Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Farhan Akhtar

Writers:

Farhan Akhtar (story)
Kassim Jagmagia (story)

Release Date:

24 July 2001 (India)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Welcome to a summer of their lives you will never forget.

Plot:

The film is about three distinct characters, Akash (Aamir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) and Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna), their individual relationships and the effect that these relationships have on them.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Older Woman | Alcoholic | Divorce | Businessman

Awards:

21 wins & 36 nominations

Cast

Aamir Khan	...	Akash Malhotra
Saif Ali Khan	...	Sameer
Akshaye Khanna	...	Siddharth Sinha
Preity Zinta	...	Shalini
Dimple Kapadia	...	Tara Jaiswal
Sonali Kulkarni	...	Pooja
Ayub Khan	...	Rohit
Rajat Kapoor	...	Shalini's Uncle
Suhasini Mulay	...	Sid's Mother
Suchitra Pillai-Malik	...	Priya (as Suchitra Pillai)
Anjula Bedi
Rakesh Pandey
Samantha Tremayne	...	Deepa
Ahmed Khan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mandala Tayde	...	Deepa - Girl at Chapora Fort (as Manadala tayde)

Also Known As:

Do Your Thing (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

183 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | Urdu

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | India:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Excel Entertainment

Trivia:

Saif Ali Khan initially refused and was persuaded by Dimple Kapadia to sign on.

Quotes:

Siddharth Sinha: Take this sand for instance, the tighter you try to hold it, the more it slips out of our hand.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Rang De Basanti (2006)

Soundtrack:

Akash's love theme

Dil Chahta Hai - most appropriate title

This movie was released in the year 2001, the time when bollywood seemed to be in doldrums, producing one trash after another, the same year when another masterpiece "Lagaan" was released from bollywood and the year I finished my college and entered my first job and wow what an experience - it was just like a fresh breath of air.

The first movie by an unknown young guy Farhan Akhtar (may be known earlier because of his famous parents Javed Akhtar - lyricist in this movie - and Honey Irani) and what a fantastic job he did both in direction and script writing. For me, he did a great job by experimenting with a novel idea, moving away from the well established norms of the bollywood industry and not presenting yet again melodramatic bollywood plot.

The story revolves around three friends (supposedy born to very rich parents) - their relationship and their personal lifes - the guys with totally different natures and with their different meaning of life. However, the only thing that keeps them ever together is their never ending friendship.

The story is not so great, doesn't convey any specific message but it keeps you glued and is refreshing as many times you watch it. In fact, many of the college going Indian youth (and even from other countries) would be able to relate themselves with the three main movie protagonists.

All the actors have given very good performance. Aamir Khan simply reaffirmed his talent. He plays a prankster, who has knack of turning every thing into funny and the one who doesn't believe in the institution of love, but ultimately falls for it. For Saif Ali Khan this movie may even be called his re-birth. He plays a character who falls for every other girl, but is unable to express it when he really starts loving the one. Akhshay Khanna playing a bit mature and serious character may have seemed slightly weaker than the other two, but he played his character very well. This guy has a very different meaning for love and falls for an older woman. Preity Zinta looks amazing (as always) with an all different hair style. Sonali Kulkarni didn't seem so much at ease with the commercial cinema, but then too gave pretty good performance.

Music by Shankar-Eshaan-Loy combination was also refreshing and different from all that mushy mushy Hindi film music. The great thing about songs that they didn't break the movie rhythm and seemed more to be part of the movie's story.

In all, a must watch movie.