Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

I'm sooo in love with this movie. Its way better than Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or any other Hindi film or ANY film in general that I've ever seen! It's that good! I just want to recommend this to everyone ESPECIALLY if your a Shah Ruhk Khan/Kajol fan, they are awesome together. The whole supporting cast does a great job too- Put together with the beautiful direction of Aditya Chopra they turn a simple storyline of uncliched love into a heartfelt movie you can watch over and over again. Oh, and did I mention the songs rock too!

Srk-Kajol have worked in a lot of blockbusters together(Baazigar, Karan Arjun, KKHH, K3G) but DDLJ will always be recognized as their best to date. Debutant director Aditya Chopra so perfectly brings these two together at the back-drop of a realistic family setting that its hard not to fall in love with them. Its chemistry at its finest. For Srk it was his first "Raj" character(play-girl type guy with the right values and morals) which he plays to perfection. For Kajol, DDLJ was a career making movie. As Simran she's beautiful, sweet, sensitive and a bit stuck-up too. Thank god Madhuri didn't have the dates to work in DDLJ cuz no actress suits Srk better then Kajol. There are countless heart-warming scenes between em' in DDLJ. Each one of them is uniquely different and just as much fun to watch. The entire setting of DDLJ is very simplistic, which brings out that special "oomph" in their romance. The songs are first-class. The strong supporting cast of Amrish Puri, Farida Jalal, Anupam Kher and Satish Shah definitely helped the movie to become the classic as its now seen as.

Bottomline: DDLJ is 'romantic comedy' with Indian emotions at its peak. From the cast, chemistry, music, direction and the awesome pairing of Srk-Kajol....its perfect!

Dilwale made me glad to be a Westerner, just so I could experience the sheer rush in the glorious way this film simply throws its Indian sensibility in your face. It is one of the most completely, openly joyful films I have ever seen. In many ways a totally Western film, it is yet completely un-Western, and absolutely invigorating.

I found the (rather oddly looped in places) mix of Hindi and English dialog to be a lot of fun to follow (as incomplete as the subtitles sometimes seemed). The Indian/Western pop structure of the songs was entertaining and infectious. The choreography is simply amazing, and some of the most sheerly athletic I've seen. The Indian roots of the dance routines were at first almost unnerving--at once familiar yet bizarre, almost surreal (to my Western eyes). It was sheer fun making the cultural adjustment.

The plot is predictable, almost pedestrian--certainly not what you'd call "never done before," and yet I found myself completely absorbed in the story, and rooting for the main characters. This is in large part due to Shahrukh Khan's and Kajol's performances as Raj and Simran. He is totally endearing, and she is totally hot!, and their on screen chemistry is as cute & perky and smoldering & steamy as Fred and Ginger at their peak. It was, simply put, fun to watch them having so much fun.

Director Aditya Chopra was, I understand, only 24 when he made Dilwale, and the film was so successful its Indian first run lasted a world-record 11 years (and may still be going on, as far as I know). A heckuva testimony to Bollywood indeed. This movie has instantly become one of my favorite musicals, and I look forward to finding more films from Chopra, Khan, and Kajol. What a treat!

This was the top Bollywood film of the 90s and after seeing it I really can't think of one that was better. There are some that are just as good but I can't recall seeing one that's better. The story's pretty routine: boy meets girl in Europe, they fall in love, girl is engaged to some other idiot, and the rest writes itself... Sound familiar? Well it wasn't back in '95 (or even if it was it wasn't done as well) and Aditya Chopra's treatment of the story was a big reason for it's success. In every other movie the couple first wants to kill each other before falling in love. But in this movie it's slightly different and more plausible. Shahrukh doesn't want to kill Kahol - I mean Kajol - and she doesn't really hate him either, she just (like the rest of us) is annoyed by the guy. Their situations aren't that far-fetched and their Europe storyline is played out quite realistically (of course the piano scene is an exception). This was the beginning of the "Shahrukh plays Shahrukh era" and, for what it's worth, he hasn't made a better movie or given a better performance since. Sure there are places where he overacts but there are just as many places where he's able to hit all his cues. His comic timing was never better and there was still some sincerity in his eyes, a reminder of the fact that he was still an actor, which has since been replaced by the cockiness of a megastar. This is the movie that shot him to superstardom and put him alongside Aamir and Salman. Kajol is just as good (if not better), and I think after their next movie they'll win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The supporting cast is fine although no one really stands out. There are many moments in the film, most notably in the script, where you might feel a sense of deja vu. But keep in mind that this was the original, it's everything else that's a rehash. Bollywood headed straight for the sewer after this movie with almost all films, many of them starring Shahrukh, copying the same formula. Even at its 3 hour length the movie never drags till after the two-hour mark. I also want to comment on the film's Art Direction because it warrants a mention. Whether it's in Europe, England, or India, the movie has a very natural look to it. Unlike today's big films like Dil To Pagal Hai, or K3G, this movie looks good without trying to look good and I think that's a quality that's been lost on today's films. Too much attention is spent on the look at the expense of the story (if there is one!). The soundtrack of course is a classic, truly one of the all-time bests, with almost every song being a hit. The film won an unprecedented number of awards while breaking many records. There was a feeling that Aditya would follow in his father Yash's footsteps but regrettably the pressure got to him. He followed this up with the dreadful Mohabbatein which was slammed by audiences and critics alike. But so what. His first film was good, and with the current state of Bollywood movies - Devdas anyone? - you really can't get better than this.

I usually go for Bollywood films for the music-dance numbers. While this flick has a few good ones, I was mostly pleased with the plot. I liked the second half the best. I was very disappointed to learn from IMDb that this is the second of only two films done by Pooja Rupanel. She brought a lot of life and spark to a minor role - the female lead's younger sister. She should have done more films. Like any really good comedy, the story had its serious aspects - just enough to make the plot interesting. The stand=by Bollywood love triangle plot can be used as many times as one wishes as long as one has good actors, terrific musical numbers, and a few novel plot twists.