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20 years on: How Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is continuing to weave magic

If only SRK and Kajol had made more movies together, maybe I would have returned to movie halls, more than I do now.
Updated 30 Oct, 2015

Once upon a time there was Sholay.

Then came Madhuri, who taught us that ek, do, teen were not just numbers.

Soon came the Khans, rolling on to our screens one after the other, like Gabbar Singh the villain of Sholay who became as much a household name as the heroes of the classic film, was really on their chase.

One of them soon became a badshah and his Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, became such a cult film that one movie hall in Mumbai continued to show it daily since its release. It has now been 20 years.


Circa: 1988. It was back to school after the holidays and everyone was talking movies. Not Michael Fox or Mathew Broderick, for a change, it was Bollywood.

Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak had been a big hit, its hero Aamir Khan the most handsome thing to have hit the heart of young Indian girls.

A year later, Salman Khan with his long hair and a pigeon as a costar walked into our lives and we thought ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ would remain our eternal movie crush.

Heartthrobs of the '80s.
Heartthrobs of the '80s.

Then came Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) and a red rose (even if it sprayed water) became the most prized possession, even if St. Valentine kept insisting it had a monopoly on all things red!

In some sense, it was our coming of age movie.

Raj was that typical Punjabi boy who had more money than brains. If you grew up in Punjab like I did, you would know that would pretty much be every second boy in Chandigarh or Amritsar, driving around aimlessly with blaring music in his fancy car.

But Raj also took us on a journey away from the ‘pind’ (village) and the ‘khet’ (fields).

He took us to faraway Switzerland and for the first time we saw, awestruck, those mountains with pristine snow and a countryside that looked like a picture postcard.

We must have really loved it because Yash Raj films decided we can’t get enough of it. So for the next decade, all the heroines were dancing on the same slopes of the Swiss Alps, in the same chiffon saris and we just wanted to drape a shawl and keep them warm.

Raj (SRK) and Simran (Kajol) also introduced us to romance in Bollywood. Not the rustic Sholay love that had mesmerised the audience exactly 20 years before DDLJ’s release, nor today’s Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt type of funky love.

Instead, it was more like the mills and boon stuff or fluff that we were reading hidden from our mothers in those days; although Raj was far from the typical tall, dark or handsome hero we wanted to swoon over! (Who would have seen that radical shift of a dream man on a horse sweeping us off our feet to our hero instead sitting on a ground feeding pigeons?).

On their journey, Raj and Simran showed us the Euro rail and we realised train travel did not always have to smell of parathas and pickles! (And that you must almost miss your train to win your man).

I visited Switzerland for the first time this summer. It was as beautiful as it was in the movies. The cows were grazing with bells around their neck (that Swiss cow bell also an iconic moment in the movie), the storybook houses were intact and I kept visualising SRK and Kajol driving by in that red car.

Until I reached Interlaken, where I suddenly expected to see most of Bollywood at every corner.

This is the city that Yash Chopra made his own and where a majority of his films were shot. A big sign leads you to the ‘India Village’ but more than that, this city honoured the filmmaker with the title “Ambassador of Interlaken’.

I was here. I could have had ‘that’ moment. Making a last minute dash to catch a train, I thought my SRK would stretch out his hand.

Alas, no music played in the background, nothing moved in slow motion. But sitting on that train winding down through narrow tunnels and stunning countryside, I realised Yash Chopra had got it bang on.

We were on our way to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe. Later I learnt, it was also where a drunk Simran runs around on the snow singing ‘Zara sa jhoom loon main’. No wonder, Indian food is easily available even when you are on top of the world!

But the song that still takes us down memory lane, ‘Tujhe dekha toh’, was shot as far away from Europe as possible. Those mustard fields of Punjab were probably Yash Chopra’s ode to his (and my) hometown Jalandhar.

My parents met him there once, and without hesitation he picked Kajol as his favourite. It has to be an honour, given the long prestigious list of Yash Raj heroines, including Aishwarya, Madhuri and Sridevi.

I haven’t really watched many films in recent years. In fact, it has been more than seven years since I went to a movie hall. But, I did get to meet SRK once. You can keep saying he has aged or over acts but his courteous demeanour made me feel like I was the real star.

And then yesterday, I saw the snippet. Kajol and SRK’s celebration of 20 years of DDLJ.

Those dialogues, Raj lifting Simran again, (probably a lucky mascot) there was magic in it, there is magic in them. And I felt cheated.

If only they had made more movies together, maybe I would have seen a few more. At least this December, after a long long time, I will be at the movies.

Comments

sana-2 Oct 30, 2015 04:03pm
I don't see anything special with this movie.
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Dude1 Oct 30, 2015 04:32pm
Thank you Jyotsna and Dawn for bringing DDLJ article to the world.
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guest Oct 30, 2015 06:25pm
Excellent, must have been fun to go the same places where so many of the movie's iconic scenes were shot. This film remains my comfort film, and reminds me of growing up in the 90s. It reminds also of my school friends, my first crush,but more than that, it gave me the hope that love could be so much more fun and exhilarating, and not something to be kept under wraps or conservative values.
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M.Saeed Oct 30, 2015 06:36pm
It definitely is the Titanic of Bollywood films !
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fayza Oct 30, 2015 07:21pm
I enjoyed the article....DDLJ is definitely a cult classic. One of my favourite movies and yes Raj and Simran do weave magic. Srk and Kajol bring it on! Waiting for DILWALE!
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azkhan71 Oct 30, 2015 11:38pm
Nicely written article about DDLJ. This is one of those many decent movies which you can watch with your family & kids without switching off the TV. Definitely DDLJ is an iconic movie and I wish bollywood can take a U turn and start making movies like DDLJ once again.
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Asif (Lahore) Oct 31, 2015 02:00am
@sana-2 - I don't know about you but i can tell you for sure that most of the Pakistani population loved DDLJ , at least my generation does and i am not sure if the newer generation had got the chance to see it if not then watch it immediately!!! This movie and Sholay are legendary movies of all time!
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Arun Oct 31, 2015 04:22am
A sequence of the song 'Tujhe Dekha To Yeh' was shot amidst the yellow mustard flowers in Gurgaon, Haryana (not Jalandhar)
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Shadab Oct 31, 2015 07:05am
We watched the movie in 1995 which arrived in Roll print first in Karachi/Pakistasn (Roll prints usually had few scenes cut). Movie was so good that we bought in roll print saw many times, then we bought master print (complete movie) then bought on VCD then came the DVD era and bought on DVD. Set MAX shown on an special occassion almost 15 years back, so we recorded on VHS as well. Songs were also purchased in all formats as well. We (Me and my cousins) love it so much till date.
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Manish Oct 31, 2015 09:14am
Hi.. to all my fellow mates in Pakistan.. I am writing this from India. This is first time i logged on dawn.com to check some other news but then i saw this blog. It felt so touching that you people have so much respect admiration for Hindi movies and especially DDLJ and people saying it as Titanic Movie of Bollywood. I just want to thanks all of you for making my day because this is first good thing happened to me today and thank you all . It feels good when goodness is bestowed everywhere. I hope i will get to visit Pakistan some day and experience the love
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Pune-India Oct 31, 2015 10:44am
DDLJ always remind my Childhood memories..
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kallan Oct 31, 2015 11:26am
Nope - sholay is the titanic of bollywood.
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Anoosh Khan Oct 31, 2015 01:12pm
Good movie; good old days; and great memories. A classic favorite!
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otm Oct 31, 2015 01:52pm
@ Sana and @ Asif: Sitting in my forties, I can admire the classics of Sholay and DDLJ. I was at my prime to enjoy them. But of course I do not relate with plenty of 50s and 60s hits. My parents do though. Nor do I relate with those from the last ten / fifteen years, but my younger siblings do. I doubt one can make such sweeping statements as "The world loved it, or the whole Pakistan / India loved" unless of course they are figurative statements. They were good, they changed the tract of cinematography and the taste of cinema goers, but that is perhaps where it ends.
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MJ Oct 31, 2015 06:46pm
Youth is indeed the greatest gift of Almighty to a human being ..
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veeran Nov 01, 2015 09:38am
After watching DDLJ, Most of the people came to know " This is the Switzerland and started to go on Europe Tour to see this country. Believe it or not but it is true. Check with All Major overseas Travel company organizers of India. Veeran
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Sanghita Nov 01, 2015 05:48pm
I have lost count how many times I have watched DDLJ. It's 20 years still no movie have replaced that place !!
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Dr Ballal Nov 07, 2015 10:32am
Ecstasy and nostalgia that's DDLJ.
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Dr Ballal Nov 07, 2015 10:33am
Nostalgic and moving article.
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