Some movies just grow on you. They might make a lot more sense to you and you could relate to them years later than you watched it for the first time. I saw Dil Chahta Hai when I was at school and I just felt it as an okay movie. As I made more visits to the movie over the years when I went to college , made more close friends , when we played pranks on each other , when we had our fights and when we finally parted ways,I started growing more and more fond of Dil Chahta Hai .Today it ranks among my top Hindi movies ever.
Javed Akhtar said in an interview that his son, Farhan after completing the script of Dil Chahta Hai ,gave it to him to review. Javed did provide some suggestions to which Farhan listened keenly but finally discarded them all. Dil Chahta Hai was Farhan Akhtar’s maiden directorial effort but he knew exactly what he was doing. When it released , it entirely revolutionized the manner in which urban youth movies were made in the years to come.
Just like DDLJ has been an inspiration to many NRI love stories you cant help but see shades of Dil Chahta Hai in male bonding movies like Rock on and Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara. Farhan even set the benchmark so high for himself in his first movie that he couldn’t match up to it at all in the rest of his movies.A lot of scenes stays with you forever. The sequences where Aamir and Akshay split in the first half and when they reunite back after years in the end are both precisely executed and instances of superb writing. Farhan even cleverly slipped in Aamir Khan’s much famous ‘perfectionism’ in the conversation when the characters patch up.My favorite moment is when Aamir Khan breaks down over phone to his dad after spending days alone in Australia and when he asks his son to return soon.Its just one of the several scenes in the movie that feel so close to reality.
Aamir Khan is today known for the high quality associated with his movies and his genius in choosing the right scripts. It all started back in 2001 when he had two amazing movies in Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai . Saif Ali Khan’s career would have completely trodden a different path if Dil Chahta Hai did not happen in 2001. He had perhaps the weakest characterization of the three but he made the best use of what was given to him. Akshay Khanna as always gave an intense performance. Its sad that we don’t see this talented actor nowadays. Dimple Kapadia was perfectly cast as the older divorcee and Priety Zinta was her usual bubbly self.
In a scene between the song ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, Aamir tells his friends that they should come to goa for a week every year. Akshay Khanna replies ‘Forget about coming to goa every year ,it will be even difficult to meet once in 10 years as we go in different directions’. In another instance towards the end , as Aamir Khan travels to his office alone in car, he sees a bunch of college kids having a great time and he just reminisces about his college days for a moment.
Anyone who finished college would be able to relate to these scenes and its moments like these that make ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ a truly special movie. It just takes you through a nostalgic trip back to that great time of your life called ‘College days’.
