No Spoiler but is rather lengthy and maybe too much detail for some people.
Hum Aapke Hain Koun, what can I say about it. I'll start with the fact is my favorite movie of all time. Why? I really can't say. Because believe me when I say that there have been much better movies made before and since it. I know this and yet this remains my favorite.
The story is quite simple, too simple some people say but thats not necessarily a bad thing. It's about Prem (Salman Khan) and Nisha's(Madhuri Dixit) love story. Prem is from a loving family and home, appropriately called Prem Nivas. Everyone loves everyone else including the servants and pets who are treated as one of the family. When Prem's older brother Rajesh's (Monish Behl) marriage is arranged with Pooja (Renuka Sahane), the oldest daughter of a Professor Chaudhary (Anupam Kher) and his wife (Reema Lagoo). The Professor and his wife are also school friends of Prem's kaka or uncle (Alok Nath) who has brought up the two brothers after the death of his sister and her husband.
During this 'rishta' Prem meets Nisha who is Pooja's younger sister. He immediately falls in love with her, but Nisha develops a strong dislike of him. What follows is a sweet and mischievous intercourse of jokes and pranks that they play on each other during the marriage ceremonies. While taking his bhabhi (sister-in-law) home, Prem apologizes to Nisha for anything he has done. Nisha is extremely surprised at his sensitiveness and also begins to like him.
Following this are many sweet sequences of how their love blossoms with songs aplenty in between. While the two are lost in each other and their new found relationship, fate takes a nasty turn as tragedy strikes both the households. Prem and Nisha find themselves in a delicate situation. And they call upon themselves to sacrifice their love and happiness for their families.
Music is excellent. No ground-breaking stuff nor any A.R Rahman genius of any kind. But it is entertaining, catchy and sweet and some numbers such as Didi tera dewar will remain in our memories for ever. Picturization is also excellent. Not one song should be skipped in the movie. Not even the two minute long babul song.
Performances are of course excellent. Madhuri Dixit excells as Nisha and completely convinces the audience as the sweet-hearted but mischevious sweetheart of the house. Nisha's character reminds me slightly of Rekha's Manju in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Khubhsoorat. This is Salman Khan's best performance to date. Even though I'm quite obsessed with him, I own that he is not a very good actor. But in this movie he is flawless as the sweet and lovable Prem. The rest of the cast was also well chosen, every single one of them from Pooja to Tuffy the dog. They gave us the impression of being a real family. Many movies since have used almost all the members of this cast for other family movies.
Direction is also excellent. Sooraj Barjatiya excells at romantic cinema. The scenes between Prem and Pooja and Prem and Rajesh show the love between bhabhi and her devar and two brothers. The sweet moments between Prem and Nisha are also fantastic as they hold your heart still for several minutes. The intricacies of love, from first attraction, to love slowly growing in a young girl's heart to deep understanding are shown with intricate and realistic detail.
The one letdown is the screenplay by Sooraj Barjatiya. Some lines given to Salman are embarassing, especially the english ones where the sentences are not sentences. Pretty sad for someone who has an MBA.
HAHK was a landmark in indian cinema for many reasons. First was that it was the first movies with no violence at all. The whole marriage song craze also started. First full-fledged family drama. Since then we've had many such movies and most of the audience has become bored of them. I think the last one of this genre we'll be seeing is Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. I personally love these non-violent family dramas, I don't think I'll ever get sick of them. Today, many people will say that HAHK wasn't a good movie, and I think it is because they have seen too many of the copies made after it. I still maintain that it's my favorite movie and that not only should you watch it but also own it. It is the Sholay of our times although I never liked Sholay :)
