Hello everyone.
I'm Sangeet and I am a film fanatic.
This blog is actually a project for a subject of mine and I will be updating it every week with reviews of our top picks of the Hindi cinema.
I have had so many people come ask me what Bollywood movies to watch, and I am here to solve that issue once and for all.
All the movies here are definitely worth a watch or more. To make your life easier, some of the trailers here are subbed with english subtitles by yours truly so you are welcome :)
For those 90's Bollywood lovers, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is an absolute crowd favorite. The main reason for that is notably the chemistry between the two main leads, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. Set in 1995, it was directed and produced by father and son duo, Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra. Being the highest grossing Hindi film of that year was not the only achievement this movie had. Just to give you an idea, this film still premieres in theatres in India up to of today (March 19, 2020) at the Maratha Mandir Theatre. In 2014, it was global news that DDLJ reached up to 1000 weeks playing in theaters. I know, its crazy. Today marks 25 beautiful years since the debut of this beloved piece of art.
This review is going to be a short one, as there is not much to critique on the movie itself. So, I am going to share what I think of certain parts of the film, the unforgettable hits and to end, and in between of it all what my survey of the movie says, so lets get into it!
A little backstory before we dig deeper, Shah Rukh Khan plays Raj Malhotra, a cocky, rich, has-it-all next door guy, whilst Kajol plays Simran Singh, a cultured girl who awaits love as well as her freedom to live to her own rules. Raj has no thought or worries about future and intends to live life that way. Simran, however fantasizes about the idea of love and marriage and happily ever afters. Both the characters are non-resident Indians that live in London and happen to meet each other as they both go to Europe for a vacation (of course). They meet as they travel the Europe tour (EuroRail) together for a month. It all begins when they coincidentally happened to miss their train to Zurich and were stranded in a foreign country with nothing but each other. I have learnt to embrace these coincidences in Bollywood these days. If I randomly got on a plane abroad somewhere, the odds of me finding my significant other is close to 95.238% if I were in a Bollywood movie. As wrong as that is in the real world, it still keeps me hoping.
I personally feel that if someone mentions this movie to me the first thing that pops into my head is a field full of beautiful yellow flowers. My first time to India, I remember seeing a field just like that up close and honestly, one of the best feelings I have ever felt. For those of you who don't know, these yellow flowers are called 'mustard flowers' also known as 'sarson flowers'. And yes, they look exactly like what you think they would.
The colors play a role in the magic this movie brought to me and the world. The storyline has a lot of mixed feedback from the crowd, to me, it was a delight. The first time I ever watched it, I did not move for at least 4 hours (3 from the movie and 1 trying to process the movie). There was no doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed it, however that was when I was 7 or 8 maybe?
Now, watching this movie at 19 brings up issues that may have influenced me as well as the billions of others that fell in love with DDLJ. Don't get me wrong, I love this movie so much as it was a huge part of my childhood and the I still listen to the music up to today, there were just some things that may have not made sense. One prominent thing was Kajol's character, Simran and her entire family. The way they raised their daughters in the family was with the culture of their religion flowing through their veins, knowing one day they would be married off to who they chose for them. That is not only an issue there, but still globally. Patriarchy was a bummer here. Conventional Indian ways of life are very normal to Indians, however from an outsiders point of view, they can be pretty ridiculous. For instance, there is a scene in the movie, where Simran's father tells her she is going to be wedded to someone whom she has never met and is in India, where she will live after the wedding. Instead of saying no, she agrees with whatever he says and keeps the grief to herself. Also, her mother, despite knowing her dreams of marrying someone she would fall in love with first, tells her not to have such dreams and there is even a scene where she apologizes because she cannot do anything about it, telling Simran times will never change and not to have any sort of hopes. That is actually very common to be in a Hindi movie, however it can also be seen as toxic, according to some viewers. Having children being raised watching such films instills stereotypes of women not having any freedom of choice at such a raw age. Now, it feels sad to know that some of us still live in such harsh realities, and is not just something of past ages. To me, its culture and will never be wiped off our heritage to have strict marriage rules, and very little regard to love marriages.
Another thing to sit back and enjoy is the familial love, which actually is a very inaccurate representation of the environment of a large extended family. It is a little bit on the exaggerated side (just a little). However, we Bollywood geeks have learnt to not use any part of the human brain to interpret these kinds of films that are just here to give us 2-3 hours of laughter and tears. The jokes and goofiness of having to stay with a large family sounds like a dream and a nightmare at the same time. After all the Hindi cinema I've watched I prefer to believe in the former.
Last but not least, when surveyed the main thing people think about when they think of this classic is, of course, the mesmerizing music. I don't blame them, these songs are definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. The dancing, the singing, the colors, the expressions, the backup dancers, the clothes, I can keep going. This is what keeps people coming back to this film. As twisted as it is, some of these are on my workout playlists :)
Some of the crowd's favourites include:
1. 'Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam' (Translation: Sweetheart, upon seeing you I haven learnt that...)
2. Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko (Translation: You have fallen in love)
3. Ruk Ja O Dil Deewane (Translation: Oh darling, please stop and listen)
That's the end of the review, I know alot of people have alot more to say about this movie, and I would love to hear it (good, bad and ugly). Make sure to leave them in the comments.
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