Dil Chahta Hai

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Dil Chahta Hai
Directed by Farhan Akhtar
Written by Farhan Akhtar,
Kassim Jagmagia
Starring Aamir Khan,
Saif Ali Khan,
Akshaye Khanna,
Preity Zinta,
Sonali Kulkarni,
Dimple Kapadia
Distributed by Excel Entertainment.
Release date(s) July 24, 2001
Running time 183 min
Language Hindi
Budget INR 200,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Dil Chahta Hai (Hindī: दिल चाहता है, Urdū: دل چاہتا ہے, English: The Heart Desires, but billed as Do Your Thing) is a 2001 Bollywood film. Directed by Farhan Akhtar, it stars Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Preity Zinta, and Sonali Kulkarni.

According to fans, it broke new ground by showing Indian youth as they are today. The characters depicted are upper-class and cosmopolitan. They live in lavish houses, wear designer clothes, attend art exhibitions and performances of Western opera, and travel overseas as a matter of course. Some critics say that this is why the film did not do well in the non-urban areas; the lifestyle depicted was just too city oriented.[1]

The style of the film and its setting was well appreciated. One song sequence recapitulates Bollywood dance history; one song drops the usual dance accompaniment and establishes the character's state of mind through lyrics and a moody photo collage. There is an extended opera sequence and a song-and-dance inside a painting.

The film's style extended to the music, by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Many film fans thought that the music was fresh and different. The film was screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie tells the story of three friends graduating from college and transitioning into life as adults.

Each character has a different outlook towards life, and love in particular. Akash (played by Aamir Khan) does not believe in love and says that one should never keep a girlfriend for more than two weeks. Sameer (played by Saif Ali Khan) is genial, well-meaning, desperately romantic and confused. He is prone to romantic infatuations; he is convinced that he has found true love whenever he is attracted to a girl. Siddharth, or Sid, (played by Akshaye Khanna) is a painter. He is the most serious of them all; dedicated to his work and not interested in trivial romances.

Akash is not only a cad in his personal life (breaking hearts, proposing to a girl named Shalini in jest), but a mischief-maker in his friends' lives. He engineers a breakup between Sameer and Sameer's girlfriend, then proposes a vacation trip to the beaches of Goa.

Friends Sid, Sameer and Akash
Friends Sid, Sameer and Akash

Sameer, predictably, falls in "love" in Goa, with a pretty Swiss girl, a story that ends in disaster. He returns home to find that his parents have arranged a meeting with a potential marriage prospect. He resists as he doesn't want an arranged marriage, but the instant he sees the girl (Pooja, played by Sonali Kulkarni), he realizes that she is the one. Unfortunately, she already has a boyfriend. Sameer has to hide his unrequited love and content himself with her friendship.

Sid, in the meantime, is falling in love too. Tara (played by Dimple Kapadia), an older divorcee and alcoholic, moves into a nearby house. Sid befriends her and falls in love with her, even though such a relationship is considered scandalous in Indian society. Everything goes wrong. Akash's offensive remarks about this relationship create a rift in their friendship and Sid and Akash refuse to talk to each other. Sid's mother is horrified. Tara hears that Sid has quarreled with friends and family because of her and feeling that she has ruined his life, refuses to see him.

Akash is also experiencing romantic upheaval. His parents send him to Sydney to work in the family business. On the flight to Sydney, he meets Shalini again. She has no reason to trust or like him, but after they run into each other repeatedly, they both start to feel a certain "something." She presses him to tell her how he feels; he refuses. She then declares that she is returning to India to marry Rohit, her fiance. Akash lets her go, then realizes that he can't live without her.

Akash returns to India to win Shalini back. He proposes to her at her wedding, and in a nod to Bollywood tradition, she accepts with the blessing of her parents.

Meanwhile, Sameer and Pooja fall in love after she dumps her boyfriend.

Sid's story is more tragic. Tara is hospitalized with cirrhosis, and even though Sameer engineers a reconciliation between Sid and Akash, she dies with Sid at her bedside. 6 months later, the 3 friends regroup in Goa where Sid meets a new girl. They share a smile and Sid realizes that life goes on.

[edit] Cast

Aamir Khan as Akash and Preity Zinta as Shalini
Aamir Khan as Akash and Preity Zinta as Shalini

[edit] Awards

[edit] National Film Awards

[edit] 2002 Filmfare Awards

The film was nominated for thirteen Filmfare Awards. The awards it won and nominated for are listed below:

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

[edit] Soundtrack

Dil Chahta Haialbum
Dil Chahta Haialbum cover
Studio album by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Released
2001 (India)
Genre Feature film soundtrack


The soundtrack features 8 numbers composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

The movie also plays briefly the english song, Desert Rose by Sting.

[edit] Quotes

  • Yaar main ussey darta nahin hoon, I love her. Aur main ussey dukh nahin pahunchana chahta (Translation: Dude, I'm not afraid of her, I love her. And I just don't want to make her sad.) - Sameer (Saif Ali Khan)
  • Meri maan, kisi ko kuch mat bata; Tera koi bharosa nahin; Aaj Puja, kal koi duja (Translation: Listen to me, don't tell anyone anything. There's no telling with you — today Pooja, tomorrow someone else.) - Akash (Aamir Khan)
  • Tu kabhi nahi sudhrega (Translation: You will never change, for the better.)- Sid (Akshaye Khanna)
  • Waise bhi perfection ko improve karna bahut mushkil hai (Translation: Anyway it is very hard to improve upon perfection.)- Akash (Aamir Khan) .... in response to the line above
  • Pyaar kiya nahi jaatha ..bus ho jatha hai (Translation: Love cannot be done..it just happens)- Shalini (Preity Zinta)
  • Hum teeno Sydney ja rahe hain; tum, main aur yeh plane (Translation: We three are going to Sydney; you, me and this plane)- Akash (Aamir Khan)
  • Cake khane ke liye humlog kaheen bhi jaa sakte hai (Translation: We will go anywhere to eat cake.) - Sameer (Saif Ali Khan)
  • Zindagi mein ek aisa waqt aata hai, jab humey saccha pyaar ho jatha hai, par yeh sab jo tu keh raha hai na yeh 10, 15 saal mujhse badi aur yeh sab.... yeh koi maanya nahin rakhta. Sab chote lagne lagtey hain (Translation: In life, there comes a time when we experience true love but all this stuff you're saying about the age difference of 10 to 15 years and all that... has no value. It all seems very small.) - Sid (Akshaye Khanna)
  • Tum jaante ho na ki tum bilkul paagal ho? (Translation: You do know that you're completely insane right?) - Shalini (Preity Zinta)
  • Ya to bahut gahri dosti hai, ya yeh photo 3-D hai. Sorry, bad joke. (Translation: Either our friendship is really deep, or that photo is 3-D. Sorry, bad joke. -Sameer (Saif Ali Khan)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gulzar; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterjee, Saibal (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema. Encyclopaedia Britannica (India) Pvt Ltd., p. 128. ISBN 8179910660. 
  2. ^ 2005 Filmfare Award winners on India TImes

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Halo
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie
2002
Succeeded by
The Legend of Bhagat Singh