youngsters for some time. SRK has played the spoiled brat with utmost perfection, the twinkle in his eyes the filratatious attitude made many a guys his fan forget girls. He gives a fabulous performance, redefining the Lover for the 1990s with great panache. He's cool and flippant, but sincere enough to appeal to the junta. The performance itself is, like the best in the business, played well enough to come across as effortless, as non-acting. Sadly he has tended to overact ever since.
Simran was one girl every guy in every town/city of India wanted to marry. She was smart and ambitious. Her appeal was in her being conservative and yet sporting at the same time. And finally she was one girl who was willing to chase her dreams and most guys like girls who can dream because they themselves cant.
The film on the whole is made with great cleverness. All credit to Aditya Chopra It was a modern film with a different look, a feasible storyline, and lots of urbanity in terms of character and dialogue. However, it is crafted to be a blockbuster, and so there is a lot of pandering to the front stalls -- there's a gruff but essentially understandable Amrish Puri looming in the shadows, his hands veritable slapping weapons; there's the Welcome To Punjab song, Ghar Aaja Pardesi; there's the typically clichéd use of background score, rising to a raucous crescendo to coincide with heightening of emotion; and then there are the dragging bits of Ma-Beti dialogue, the only bits in the film that one is weary of after countless viewings.
The magic is in the balance. The film works because it treads the fine line between commercial and interesting cinema with an awful lot of flair. And it staunchly refuses to age. Multiple viewings bring out nuances in scenes, gestures, dialogue -- things we might have missed the first half-dozen times we watched DDLJ.
And then there are the little bits of detail that the director wisely didn't go into -- for one, I'm a firm subscriber to the idea that Raj snuck a peek at Simran's diary (probably the night she got drunk and he wrapped her in his white shirt), without which it would be quite unthinkable for him to mouth words like 'andekhe anjaane' (unseen stranger) to play at wooing her.
We all have our favourite moments from the film -- Raj's valiant AlPacino-AlPacino attempt at Europeanese; Anupam Kher's befuddled attempts at engineering marital bliss, unaware of the bride in question; Tujhe dekha to jaana sanam, when Lata Mangeshkar sang as gloriously as gold; an alarmed Raj stammering 'beer' instead of lassi to Amrish Puri; and there are women, I kid you not, who actually swoon each time Shah Rukh, driving a convertible during Ho gaya hai tujhko to pyaar sajna, runs a hand through his windswept hair.
The movie has broken the record of Sholay for maximum contiguous screenings in a theatre in Mumbai. 500 weeks and still going strong.
People like me can't just have enough of DDLJ and i am sure all of you who are taking the pain of reading this long boring article about some movie released 10 years back can't have enough of it either
posted by reshu at 1:25 PM
1 Comments:
Ur analysis of DDLJ was really nice
Its my fav romantic movie. The scenes are just so magical. I think every Indian girl wanted her BF to be like Shahrukh's character-naughty but nice :)
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