Dil Chahta Hai

The perils of working while watching TV – you open the laptop to write about something but end up writing on a subject on the opposite pole!

Dil Chahta Hai (DCH) – a movie which, 12 years after its release still rings a bell in my heart, for a multitude of reasons. It was the first movie to be released when I joined college. Almost overnight, all the Siddharths (and even the Sidhants) in my college were rechristened “Sid”, the Sameers “Sam”. I still remember, it had become a rage back then. One day, my friends and I decided to bunk classes and watch DCH at a theatre near college. That the theatre gave 20% discount to the students of our college was an added advantage! I was super excited coz it was my first movie in college life! We bought the tickets and 15 minutes before the show, I thought of informing mom I would be late. The moment I told mom I was out to watch a movie, she just went ballistic. It was my grandpa’s shraad that day and mom was furious at me for being an irresponsible teenager – how I had chosen to watch a movie with friends instead of coming home for the shraad. What happened next was even more embarrassing – the teasing by my friends, disposal of that extra ticket, and the comments next day in college. I stopped hanging out with that group after that incident!

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But that didn’t deter me from buying an audio cassette of DCH and spending long hours with my walkman headphones! Its funny that I still remember the entire sequence of songs on both sides of the cassette!

DCH also brought about a new wave in Indian cinema – that of Farhanism! The wave that continues to give us many such refreshing movies.

If you haven’t watched Dil Chahta hai, you have missed one of the best movies in Indian cinema. A movie that meanders around the lives of three friends – Sid, Sameer and Akash. Three very different people exploring life their way, yet very loyal to the buddy bonding. While life is a comedy of errors for Akash (Amir Khan), for Sam (Saif Ali Khan), the definition of love changes with every girl he meets. It’s only Sid (Akshaye Khanna), a painter who is shown the most sensible of the trio, though he too is infected by the love bug when he falls for a woman much older than him.

The movie begins in the waiting room of a hospital with Sid and Sam remembering the good old days. The story goes in flashback and many beautiful scenes follow. The farewell party of college where Akash creates a scene when he proposes Shalini (Preity Zinta); the fabulous trip to Goa and the roadster drive and the fish eating scene in the title track! (Coincidently, the movie also has Kiran Rao, aka Mrs Amir khan in one of the shots in Goa. She was assisting him with the movie back then.); Sam’s little affair with a foreigner who robs him in his own hotel room also leaves you laughing out loud!

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Sam and Sid discover love in their own style. While Sam, who usually finds love in every second girl he meets falls in love eventually with a girl his parents choose for him. But just like his confused self, love also comes to him after a lot of confusion. (And only after he dances in typical retro style to the song “Wo ladki hai kahan”…the song that gave us the famous “Bird dance” step!)

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As for Sid, he finds his love in Tara (Dimple Kapadia), a lady much older than him. Love is evident in his eyes as he makes a beautiful portrait of hers and takes her out for dinner on her birthday. But his feelings aren’t understood by his friends and even his own mother, for they fear the relationship wil die a natural death due to age gap and Tara being a divorcee with an alcohol problem. This even creates a rift between friends when Akash makes fun of Sid’s love.

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The friends go their own ways with Sid immersing himself into painting (after being rejected by his lady love) and Akash going to Australia to manage his father’s business.

Destiny, however has different plans for Akash. The same person who considers love a fallacy, eventually falls in love with a girl who is engaged to someone else. The scenes shot in Sydney are lovely (the roller coaster ride scene) and the director beautifully shows how a fun loving Akash slowly understands that thing called love during an Opera show, but prefers to hide his feelings under layers of humour. 

Pic source:Google search

Pic source:Google search

Eventually it is crisis that brings back the buddies together and they untangle the knots in each other’s life.

Pic source:Google search

The movie has awesome music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy that will make you keep pressing the repeat button! I loved every track, especially “Kaisi hai ye rut”, “Jane Kyon” and “Tanhayee”

Excellent direction, music, story and act, no wonder the movie won the 2002 National Film Award for the best feature film in Hindi.

If you have already seen Dil Chahta Hai, go for it and relive some beautiful old memories. If you haven’t, well you are missing something!