Dil chahta hai (2001)

दिल चाहता है

I first saw Dil chahta hai ("The heart desires") very early in my exploration of Hindi film, and I didn't fully appreciate it.  I watched again recently, about fifty Hindi movies later, and with that perspective I could see that it is a truly excellent film - I loved it equally for the ways it was typical of Hindi films and for the ways it was remarkably atypical.

At the core of Dil chahta hai is a buddy story, a look at the nature of friendship among slick, wealthy, urban young men making the transition from college life to real life.  Akash (GOAT favorite Aamir Khan) is an arrogant goofball with a heart of gold.  Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna) is sensitive and earnest, a brooding artist.  Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) is sweet but confused, giving his heart away foolishly and frequently.  When Siddharth falls in love with a divorced alcoholic fifteen years his senior (the fascinating Dimple Kapadia), he and Akash have a falling out that threatens to tear the three devoted friends apart; they separate for the first time since they were children, and each of them finds his heart, and himself, on his own. 

The film's take on romance is one of the aspects that is both typical and unusual.  Akash is a confirmed bachelor and a skeptic, and in tried-and-true Bollywood fashion, he falls in love and nearly lets his pride cost him the girl (Preity Zinta) before coming to his senses just as she is preparing to marry another guy.  Sameer's romance is pure Bollywood as well: love at first sight - with a girl his parents have selected for him!  But Dil chahta hai takes on that cliche with self-consciousness - the love song capturing Sameer's romance, "Woh ladki hai kahaan," is a delightful send-up of Bollywood numbers from the 50s, 60s, and 90s.  Siddharth's love for his downtrodden divorcee, though, is practically unprecedented in movies of this sort, and provides a satisfying counterweight to the broad levity of the other two storylines.

The film is more tightly scripted, better acted, and of better technical quality than many contemporary Bollywood films, and helped set the higher standard that has made the 2000s arguably a new golden age of Hindi cinema.  Still, because of my early experience with it, I slightly hesitantly recommend it to viewers new to Bollywood.  The soundtrack is unremarkable on first hearing, though some of the songs grow on one with time.  The first song, "Koi kahe kehta rahe," is an entertaining club number, and "Woh ladki hai kahaan" is excellent, but the first time I saw it I just thought it was cheesy, since I didn't know anything about the traditions it was parodying.  The second time I watched the film, coming back with a year's accumulated knowledge of Bollywood, I laughed uncontrollably through the entire song!

Comments

[Punit Pandey]

You have written an excellent review in extremely simple language. Keep it up.

[**emma** from BollyWhat?]

I keep hearing people say that Dil Chahta Hai doesn't make a good Intro to Bollywood movie, which I think is funny because it was the one that first made me think, "Hmm, there's something to this Bollywood stuff after all." Maybe it just depends on the person, because I've shown it to all my friends and only ended up getting two or three to like Bollywood as much as I do.

[Sanni]

I think Dil Chahta Hai is a good "relative newbie" film - the kind you can show to someone who has seen a few films already but is curious enough to watch some more. I showed it to a friend who I'd shown some really very risky starter movies, first DDLJ and then Sholay, and she definitely enjoyed the light romantic comedy vibe of DCH.

For me personally it was an intro to Aamir Khan, and an excellent one at that. It's rivalled only by AAA as his best comic performance in my eyes.

[Beth]

I need to revisit this movie. Soon. I saw it fairly early on too, and it grabbed me right away. It was also the first movie I bought - at a shop in Chicago's Indo-Pak neighborhood - and I remember how giddy and cheerful I was, clutching it happily as I skipped out of the store.

Re: the soundtrack: this is one of my favorite soundtracks in the context of its film - I think it is remarkably expressive and well integrated - but for me it just does not work on its own. I bought it but never listen to it because even my active imagination cannot conjure up the magic of the movie when all I have is the songs. Weird, eh?

Musical low point: the picturization for Sid's bubble song, which I will never dignify by remembering its real name, makes me queasy every time I see it.
Musical high point: "Woh Ladki hai Kahan," quite probably the most delightful picturization in all of Hindi cinema.