DDLJ

Allie Padnos
Screening India
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge film review
4/4/10

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) is the longest running film ever in India and was the foundation of extending Bollywood into the global industry. The first half of the movie is located in London/Europe. Simran is from a traditional Hindi family who truly values Hindustani beliefs. She is surprisingly granted permission to travel to Europe for a month with friends before moving back to India to fulfill her father’s request of an arranged marriage. Raj is the other main character who is a rowdy mischief-maker that did not graduate from school and lives a more western Diaspora Hindi lifestyle. He is effortlessly given allowance by his father to travel in Europe. DDLJ promoted Diaspora influences by representing management of Indian culture outside the nation state. Throughout DDLJ there are evident reoccurring themes of Diaspora, national identity, gender, and religion.
Simran and Raj meet on their adventurous month of traveling and gradually develop a strong interpersonal romantic relationship. At first Raj’s boisterous personality turns off Simran because of the clear contradicting values of modernity versus tradition. They end up missing the train to their next destination, which forced them to spend alone time with each other. During this period Simran learns more about Raj and begins to develop a liking towards him which eventually turned into love. When the month came to an end they parted each other and went back to their families in London. Simran was gossiping about Raj with her mother while Simran’s strict father was ease-dropping over the conversation. He was furious and announced that the family would move to India the next day and Simran would be married immediately. Simran did not want to be disrespectful but could not let go of the love she had for Raj. Meanwhile, Raj is hung up on his new lover and decides to go find Simran in India once he understood the new stipulations.
There is an important theme of gender in DDLJ, specifically a feministic premise. A feminist view is depicted in the scene where Simran and her mother are talking about Raj. Her mother tells Simran men will always have higher authority because that is Hindi tradition, and told her to she must sacrifice her happiness for the family. Simran agrees to fulfill her mother’s wishes because in reality she would not be able to achieve her goal of marrying Raj. After Raj and Simran found each other in India, Raj befriended Simran’s future husband and became part of the groom’s family throughout the wedding preparation. Simran and Raj’s sneaky behavior slowly unraveled to Simran’s little sister and their mother. Once the mother unintentionally saw the interaction between Simran and Raj she immediately understood the happiness and love the couple shared. She took them aside and disregarded her previous word, by telling the young couple their love appears to be inevitable and gave them permission to run away. Overall the movie transcends interpretations of the role of Hindi women from a traditional gender position to a westernized feministic view.
The second half of the movie is based in India, which demonstrates the pride in the nation state. Simran and Raj are quickly reunited and Simran suggests they run away and elope, but Raj is highly against this idea. For the first time in the film Raj directly expresses his Hindustani pride by refusing to get married without Simran’s father’s blessings. Throughout the film he has the chance to run away with Simran but continuous to disagree with her request in order to fulfill his duty of Hindustani pride. Traditional cultural values are reinforced throughout the movie verbally and nonverbally. The theme of religion is also present throughout the movie since there are numerous scenes of Simran praying which displays traditional values. Since Raj does not seem to understand prayer, he is once again representing a western view, but his willing to pray after he is aware of Simran’s religious activity proves his established Hindustani roots.
Simran and Raj’s deceiving relationship come to an abrupt halt when Simran’s father puts the pieces together and learns what is actually going on. His terrifying voice dismissed Raj and his father, which directed them back to London. Simran is heartbroken and is taken to the station with her mother, where they find Raj fighting with the future groom. The train starts to leave with Raj on board while Simran is hysterically crying in front of her family and friends when her father surprisingly realizes her love she has towards Raj and allows her to jump on the train. Overall this movie positively represents two families Diaspora’s, one representing customary Hindi values while the other depicts Hindustani beliefs through a more western take. Typical Bollywood film themes are directly represented in DDLJ, which are constantly managed and challenged.
The music throughout this film was simply wonderful. There was one song that replayed numerous times throughout the movie which represented Simran and Raj’s love for each other. The songs were sung with joy and were danced with pride and excitement. The songs represented love, national identity pride, culture, and much more. I thought the songs added intimacy of the family unit along with a plausible message of traditional roots. Overall the songs were genuinely authentic and helped illustrate the themes in this film.
I personally enjoyed this film for multiple reasons. I took great interest in the contradicting Hindustani views of tradition versus modernity. I also thought the feminist view added to our dynamic world. Tradition is extremely important, but in most cases it is inevitable to completely uphold all aspects since our world is constantly changing and taking on new ideas. The plot was constructed greatly since it had a deceiving relationship which held suspense. DDLJ is still an extremely popular film in the Bollywood industry and it is clearly understandable why the melodramatic picture maintains its notable status.