Mohabbatein

Put a legend, an icon, a star, and six fresh buds waiting to bloom all in the same movie and what do you get? Mohabbatein. Sure, the story is the oft-repeated tale of forbidden love, unappreciated lovers and the traditions that gag and bind us, but the all-star cast, the skilled direction, and lively musical numbers all contribute to make this a movie worth noting.

The setting of Mohabbatein is the Gurukul School, an elite school housed in a cold, uninviting, castle-like edifice. Narayan Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan) is the stern, disciplinarian and somewhat tyrannical headmaster of Gurukul who rules the school with an iron fist.

The story begins on a dark and quiet night at the local train stations where three young men, prospective students at the school, meet on the platform and set out on a journey that brings them closer together than they ever could have imagined. Vicky (Uday Chopra) is an athletic, energetic playboy type, seemingly unshaken by the harsh reality of the school. Sameer (Jugal Hansraj) is the timid and shy one with boyish charm and innocent looks. And Karan (Jimmy Shergill) completes the trio as the more mature, intense member of the pack.

The three lads are struck by cupid's arrow when they meet the three heroines; Vicky loses his heart to a rich and spoiled girl named Ishika (Shamita Shetty) while Sameer is reunited with his childhood buddy, the bubbly Sanjana (Kim Sharma) and Karan falls hard for the bashful widow, Kiran (Preeti Jhangiani).

As with every true-to-form Bollywood movie, their love stories are met with several obstacles, such as differences in class, no-good boyfriends, and familial obligations, but the most important hurdle in their path is none other than Narayan Shankar who is convinced that love is a pure waste of time. A glimmer of hope comes their way when a maverick music teacher, Raj Aryan (Shah Rukh Khan) sweeps into the picture and helps nurture their young loves. What follows is a battle of good and evil, love and hate, and sheer determination and conviction on both sides at the end of which … (well, let's not get carried away! Just make sure you have a box of tissues handy!).

Okay, this film stars Bachchan and Khan in a film showing a sort of clash between the two over practically nothing. The two do really well. Khan is very, very good in this energetic but relatively subtle performance, and Bachchan is imperious and towering in his pride. The two work very well together. But besides that, you have a story which is not very convincing and worse, most of it centers on the young stars and starlets and their college romances, with Khan given the task of matching them all up together. Instead of focusing on the ideological differences between Khan and Bachchan, Aditya Chopra makes them the background through a great portion of the film, turning what could have been a good drama into something that resembles a very cliched and boring high-school romance. This entire track lacks credibility. Other than Khan and Bachchan, the film has a beautiful Aishwarya Rai in a short appearance, and it is very memorable today for its magic track "Humko Hamise Churalo", sung to perfection by the divine Lata Mangeshkar, who was, hold on to your seats, over 70 years old when singing it. Unbelievable. It's a pity the film doesn't live up to this level, and just ends up being really overlong, and for no justifiable reason.

I have seen some good movies in my life but this one totally caught me off guard. I have never seen any character, in movies or real life that believes in love and the power of love as strongly as Raj Aryan does. Raj Aryan's character is everything that is good about mankind. Ironically it was a quirk of fate that made him the way he is, but nevertheless his character is most amiable. Amitabh's character is just perfect for him, something he is very comfortable playing. With the changing times, he had turned from the `Angry Young Man' to the `Angry Old Man' - he plays it wonderfully. One can actually feel his pain and sympathise with his character. The three love stories are the only loose ends of the movie but without them the overall movie would not have been able to take shape. If you believe in the inherent goodness of mankind then this movie is for you. It teaches us no matter what we do, love finds a way. But the real reason you should see this movie is because it's a real entertainer.

One of the best Shahrukh Khan movies I must say. I am not a Shahrukh fan but this has to be one of his best performances. I am not a Hindi movie buff, and I prefer watching English rather than the soapy Hindi movies but this 3 hour plus epic has to be an exception.

One of the prime reasons why I loved this movie is because the fictitious "Gurukul" is almost identical to my old school, Calcutta Boys'. When Big B says those words that "Gurukul students hold top positions in all fields in the outside world, due to the strict discipline" I am forced to think back of Clifford Hicks, our principal in the late 60's. He became nominated to the Parliament because of his fame as a stupendous disciplinarian.

Back to the movie, Shahrukh plays a music teacher, whose appointment is much to the displeasure of the principal of the school. Little does he know that he is the former lover of his daughter who committed suicide since she couldn't be with him. Her death drove her father to sheer rage that he drove her young lover a student of his own school, and stopped his education altogether, by refusing him admission in all of the contemporary schools.

Years later driven by his own passion and fuel, the young man returns to his old school determined to undo the wrongs that caused him so much misery and suffering. He learns of 3 such youngsters who had fallen in love to 3 different girls. He encourages them and gives them ideas of winning the girls' favours. This infuriates the principal and he stops all of them and even threatens to throw them out much like the fate of their music teacher. In the end this teacher reveals his true identity in front of the man who could have been his father in law. Suffering from grief and sorrow the principal breaks down and in the end love rules over discipline.

One of the best family movies for a long time, with plenty of comedy and emotion. Arguably the best performances of King Khan and one of the best of Big B. Overall its a must see for everyone. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you getting a DVD and watch it right now.....

Mohabbatein is the second directorial of aditya chopra after ddlj. Narayan Shankar (Big b) is a strict authoritarian running a school named gurukul with three rules- parampara,prateestha, anushasan. Meaning only focus on studies. Enters into the school raj aryan(srk), as a violin teacher who focuses on everyone to love. This irks narayan shankar and later it is revealed that raj was a former student of gurukul thrown out by shankar for loving his daughter meghna(aishwarya rai) who committed suicide after that. Raj has entered here to take revenge on shankar by turning his disciplinary school with love and romance. The story also focuses on 3 students of gurukul- Vicky (uday chopra), sameer(jugal hansraj) and karan(Jimmy shergill). Vicky falls in love with the neighboring school student ishika(shamita shetty), sameer is in love with his childhood friend sanjana(kim sharma) and karan falls in love with a young widow kiran(preethi jhangiani). Rest of the movie is how raj helps these boys and whether he could defeat narayan shankar or not. Highlight of this film is the faceoff of two big superstars itself. After several failures as a lead actor in 90s, bachchan decided to shed all his superstar image and become into a character actor through this film. Mohabbatein started a new phase for big b as what we see him today. SRK's raj is overly romantic. Both of their combination scenes are handled well. Among the three love stories, my favorite one is karan and kiran's only. Vicky and ishika one is childish and sameer sanjana one is meh. Today, none of the female lead actress could shine in Bollywood and in males only Jimmy is today a successful actor. There is also one side track of anupam kher and archana puran singh as the cliché sardar which is forgettable. Songs look good on screen. Production values of yrf are grand. But the movie is too long and far too unrealistic. On the whole, mohabbatein can be enjoyed if you ignore its unrealistic plot and if you are a big fan of these superstars.