Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge

Rachel Young

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, directed by Aditya Chopra, has been touted as one of the pivotal films of the Bollywood genre. After its release in 1995, the Indian film industry changed forever. A new recipe for Bollywood films had been introduced and the public craved more. The new style involved a central love story, the struggles of the main couple to fulfill that love, and a happy ending. There were greater changes than these, however. Due to increased technological access to the diaspora (Indian nationalists living abroad), film makers began to realize the opportunities at stake with the old Bollywood formula. In older films, such as Amar Akbar Anthony, evilness was often portrayed as being foreign, Westernized, and ‘modern’. However, with globalization, it became outdated to fear ‘Otherness’, and even threatened to upset Indians living abroad by attacking their lifestyle. Better still, wealthy Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) had funds to invest in Bollywood ventures, but needed to see more movies which appealed to them. Hence, new films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge featured NRIs as the main characters, a tactic which reached out to other Indians living abroad.
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge revolves around Raj and Simran, two young Indians raised in Great Britain. Raj is wealthy, very modernized, and was raised by his father. Simran is very traditional, having been raised by an overbearing and protective Indian father. Simran is engaged to marry the son of one of her father’s friends, but she has never met him and regrets that she’ll never have the chance to meet her true love. Before heading to India to get married, Simran is given permission to take a long vacation to Europe with her friends. She bumps into Raj on the train, who is also going to Europe with his friends. Simran hates Raj from the beginning, but due to a mistake that leaves the two stranded together for several days, they both realize that they are in love. Neither one confesses, however, and after her return home, Simran is immediately shipped off to India when her father discovers that she is in love. In India, the fiancé, Kuljeet, is a self-centered, hyper-masculine jerk who has no plans to remain faithful once he is married. Meanwhile, Raj follows Simran to India and hatches a plan to infiltrate Kuljeet’s family by posing as a good friend of the groom. Everyone loves Raj, as he is helpful, sweet, and pretty much the epitome of a good Indian man. Soon, however, it is discovered that Raj is the man Simran is in love with, and he receives a cruel beating from Kuljeet and his gang. In the end, Simran’s father realizes that no man could love his daughter as much as Raj, so he allows her to join Raj on the train and live happily ever after.
As mentioned before, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge focuses on Indians living abroad, and in doing so, created characters which upheld Indian traditional morals and values even while not within their mother country. For the first part of the film, Raj is very modernized: he wears Western clothing, treats his father as a friend, and pulls tricks in order to get beer. Simran, on the other hand, is more traditional: she honors and obeys her father, agrees to an arranged marriage, and avoids male temptation. Halfway through the film, when each realizes that they love the other, Raj’s character becomes more demur, honoring Simran’s chastity and stealing the hearts of everyone in India with his helpfulness and friendliness. In fact, for the later part of the film, Raj becomes much more like a proper Indian man than Kuljeet and his friends. This turn of events gives a strange feel to the movie; it has broken with the tradition of the villain being Western by bringing in a hero from England, and yet the native Indian bad guy is much more Western than the hero. Perhaps a complete escape from evil Western-ness was as of yet impossible. In fact, the final scene of the film, when Simran jumps on a train with Raj, off to start their new lives, the audience is unaware of just where they are going. Will they stay in India or return to England? This ambiguous ending can appeal to Indians living both inside and outside of the country.
The songs in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge are also wonderful. One to note is “Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko To Pyar Sajna”, during which Raj drives around Europe and Simran walks home from the train station. During the song, they both keep imagining that they are running into the other person. Raj and Simran wonder where they’re hearts have gone, while the apparitions tell them over and over that they are in love. Towards the end of the song, each character begins to realize that they are indeed in love, and that they had been imagining the other person because they miss them. The song ends with Simran bringing in her luggage when she reaches her house and, there on the doorstep is Raj. The two wave to each other and he leaves, just another apparition, while Simran looks on sadly, finally understanding how she feels. Hence, through the form of a song, the movie helps the audience to see into the minds and thought processes of the two characters as they attempt to understand what they are feeling. It’s a touching medium which closes the emotional gap between moviegoers and characters by drawing up personal memories in each audience member.
This is a fantastic film, full of wonderful songs, beautiful passion, true love, and a happy ending. It’s no wonder that the film has been such a success, with its diasporic main characters with their Indian hearts of gold. If the messages of the Indian motherland’s healing power and the importance of a happily blessed marriage don’t reach you, it’s worth it just to see the film for the sweet love story and to watch Shahrukh Khan run around with long hair.