Change Your Image
Reese Finn
Reviews
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999)
People change, and so does love.
When people mention HDDCS, they tend to focus on the stunning settings, the bright costumes and music which is at times light (Nimbooda), at times soulful (Tadap Tadap). All of this added to a wonderful and enjoyable movie with lots of toe-tapping and eye-candy. But they key to movie I think was the moral dilemma. A lot of people were disappointed with the way the movie progressed, and to tell the truth I was too when I first saw it. But I think the moral of the story is that there is more than one way to love someone, that you can love more than one person and for different reasons, and most importantly, that experiences change people and that relationships are constantly in a state of flux.
I think that Nandini's speech to Sameer was very much along the lines of what many Indian girls (though not exclusively) think when they reach a certain age, when their parents start looking around for potential husbands etc, a feeling of helplessness, that your life is going to be decided for you, that you have so much to contend with, and men have so little. Very touching because at the end of the day, Nandini was forced to 'grow up' (in a sense) much faster than Sameer was.
Karan Arjun (1995)
A touching story about brotherhood.
I saw this movie by chance one day on tv, luckily for me there were subtitles. ;) I thought it was great but most of this feeling could be put down to the fact that I've always been a sucker for this type of movie. (Ummm ... I'd say what type but this is the first time I'm commenting and am not sure if it'd count as a spoiler or not. :P)
I thought Salman Khan did an excellent job as the brooding Karan and Shah Rukh Khan (Arjun) was his usual energetic self. Salman and Shah Rukh click very well on screen together and have almost what I would call 'on-screen chemistry' - in a brotherly way of course.
I dont remember much of the music so I guess it wasnt particularly good, but the first song "Yeh Bandan" (I think that's what it was called) was *excellent*. The picturisation of this song was *very* sweet, very touching. Major criticisms would be ... the female leads wardrobes! (lol) And some rather fake looking special effects, lightning bolts and the like.
Karan Arjun is not flashy or overdone, not over-glammed, just sincere. Its goes down as one of my all-time favourites. Over-all, a great movie.