Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge-The Braveheart will take the bride

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge—{The Braveheart will take the Bride}(1994)—Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, directed by Aditya Chopra. I had to post this today--today marks the 700th week that DDLJ(as it is know to the Bollywood crowd) has played a matinee at the Maranthi theater in Mumbai. Not only is it the longest running film in Bollywood (and I suspect Hollywood), it won major awards at its release.
This is the movie that took Bollywood from the craptastic 80’s into the big production ‘90’s! This was Shahrukh Khan’s first big romantic lead flick (he had done really bad guys up till now) and he is paired with Kajol for the movie that tops it all. SRK did not really want to do a romantic lead (a so called 'chocolate box hero'), and it took his buddy Aditya Chopra a lot of convincing to make him do this movie. This movie was Aditya Chopra’s directorial debut—and sets standards for romantic movies from this point on. This is a typical star crossed lover story that was popular at the time. What made this movie different, was that both of these characters were NRI (non resident Indians-Chopra realised that this was a great market to aim for). Raj and Simran both grew up in London--Simran's father is a very strict traditional Indian father. Raj's single, very wealthy father, has a 'buddy' relationship with his son. When Raj flunks out of college, his father suggests a cross European trip for him to decide what he wants to do with his life. Simran, however, has been promised from a young age, to a young man in her father's home village-she begs her dad to let her take a cross European trip with her friends before she heads to a country she does not know to marry an unknown man.
Well, as you can see, the pair meet--at first they do not hit it off, and a series of crazy incidents, makes Simran come to loath the freewheeling Raj. Well, the stars are with(or some may say against) them and they fall in love. Raj finds out that Simran is engaged, but that is not an impediment-he follows her to India!
Unlike many other movies prior to this, Raj does not wish to run off with his lady love-even when Simran's mother hands them her wedding gold and tells them to, Raj wishes to take his bride away with permission and consent. Raj sets out to woo the family —he begins with the women of the family. He ingratiates himself to the grooms family as well--well after much singing, dancing and fighting-Raj--the brave heart--takes his bride! This is such a wonderful movie that many tried to copy it, but not have come close.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

One film I have seen recently Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (A couple made by God) {2008}—starring Shahrukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in Aditya Chopra’s 3rd directorial work is fabulous!! Thse wonderful music is by the writing team of Salim-Sulaiman is at the same time heartwarming and heartfelt, and you will be humming these tunes for days!! This is wonderful, heartfelt story of a May-December romance will be the new ‘hero’ for Shahrukh Khan!! Khan, a mousy public employee of Punjab Power, is invited to the wedding of his favorite teacher’s only daughter. Khan sees Taani, and immediately falls in love with her—and since is to be wed, you can see his lonely heart break!! Well, tragedy befalls the groom’s family, and the shock causes his teacher to have a fatal heart attack, but not before getting Soori to promise to marry his daughter. Well, the shocked Taani marries Soori, and they return to Amritsar to begin a loveless routine. The joy and laughter that Soori fell for is gone from Taani—and this hurts him, but he has no idea how to make her happy. Well, a big city dance troop comes to town and offers lessons as well as a contest for the best dancing ‘jodi’ (couple). Taani asks permission of her husband, and he quietly agrees—seeing a way to maybe make her happy. Well, Soori enlists the help of his buddy Bobby and becomes an alternate persona “Raj”—who is funny, outspoken, quick witted (the total opposite of Soori!). Raj speaks in 'filmi' language! He uses tag lines from many of SRK's movies and is hysterical! Taani is happy, and Soori is besotted!! As the relationship between Raj and Taani progress, Soori is worried that she really loves the other ‘man’—and Raj then asks Taani to run away with him if she is not happy!! Well, true love finally prevails—and Taani and Soori realize how much they really love each other!! And I won’t give too much more of the story away!! I was lucky enough to see this on the big screen and it was WONDERFUL!!!! There are very few dance numbers, one of the best is the 'dream' sequence when Soori and Taani are at the movies. Taani dreams bits of old flicks, with Raj as the male lead (and all the women are SRK heroines!). The song lyrics are all film titles from the period being represented!! This is an awesome piece of film making. This will soon be the DDLJ of this generation--and SRK's new avatar--the ideal man, too bad more men can't be like Soori!
Here is an update--this film(as of April 16th, 2009) is out on DVD-it's extras include interviews that Shahrukh did of Anushka--as well as wonderful questions she asked him! I saw these interviews on YouTube, and my Hinglish is not that good--so I do hope that these have been subtitled, as I hope that the end credit commentary about the postcards has subtitles as well--this film is now on its way to me, and I will let you all know!