A closet may mean different things to different people. And that is why DCH has lived on.Sid is an artist and his track is an accurate illustration of the ‘misfit’ that I was and the ‘closet’ that I found myself in. The audience didn’t know they were ready for a film like Dil Chahta Hai but Farhan knew. And watching Dil Chahta Hai, you can never deny the kind of guts that Akhtar showed releasing it at a time when films like Gadar: Ek Prem Katha and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum were breaking box-office records. Their reactions are natural, the situations normal, but Dil Chahta Hai is still exceptional.
And together with Akhtar, they have brought out one of the most relatable situational comedies of modern cinema. There is no second guessing the fact Aamir, Akshaye and Saif are remarkable in their characters as Akash, Sid and Sam. Aamir and Preity in a still from Dil Chahta Hai. Not in the coy, feminine kind of way that women are ‘supposed’ to, but in the way when we laugh your hearts out, like the way when a friend is duped of all his money by a Swiss blonde in Goa. Who doesn’t?” Even Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni) tugs the strings of our hearts when to Saif’s goofed-up proposal, all she has to say is laugh. And her practical approach to her situation is perfectly summed up in her dialogue, “But Rohit’s a good guy. She wouldn’t be in Sydney in the first place. Had Rohit’s parents not taken her in, she may have had a very different life. But it’s her strong character story that makes her act believable. In the very least, Shalini’s fiance is a possessive chauvinistic pig of a man. Talk about Shalini ( Preity Zinta) and Rohit’s (Ayub Khan) relationship. Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan at their Goa trip in Dil Chahta Hai.įor that matter, even the sub-plots and supporting cast of Dil Chahta Hai have been given huge attention to by Akhtar. But the best thing about these intertwined tales is that they are presented with the most non-judgmental and real lens there ever could be. Lastly, Akash ( Aamir Khan) is a non-believer in love and he doesn’t even realise when the special feeling kicks in for Shalini. The second one, Sid (Akshaye Khanna) falls for an older woman who is already a divorcee and a mother. The first, Sameer ( Saif Ali Khan) is always after girls, falling in love every other day (never vice versa) but he finds ‘the one’ in a girl already dating someone else. More so because the way these three friends look at love is very different. And that’s the thing about Dil Chahta Hai, it showcases Indian youth the way it is, moving away from the exaggerated and larger-the-life landscapes that Bollywood was accustomed to.Įven the love stories in this atypical coming-of-age are very interesting. Heck, they even manage to successfully plan a trip to Goa. Akash, Sameer and Sid share each other’s best moments but they also have a good laugh at each other’s goof-ups. It was everything we were or ever wanted to be. That were not set against the most unusual standards. With Dil Chahta Hai, however, probably for the first time, Hindi film industry saw friendships that were fragile enough to break at any point. Dil Chahta Hai was Farhan Akhtar’s debut directorial. Because till the 2000s, the paragons of on-screen camaraderie were Sholay’s Jai-Veeru and while their ‘sworn-till-death-do-us-part’ friendship was hugely entertaining to watch on screen, it was not something that the audience connected with. Or it could be the way Akhtar dealt with friendship. It could also be the film’s realist portrayal of the tiniest of moments in everyday life with no over-the-top shenanigans. So what was it in this romantic flick that made fans tick? It could be the flawed and relatable characters that Akhtar sketched with Sid, Akash and Sameer. But something about the film clicked with the audiences then and it continues to do even today. But who cared? Because on paper, a coming-of-age story about three bachelors faring through love, life and friendship was not new. The relatively unknown son of Javed Akhtar was releasing his directorial debut.
Going back to 2001, the new millennium had just began and Bollywood was just about done with the commercial potboilers that marked a major part of the 90s.
0 kommentar(er)
