Tag Archives: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Retro Review: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

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ddlj4 Stars (out of 4)

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In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, demure Simran (Kajol) takes a European trip with her girlfriends as a last fling before her prearranged marriage. But she falls in love with a mischievous fellow traveler named Raj (Shahruhk Khan) after they are stranded in Switzerland.

Raj must use every trick in the book to convince Simran’s father to call off her marriage — not an easy task considering Simran’s father, Chaudhry, is played by Amrish Puri, the actor best known in the U.S. as Mola Ram from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The song and dance numbers are memorable, and the acting is terrific. DDLJ‘s charming love story has made it the most popular Indian movie of all time. If you’ve never seen a Bollywood movie before, start with this one.

Movie Review: Dhoondte Reh Jaoge (2009)

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drj1.5 Stars (out of 4)

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Dhoondte Reh Jaoge is a boring, immature remake of Mel Brooks’ The Producers. Skip it unless you’re an avid Bollywood fan, and even then, keep your expectations low.

As in Brooks’ movie, a washed-up producer and a penniless accountant try to swindle their investors out of money by making a film guaranteed to flop. Considering that the duo spend the first forty minutes of the film trying to get each other arrested, there’s no reason for the two of them to work together — except that the plot demands it.

The pair hire a Pakistani nationalist to write a film with political undertones, certain to outrage the Indian public. The writer combines plot elements from Bollywood hits like Sholay, Lagaan and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge into an absurd story, further hampering the film’s chances for success.

There are a few amusing scenes in the film-within-the-film, such as the Lagaan-inspired cricket match ending. But the scenes are only funny if you’ve seen the movies being lampooned. The rest of Dhoondte Reh Jaoge is slow, and the jokes are more offensive than they are funny.

Save a few bucks and rent the original version of The Producers.

Movie Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)

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Rab_Ne_Bana_Di_Jodi3.5 Stars (out of 4)

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Aditya Chopra and Shahrukh Khan, the director and actor responsible for the Bollywood classic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, succeed again with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

In RNBDJ, Khan plays Suri, a mild mannered guy who fulfills his mentor’s dying wish by marrying the mentor’s daughter, Taani (Anushka Sharma). Though Suri’s older and less flashy than she is, Taani accepts her new role as his wife, with the caveat that she’ll never be able to love him because of her broken heart. Timid Suri, unable to show his wife how much he loves her, secretly invents a flashy alter ego named Raj in order to bring some joy into Taani’s life.

Chopra thoroughly explains the emotions motivating Suri and Taani, and Khan and Sharma perfectly portray the characters. The relationship between the pair is believable, despite the age difference between the duo (Khan is 43 and Sharma is 19). Sharma’s nuanced performance makes it hard to believe that this is her first film.

Cases of mistaken identity are often hard to pull off onscreen, but Khan looks and acts so differently as Suri and Raj that it seems totally reasonable that Taani wouldn’t know that the two men are the same person.

RNBDJ trips up late in the film during a sequence in which Suri battles a sumo wrestler. The scene is so long and out of place that it completely brought me out of the movie. While the scene intends to show that Suri would do anything to make Taani happy, I would rather have seen more examples of that interspersed throughout the film. Taani continually performs small acts of kindness for Suri, while Suri’s affection seems to stop after providing Taani with a place to live, only to rekindle during the over-the-top sumo showdown. Suri doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d  try to impress his wife with a big spectacle.

Apart from the one misstep, the movie is flawless. Chopra’s attention to detail is especially obvious during RNBDJ‘s big dance number, “Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte.” I’m almost always distracted by the background dancers in item numbers: one dancer is out of sync with the others, another is wearing an unflattering outfit, etc. No such worries, here. When I noticed the background dancers in RNBDJ, they looked spectacular. But most of the time, my attention was on the lead couple, as it should be.