16 years ago today… Revisiting ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’
Release date: 31st October 1997
Director: Yash Chopra
*ing: Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar (special appearance)
As far as Yash Chopra movies go, ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ was the first of its kind. It was the first self-proclaimed musical to ever grace Indian cinema and no other movie has followed suit in quite the same way. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor in lead roles, the story surrounded a love triangle with the main theme of the movie being soulmates.
‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ is a story about a theatre dance group which Rahul (Khan) and Nisha (Kapoor) were a main part of. When, during rehearsals, Nisha gets injured, Rahul is left to look for a replacement for his forthcoming play, ‘Maya’. When he witnesses Pooja (Dixit) dancing to his beat in the studio one day, he goes about trying to convince her to take up the protagonist’s part. An uncanny similarity is seen between Maya’s and Pooja’s belief in soulmates and things become complicated when Rahul falls for Pooja, not knowing that she’s already committed herself to her childhood friend, Ajay (Akshay Kumar), and also without taking into account that Nisha is deeply in love with him.
The special and immensely evident theme that makes ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ so loved even today is the thought of a soulmate existing for everyone in the world. The roles were etched out to perfection and Chopra’s love for romance is shown with much confidence and finesse. Khan is at his intense best with emotions through his eyes which he is known for, Dixit appears as Chopra’s most beautiful heroine and Kapoor provides a more modern version of what Chopra heroines are known best for.
‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ is about a love that is rare, a friendship that is mistaken for love and characters that carry out actions and have feelings that tug at the audience’s heartstrings. The soundtrack of the movie is and always will be memorable, especially the Valentine’s day track Pyaar Kar.
What makes this movie special above any of Yash Chopra’s best is in the tag line, ‘Someone somewhere is made for you…’. The beauty of soulmates resonates and is sure to have inspired the impressionable generation when the movie released.
Today, 16 years to the day the film released, BizAsia give a salute to all involved for making a movie where the main notion will never die.
