Love Stories

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 set in the school of Gurukul, where Narayan Shankar runs his school through fear. He teaches his students how to become great and successful men, bringing discipline into their lives. Raj Aryan believes in freedom of expression through music, and love being more powerful than Narayan Shankar's rule through fear.

Through the lives of three young students, Raj Aryan tries to break Gurukul's traditions, and bring love back to life.

Maybe the story is unrealistic, maybe the songs are not as original as they could be, but Mohabbatein works. Everyone who loves this film loves it for different reasons, because each story appeals to different people. For me, I felt some of Raj Aryan's dialogue so moving that I've begun thinking about the love in my own life differently. For some people it was Amitabh Bachchan who stole the film, for others it was the love stories between the youngsters.

I'm fairly sure, if you have ever felt true love and true loss, you will love this movie. It is a simple movie, just like love should be.

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.

The movie was one of the biggest hit in Bollywood and won some awards too. After all, it was a perfect entertainer "paisa wasool" movie. The length come out as as positive part. In India the more length is the movie the more "paisa wasool" it is. Especially movie like this, which is full of romance, drama, music and female body shows.

I love the music of the movie. It was great. Also the acting by the legends Amitabh and SRK. And as usual of Yashraj films, the filmography and camera work was great too.

The problem I have is with what exactly message the movie wants to spread? I feel that the movie is trying to say, love first other things later. Other things including discipline, your studies and your career. The "Gurukool" is an ideal school for the college students. The principle expects from them that they should only concentrate on their studies, their career, personal development and their future, at least for the time which they will be spending in this college. (Thats another problem. What kind of school is it? Is it after 10th or after 12th school? And if it is after 12th, why are they wearing uniform?) And to accomplish this he has some strict set of rules. (They are too strict, Agreed.) Now from nowhere a new music teacher comes to college (when the principle does not allow any cultural program in college, why at first place he appointed this music teacher?). Now the music teacher is a real romantic guy, who has done romance with the daughter of the principle, when he himself was in the same college. As this is against the rules of college, principal throws the boy out, and his lover suicides, as her father rejected her love. (This is far too stretched. What? No, it isn't. OK. Not far stretched, and can happen in reality.) And this teacher has now swore that he will fill the entire college with the love. Means he will teach the student the cheap acts of how to write love letter in more effective ways (like using 'Piple ka Panna' as letter), or bung the lecture to meet the girlfriends, and also by bringing neighboring girls to the hostel in absence of principal.(In reality, one of those girls will get pregnant in such situation.)By doing this he think he is doing a great thing for the boys and for the society.

By now, you must have understood what my problem is. They say at the end that a balance of discipline and love is required, but actually more weight in given to love, and the man with the discipline has negative shades in character. The next part of the movie is clear. These three students fail in their exam, or pass with the low score, and after college has problem in finding job, and very low knowledge for opening their own business. But the movie ends way before this happens.

It is good to give entertainment to the people, but then one should also pay the attention to what actually you are teaching. The movie which was released at the same time "Mission Kashmir" was having exactly opposite characteristics. The movie was having very less entertainment but gives out gives out good moral to the people. And again it is fact that "Mission Kashmir" flops and Mohobbatein was a great hit. Sometimes, things like these upset me for Bollywood. But fortunately now the Bollywood audience is also giving attention to the spirits of the movie. And hence KANK is super-flop, and Munnabhais are doing great in all parts.

Mohabattein was the first Hindi movie I ever saw. It was sent to me by a friend who is crazy for Shahrukh Khan.

My first impressions were, `WOW, this Shahrukh guy has a tremendous screen presence (but, yikes, what a profile!)' and `I love the old guy with the black hair and the white beard. He's too cool.' As for the movie itself, I wondered how in god's name anybody could enjoy that horrid cat-in-heat screeching which issued forth whenever that gorgeous young woman (Aishwarya Rai) opened her mouth to sing. And I found the interminable love stories of the three young couples to be boring, boring, boring. I spent all my time waiting for Mr. Aryan and Mr. Shankar to come back onscreen.

As for the story, I was completely out of sympathy for the silly idea that it's more important to spend your college years running around trees and going to dance parties with scantily clad girls than to be studying or going to prayer. As a westerner who has watched my own treasured Catholic traditions thrown overboard one by one for every goofy, modern idea that comes down the pike (clown Masses, anyone?) I was firmly on the side of Mr. Shankar: `I don't like change, Mr. Aryan!'

I've since learned that Amitabh Bachchan is like the Sean Connery of Indian cinema, and that Shahrukh Khan is known better for his manic, over-the-top performances than the quiet, mature act I saw in Mohabattein. (I cringe whenever he is referred to as `The Tom Cruise of India'…Tom Cruise can only wish he had Shahrukh's talent and screen presence. Sharhukh definitely would win that contest by a nose.)

But to be honest, I didn't like this movie much, and after seeing about 50 Hindi films since then, I still don't like it much. It has some great songs that are almost completely destroyed by the ancient, crackling voice of Lata Mangreshkar (sorry if I spelled it wrong), and I still can't sit through the endless love stories of the three young couples. ONE couple would have been plenty to get the point across, and it would have cut the movie by 45 minutes or so, which it badly needs.

As a person who grew up on the MGM musicals of the 40s and 50s, I have eagerly embraced Bollywood (but no kissing). And although I get bored pretty easily with the dancing around trees (it all starts to look the same), I just can't get enough of those Holi celebrations! Bring ‘em on.