Dil Se.. (1998)

The clash between love and ideology is portrayed in this love story between a radio executive and a beautiful revolutionary

Director:

Mani Ratnam

Writers:

Mani Ratnam (story and screenplay), Sujatha (dialogue)

Stars:

Shah Rukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta

Top Rated Indian Movies #170 | 9 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shah Rukh Khan	...	Amarkanth Varma
Manisha Koirala	...	Meghna
Preity Zinta	...	Preeti Nair
Raghuvir Yadav	...	Shukla (as Raghuvir Yadhav)
Sabyasachi Chakraborty
Piyush Mishra
Krishnakant	...	(as Krisnkant)
Aditya Srivastava
Ken Philip	...	(as Ken Phillip)
Sanjay Mishra
Mita Vasisht	...	Mita (female terrorist) (as Mita Vashisht)
Arundhati Rao	...	(as Arundathi Rao)
Malaika Arora	...	Dancer on train
Gautam Bora
Manjit Bawa	...	(as Manjith Bawa)

Storyline

Amar Varma, a producer for Indian news radio, meets an enigmatic woman at a railroad station and then again at a hill station. He falls in love with her, but the woman, who calls herself Meghna, rejects and leaves him although she seems to be interested. Later, Varma agrees to marry his family's choice, Preeti. But suddenly Meghna is back, and what is the secret that she holds?

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Plot Keywords:

love | radio | train | interview | delhi | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi Tamil Telugu Assamese Urdu

Release Date:

21 August 1998 (India)

Also Known As:

De Coração

Filming Locations:

Assam, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

India Talkies, Madras Talkies

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Tchaiya Tchaiya " was a cover version of " Chaiyan Chaiyan" by Olli And The Bollywood Orchestra.

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Quotes

Amarkanth Varma: [recalling his meeting with Meghna on the radio] It is night at the station... He was waiting for the train.
Amarkanth Varma: But the rains came piercing through the sky, the trees were swaying as if they had lost their senses.
Amarkanth Varma: Such was the fury of the weather, as if it would drown the world!
Amarkanth Varma: In the midst of this, he saw somebody on the dark platform... He yelled- Brother, do you have a matchstick?
Amarkanth Varma: A gust of wind blew the cloth off the stranger's head... a girl.
Amarkanth Varma: Dark black hair but little eyes. High cheekbones
Amarkanth Varma: A...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Saathiya (2002)

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Soundtracks

Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya
Sung by Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasthi
Composed by A.R. Rahman
Lyrics by Gulzar (as Sampooran Singh Gulzar)

User Reviews

A gem amongst the commercially-hyped bollywood "hits"

Even though this movie came out in 1998, the 1st time I saw it, was a few years back. This was because, at that time, it had received so much criticism that anybody who thinking of watching this movie, thought otherwise. But, while I was surfing the IMDb site, I had noticed that this particular movie had a high rating (considering the fact that it was considered a flop back then). So, I decided to see for myself how this movie was like, and boy, was I stunned..

Why was Dil Se a 'flop' in India? A gem amongst the commercially-hyped bollywood "hits"..

SRK's acting (as Amar) in this film was superb; at once we see a mix of his endearing boyish vulnerability, tenderness, and wild explosive impulsiveness that characterize the intelligence of this great actor. The transformation that his character went through was amazing to watch- from carefree arrogant pup, to an obsessed lover, to a desperate man, and finally to a dead man walking. It was a welcomed relief to all his other "bubble-gum" characters like "Rahul" in KKHH, K3G (I am not saying that he didn't act well in those movies. Its just that he remained the same, & at same time was boring compared to "Amar")...

Manisha Koirala's acting (as Meghna) was flawless. One minute she felt guilty about using "Amar" (by using the AIR {All India Radio} tag in order to get close to the President), while the next minute she didn't bat an eyelid when he was arrested. Her breakdown scenes seem extremely forced into the script, and the only reason why these scenes proved effective is because Manisha is an amazing actress. The sequence where she tries to cry but the tears won't come out is mind-blowing, and no other actress could have portrayed this scene so well. (Even though "Meghna" was portrayed as someone who was damaged emotionally with no recovery, the last scene when "Amar" asked her to say 'I love you', she just looked deeply into him and with the least possible motion, nodded lovingly – her eyes shinning with love for such a brief moment... Simply amazing)...

Santosh Sivan's cinematography was stunning. He flexes the visual muscle as the movie veers from the world's coldest lake to the inside of a monastery, and he's helped considerably by the eternal, undeniable beauty of this leading lady (sans makeup). As "Meghna" washes her face casually, we can see why "Amar" has fallen hard for her. For those of us who will probably never visit Ladakh, Sivan's images will forever remain in our minds....

Farah Khan definitely deserved the Filmfare Award for best choreography for Dil Se. Who can forget the dance in SATRANGI RE (incredibly erotic piece of footage - the two of them squirming in that red fabric.... Hollywood could learn some lessons here in how to be amorously sexy without being cheap or porno) or SRK's contagious energy on top of that train in CHAIYYA CHAIYYA or him tenderly protecting Manisha in the DIL SE RE?....

Music by AR Rahman is the soul of the film .The songs doesn't feel or look out of place at all. Dil Se is hauntingly done both musically and visually as well. This is all because of Mani Ratnam's direction. He told the story in the most human way possible- it is essentially a love story told against the backdrop of terrorism (also showed us the birth of the terrorist -- simplified to a great extent but neatly executed). Ratnam uses 'passion' as his keyword, exploring it on various (occasionally obvious) levels...

Overall, I think this movie will always be a classic and is way ahead of it's time. I am sure if this movie was released after 2002, it would have been a huge hit….