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.
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