Bollywood Banter

DIL CHAHTA HAI (2001, d. Farhan Akhtar)

2001 was a big year for Hindi cinema. For the first time in over a decade, an Indian film had secured an increasingly-elusive acknowledgement at the Oscars in the form of a nomination in the ‘Best Foreign Feature’ category for Ashutosh Gowariker’s cricketing extravaganza Lagaan. In the same year, Santosh Sivan’s fictionalised account of the life of Asoka made tremendous waves at international film festivals and secured a worldwide distribution deal in the process. And while these two period epics had enough arthouse-esque elements to rise above the usual Bollywood fare and please the Western critics, 2001 also produced another stunning breakthrough film that not only was hip and modern while still being unashamedly filmi, but was also the best of the lot.

Dil Chahta Hai (’The Heart Desires’) is the story of Akash, Sameer and Siddarth - three inseparable college buddies with three distinct personalities. Akash (Aamir Khan), the wise-cracking slacker; happy to carry on with his two-week flings and to put off getting a job for as long as possible. Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), the dim-witted hopeless romantic; desperate to find love and settle down. And Sid (Akshaye Khanna), the misunderstood dreamer; a painter in love with a divorced mother battling a drink problem. All three graduates are entirely clueless where life will now lead them and as their lives take the next step towards an unsure future, so too does their friendship.

Writer/director Farhan Akhtar certainly broke the mould in terms of mainstream Bollywood filmmaking with this refreshingly contemporary, heart-warming film that is distinctly Hollywood in execution and Indian in spirit. His debut effort adapts the standard filmi conventions of musical interludes and family melodrama seamlessly to a Westernised narrative, eliminating just enough needless masala elements to please just about everybody. This truly is one Bollywood movie that can appeal to one and all with no cultural or stylistic stumbling blocks. Technically, ’DCH’ also just happens to be one of the most understatedly well-made and well-written Indian films ever produced. Direction, scripting, editing and cinematography are all first rate, while the performances from the three leads all deservedly went on to become award-winning. Viewing such a superlative piece of work like Dil Chahta Hai makes it all the more bewildering that Farhan Akhtar subsequently has since gone on to squander his reputation with two wholly uninspired and dull follow-ups; namely 2004’s dire war drama Lakshya (’Objective’) and 2006’s entirely pointless (but nonetheless box office-friendly) remake of the 1978 adventure classic Don. Topping ‘DCH’ will always be a difficult task, but these two didn’t even come close. Here’s hoping Ahktar manages to rediscover his filmmaking talents in the near future.

Cool dudes: Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan

Dil Chahta Hai is available as a bare-bones release on DVD from Elite Films in the Unites States. Picture and sound quality are both excellent, while the English subtitles are well-translated. Avoid the U.K. release from Spark Worldwide, which features an inferior print and numerous MPEG compression problems.