This Mush. Review on Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

This is my favorite mushvaganza.

Ah! Glory be to those days, koi lauta de voh beete hue din when love reigned supreme in and I resorted to Shahrukh-Khanish techniques* of wooing my beloved (one example that comes to mind right away is the one when I borrowed HER brother’s cycle to meet her - I was sure that by doing this I had ensured that the saala wouldn’t be around when I was cavorting with his sister), wrote puerile sonnets in her honor and above all watched Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) at least 10 times (no kidding this).

Raj met his Simran on Euro-tour; I met mine on the campus. Raj and Simran fought with each other initially and then fell in love; we were polite and cordial to each other shuru-shuru mein, then fell in love, and finally fell out of it with a vengeance. Raj married his Simran and I presume is living happily ever after (with her of course); I don’t even know whether she is alive, and am living quite happily.

But yes, DDLJ will always remain a cult classic for me, for obvious and not so obvious reasons.

Let’s state the obvious first.

Ah! Pyaar, ishq, love, mohabbat, especially the chocolate candy variety, when depicted cleverly, can have an enhanced effect on dumbos like me. I was a chota shahar ka ladka who would always see an image of the latest Bollywood enchantress in his beloved. In 1995, SHE resembled Kajol, a.k.a. Simran. We saw the movie twice and each time I kept telling her, “See, her nose is just like your jaw line”, “Her jaw line is just like your nose.” She would harrumph harrumph in her seat and obviously never ever compared me to Shahrukh, a.k.a. Raj. “You’re too fat, you have a terrible sense of humor, you have a terrible voice, you can never sing Tujhe Dekha To … blah …. blah …. blah ….”.

But we agreed on one thing. DDLJ was a great movie and involved us with each and every aspect of the protagonists’ lives.

Raj (SRK) is not an alcoholic but asks beer from her Papa (Amrish Puri) who runs a store in England, much to the grumpy old man’s chagrin.

Simran, or simply Sim (Kajol) goes on a Euro-tour with her sahelis and bumps into Raj and his cronies (Karan Johar*, and Arjun Sablok). They fight and fall in love. Papa disapproves of this relationship and takes Sim to Punjab to marry her off a to a dost da puttar. Raj arrives, woos the family, woos Papa and takes away the Dulhaniya. All’s well that ends well.

In short, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge served the love potion in right measures.

Now for the not so obvious reasons

When the feel-good factor (attaboy Atalji) is so strong in a movie, things can rarely go wrong for it. The performances were first rate. Shahrukh was winsome in a jhakaas role*. Kajol was great. Anupam Kher was doing a great job those days as a guffaw-raiser. The others were adequate. The screenplay was fast, racy, and humane at the same time. The characters were real flesh and blood people. The music is hummable to date.

But this still does not answer the question, so why has DDLJ become an all time classic? Many films have all the aforementioned features but they do not achieve a fraction of DDLJ’s success.

I feel that Aditya Chopra inadvertently tapped the feel-good factor that Atalji and Co. are trying to propagate now. The Ram-rajya ethos was well propagated by Sooraj Barjatya in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?. Aditya Chopra further exploits the Hum …. Kaun to great effect here. In this movie, the young man takes a leaf from Barjatya’s book and refines it further.

Let’s look at it this way. What is the government trying to promote in its Feel Good campaign? That worries and economic pressures are things of the past; life in the BJP governance is essentially a bed of roses and things are bound to improve further. Raj’s father is a man of the soil who despite his NRI status has an abundant love of his land. He has toiled hard all his life to give his son everything that the lad can ask for. Therefore, the son has no real pressure. Raj is rich, talks the lingo of today’s urban youth and weaves rich emotional dreams. He falls in love and promises Utopia to his beloved.

The audience also falls for his hoax. It too starts believing in his Paradise on Earth motto. Raj for me is a symbol of general well being, a political symbol that the BJP is now trying to promote.

So, is Aditya Chopra a genius?

Naaah!

But watch DDLJ (that is if you still haven’t!!!) for all or none of the reasons I have mentioned above. The film is indeed fabulous.

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• Hope wifey does not read this review

  
  




• Yeh rishta kitna purana

  
  




• Aamir Khan deserved the Filmfare though for his cheeky portrayal of Munna in RGV’s rangeela.