Opochi okoka obobi olola | DDLJ revisited | Under Lens

*WARNING: long post ahead*

‘Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge’ or DDLJ (as most people lovingly refer to it) is etched in our collective memories. For my generation it will remain a romantic pilgrimage of sorts. It is what launched SRK foray as the superstar.

So this last weekend I had a chance to watch DDLJ again. And then I watched again, and again and… you get the drift. There are many things/themes that I didn’t notice when I used to watch it earlier.

Let’s take character of Chaudhary Baldev Singh played by Ambrish Puri for instance. In my memory, character is a strict patriarch devoid of any care for his family’s feelings.  But if we look closely we see a man who is very nostalgic about his country and who is trying very hard to just preserve his culture. And he loves both his daughters, allowing Simran to go on a trip and eventually marry boy of her choice.

Also if you notice nearly all major characters, with a brief character sketch, are introduced in first 20 minutes of the movie. Within the song ‘Mere khwabon mei jo aaye…’ we are shown Simran is madly in love with her notion of innocent love, on the other hand Raj is the go getter, winning sports and ladies alike. In short he is a free spirit and she is little immature.

Both Raj and Simran are very close to one of their parents, Raj to his Dad and Simran to her Mom. They are their strengths who support them in thick and thin. One of my favorite part of DDLJ is oozing chemistry between SRK and Anupam Kher; and I still don’t understand one of my favorite dialogues between father and son , “Opochi okoka obobi olola”. Also the scene where Simran leaves when she reads of her marriage, Farida Jalal as her mother feels her disappointment and just turns around to agree with her husband that indeed Simran is shy. In that scene, whole equation of there is so beautifully and subtly put in front of the viewer. The scene where Simran’s mom tells of her sacrifices as mother, sister and daughter is beautifully written. Even in the end she’s the one who takes Simran to station and tells her to go before Ambrish Puri holds Kajol’s hand. Farida played the role of loving, strong mother who is constantly undermined by her husband.

Also interesting, is the way director has used characters for comic relief in second half, in form of Ms. Rajeshwari as the cute little sis; Kuljit as handsome but dumb Groom-to-be and Bua with her comic moments with SRK and Anupam Kher.

In first half comic timing of SRK is fantastic. His constant banter initially with Simran is what endears the viewer to the two characters. He delivers cult dialogues like, ‘bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain’, ‘Senorita’ and ‘I HATE GIRLS’ which just made girls swoon over SRK. Also dialogues like ‘al pacino, al kutto, al kamino’, ‘ab koi gadbad nahi ho sakti’ tickled my ribs yet again.

There time alone in Europe also reminds me of ‘It happened one night’ and ‘Dil hai ki manta nahi’. Talking of the first half, their trip seemed to me too short for 1 month. Seemed like 1.5 weeks to me. Probably the period of them rejoining their friends and finally departing constitutes the rest of the period.

Coming to Simran’s character, Kajol has performed it exceedingly well. Simran has been brought up to respect elders and look up to others when making her decisions. She is naïve, probably this is what sets her apart from other girls in life of Raj. About Raj what can I write that has not been felt before, he is the backbone of the film.

I also noted why Raj is sure about her loving him and Simran is not. The now iconic scene ‘palat palat’ tells him that she loves him but he never tells her that he loves her. When he does tell her, he himself says he was joking

In short, I as a viewer realized that DDLJ is not just only good story, great acting but also has superb characterizations. As the tagline goes … ‘Come fall in love…’ I have fallen in love with the movie … again.

Written by Ali Naqvi.