What Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge Did For Us, 29 Years Ago !

"Jaa Simran jee le apni zindagi." "Bade bade Shehron mein aisi chhoti chhoti batein hoti rehti hai." How many of us still use these lines in our daily conversation? I'm sure many of us who came of age in the '90s related to the film even more than the generation before us and the one after.

Come, fall in love.. all over again! The image of a white salwar kurta-clad Kajol embracing a leather jacketed Shah Rukh Khan instantly evokes the name of the film, borrowed from an old Bollywood song, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

Curious cinegoers like me thronged the theaters to watch this latest offering from Yash Chopra, the king of romance, in the autumn of 1995.

The film marked the debut of his son Aditya Chopra as a director and for Shah Rukh Khan, who was steadily climbing up the success ladder, it was to be a breakthrough new role, a far cry from his stuttering menacing self in the last Yash Chopra film, Darr.

As we milled into theaters, little did we realize we would never walk out the same again.

The film embraced us in a cozy cocoon, as we were drawn into the now-often-told story of Raj, a motherless rich boy who lives in a swanky house somewhere in London neighbourhood Hampstead, knocks back beers, has the trendiest set of wheels and an indulgent 'Pops,' and never misses the chance to play a prank on unassuming fellow desi shopkeepers.

Simran, a young teenager living in a modest house somewhere in the less posh Southhall, say-dreams as she prances around in a towel and a short skirt in the privacy of her room, writing poetry for her yet-to-arrive knight in shining armour. She has an indulgent mother, a stern shopkeeper 'bauji' and keeps a strict eye on the women in his house as he dreams of his desh ki dharti and sarson ke khet.


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Bauji announces one day to the unsuspecting Simran that she is to marry Kuljeet, the son of his best friend in Punjab. As Simran requests her father for one last shot at freedom, as all of us brace ourselves for this joy ride on the Eurorail. When Raj meets Simran, it seems as if the film had struck an emotional chord with the British-born second generation desis the most, as it resonated with their own stories and dilemmas. The diaspora were caught in the conflict between loyalty towards the culture and traditions of the motherland and the need for independence and the sense of belonging towards the adopted home - all themes that underlay the central love story in the film.

So, as the two miss their bus in Interlaken in Switzerland, a hyper Simran is pacified by a cocky Raj, "Senorita, bade bade shehron mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain," unfolding a chain of events for Simran who downs cognac and sheds her inhibitions, prancing around in the snow and mock-seducing Raj...who tells her the morning after that he didn't touch her even when he could easily have. Yes, the Bharatiya sanskaar and such a nice munda that he is, Raj set many a heart fluttering in the audience. As Simran and Raj realize they are in love, the scene shifts from London to Punjab.

The Indian Joint Family and Raj's mission to win them over - from feeding pigeons with Simran's father who he had taken a "drunk panga" with, teasing the ladies like the unmarried Bua or Simran's to-be sister-in-law who loses her heart to Raj, playing antaksahri with Simran's sister, helping Simran's mother in the house or chiding Simran who says it is better to elope than suffer the ordeal of separation - form the rest of the film.