Dil To Pagal Hai aka what I am capable of watching for Shahrukh ;)

{FILM DIARY}

Dil To Pagal Hai (India, 1997)

Seen: Monday, 15th December 2008 (DVD)
Runtime: 179′
Polish Distributor: Epelpol (April 2008)
Director: Yash Chopra
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar (special appearance)
Production House: Yash Raj Films
Plot: Nisha loves Rahul, but Rahul doesn’t love Nisha. He loves Pooja instead. Ajay also loves Pooja. And Pooja is confused. In the end I guess it’s a film about how a lot of people are confused by love and friendship and what they should do when their best friend falls in love with them. The backdrop of the film are the rehearsals for a big song & dance stage show.

A Romantic Scene from the Film

Impressions In Short
My impressions in short are - I watch some extremely silly and formulaic films for the pleasure of watching Shahrukh ;-P

Some Details
I almost feel like foregoing any details ;-P Basically, if you’ve seen any 90s Bollywood romance then you’ll have a good idea of what this might be like.
The one bit out of the ordinary for me was the relationship between Rahul and Nisha (they’re best friends, Nisha loves him but he doesn’t love her back). It’s quite amusing because he almost treats her like a guy (she is pretty annoyed at him for coming into her room without knocking when she’s not yet dressed - to which he points out that she does the same to him ;) ). And it gets quite interesting when he has to deal with her being in love with him - or at least I thought so. The problem for me was that I just didn’t like Karisma as Nisha and that kind of ruined it *sigh*

Recommended?
IMO it’s nothing special. I think it’s only worth seeing for somebody who is already into Bollywood and specifically wants to see this for one of the stars or maybe the Shahrukh-Madhuri pairing (I like them together for example :]). Akshay is pretty good in this, but it’s a small part. Shahrukh is just playing his typical 90s romantic hero again and is neither brilliant nor bad (for a Shahrukh fan like me that’s good enough if you’re out of better films ;) ). Madhuri is like Shahrukh a bit repetitive and neither amazing nor bad (I think most Madhuri fans will be happy - at least I wasn’t too disappointed). Karisma I saw for the first time, so I don’t know how it compares to her other work :] I didn’t like her much though.
Overall you could do much worse when watching 90s Bollywood romance but I would recommend it only if you’re specifically into one of the stars.

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