But there is still the problem of her being engaged to someone else, and Raj’s steadfast refusal to elope: he is a “Hindustani” after all, and insists that her father willingly “give” her to him. She also demands, and gets, treatment from Raj that suggests a companionate and egalitarian future relationship for the two. Though the story adheres to the convention of asking Simran to wait patiently while the menfolk sort out her fate, Kajol brings great spirit to the role and manages, especially through several conversations with her mother and sister and a remarkable manipulation of the women’s festival of Karwa chauth (when women fast until moonrise for the benefit of their husbands), to signal her inwardly steely resistance. Raj turns up and cleverly insinuates himself into the family, gradually winning over nearly everyone except Baldev. Though India is predictably idealized (just as Baldev remembered, there are vast fields of blossoming mustard amidst which pastel dupatta-ed damsels dance in perfect synch, and his friends and relatives live in mansions and appear not to work), the fiancé, Kuljit, proves less-than-perfect: a brawny and rather brainless Punjabi Hindu Princeling who accepts Simran as His Due, but is already thinking about future babe-conquests-plus he drinks more beer than Raj and even shoots pigeons. Part Two focuses on the protracted collision between the irresistible force of Raj and Simran’s love (which grows more plausible and appealing as the film progresses) and the immovable object which is Baldev Singh Puri gets many opportunities to deploy his patented bulging-eyed glare, but also to show some humanizing chinks in the patriarchal armor. He packs the family off to India, for keeps, the very next day. When she confesses this to her mom, Dad overhears and flies into a rage. Before the group returns to London, Simran realizes that Raj’s brash exterior conceals (a) heaps of musical talent (already a good sign), (b) tons of heart (getting warmer), and (c) True Love for her (bingo). The rest of the pre-interval segment is devoted to gradually getting Simran over her initial aversion to the overbearing, self-centered Raj (some viewers may feel she had it right the first time) this involves their getting separated from their companions in deepest Switzerland, a drunken cavort in a pool and snowfield (Simran gets drunk on cognac, and this too is permissable), and a near-sexual encounter that, naturally, stops short of compromising Simran’s virginity. Its different take on globalization and the diaspora, fine performances by the bouncy Shah Rukh Khan and the feisty and radiant Kajol, and superb medley of songs make this one of the most appealing of the romantic “family” films of the 1990s. These may have helped it to not only top the box office in India (where it also won a pack of Filmfare awards), but to become a huge hit among Indian communities overseas, to whom it finally gave some positive recognition. DILWALE, or “DDLJ” as the Indian-English press collapsed its unwieldy title, initially appears headed down the same road-as a sour-faced Chaudhury Baldev Singh (Amrish Puri) feeds pigeons in Trafalgar Square while yearning for the green fields of “my land, my Punjab”-but then takes a number of surprising and refreshing turns.
#Dilwale dulhania le jayenge songs lyrics full#
Remember when the West was a threatening place, where Indians perforce went to make money, but then the men surrendered their culture and the women their modesty? (In case you don’t, the trope may be seen at full tilt in PURAB AUR PACCHIM, 1970 it remains alive and kicking in recent films like PARDES, 1997). Story – screenplay: Aditya Chopra Dialogue: Javed Siddiqui, Aditya Chopra Music: Jatin-Lalit Lyrics: Anand Bakshi Cinematography: Manmohan Singh Directed by Aditya Chopra, Produced by Yash Chopra
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