5 Aspects of Dil Chahta Hai That Made It A Film We Believed In

‘Multiplex Audience’! The term we so often keep coming across in the contemporary cinematic times was coined post the success of a film that truly caved a new direction to Indian cinema. Back in early 2000’s, films in India were either being drawn out proportion with loud and commercial elements placing itself in a popcorn entertainer league or they were so darn good with reality that box office was a non-existing proposition for them. While a large section was finding its getaway pleasure in Gadars and K3G’s, a small section was watching and appreciating creations like Fire and Earth! There was nothing really in between for a more sensible section of audience that needed to see some entertainment without being transported to an imaginary world!

It was then a young fella in his twenties by the name of Farhan Akhtar decided to craft something we can’t thank him enough for! A coming of age, cool urban drama centered around the crux of three friends and their lives, Dil Chahta Hai arrived and set new trends to be followed even today. With a star cast that complimented one another at every junction, the film was crafted in such a way that it made us believe in its narration. With a much relatable screenplay written around a plot that made us feel so connected with the narration, Dil Chahta Hai holds a special place in each of our hearts.

Here are 5 aspects of the film that made it an experience we truly believed in:

Controlled Temptation of Overly Melodramatizing Things

To have an emotional message conveyed without those irritating close ups of glycerin filled eyes is something we have never grown used to. Dil Chahta Hai at every seam of its narration made us realize how different it was from other commercial stuff amongst the times. The temptation of infusing drama to lay a better connect with the audience is a practice that will always be followed in the country. Thankfully, Farhan thought differently!  Remember the interval junction where Akshaye and Aamir have a fallout post a heated argument? We don’t see a furiously red Aamir coming back at Akshaye! Any other film and we would have been made to sit through an overly dramatized rifting sequence. It was moments and treatment like this that made Dil Chahta Hai an affair we didn’t realize being engulfed in.

The Candid Storytelling

The idea of showcasing friendship in cinema was seen through the lens of Bachchan riding a bike with Dharmendra singing the most joyful friendship song ever! Here we had a setting that looked real and simply convincing. Aakash is a rich man’s son and drives different cars but still has a heart to gel up with anybody. Sameer and Sid’s lifestyle are designed in a more relatable style. While Sameer has a small dark room where he sleeps without his shirt on, Sid has an art room where he paints in the realm of realism, not being an MF Hussain. The conversations we come across in the film are something that you and I exercise in our routine lives. Despite entertainment being its core value, the candid storytelling of the film was unique in its own way.

Refraining from Glorification

There were no ‘Heroes’ in Dil Chahta Hai! There were aptly written and designed characters that came out to perform their parts in a way we could connect to them. The biggest tool of glorification in cinema is using ‘Slow-motion’ and dramatized background score. Dil Chahta Hai refrained from both of these elements. While we see an untroubled Aamir experiencing the most radical change in his life, the progression is extremely believable and real. His confession of loving Preity Zinta comes across as a completely non-glamorized sequence that would have blown with too much of noise in any other movie. In fact, the climax scene where Aamir and Akshaye reunite to bury their sorrows is a sequence not many could have pulled without rhyming it with a song or slow motion. This is the kind of treatment the younger generation of our times may find their solace in.

Intrepid Take On Relationships

All three guys in the frame of affairs have been aligned in such way that their way of looking at love and relationships is totally different from one another. When you see Aamir Khan being charmed by Preity in an early scene in the movie, you see that he’s not fallen for her in anyway. The journey of discovering love for his is so subtle and gradual that you almost literally feel for the kind of agony he goes through in the later part of the movie. On the other hand, the bold angle attached with Akshaye and Dimple is pretty evolved in more senses than one. While the idea of falling for a woman 15 years older than you obviously came as an incomprehensible idea for most people back in the day, the careful handling and the sublime touch of emotive expressions made it one of the highlights in the movie. It was brave yet totally believable!

Coming of Age Drama Ahead of Its Time

Dil Chahta Hai may fall in the league of being much ahead of its time but it was exactly the kind of wakeup call cinema needed. The existent humor amongst us, the believable fall out between friends, the self-discovery of love and subsequent realizing of your mistakes made way for the making of a film that almost every youth found himself/herself connected to. From so much as developing a whole new section of audience to being registered as one of the trend setter in the country, Dil Chahta Hai in so many ways proved why it truly was the coolest coming of age drama in the 21^st century.

To have completed 15 long years and still be able to look as fresh as it was yesterday, Dil Chahta Hai has inspired a lot of friendships in the country. However, the making of this cinematic gem leaves us with more reasons to angst against the man who created this drama. The man who in his 20’s decided to craft a piece of work that went down as an asset, is now being seen in ads struggling to make sense, doing films confronting the essence Dil Chahta Hai stood for and not being bothered about the fact that a huge section of audience that attached themselves to his style of filmmaking have been waiting for another Dil Chahta Hai for the last 10 years!

But we’ll talk about that later! On a day when a path breaking film like Dil Chahta Hai completes 16 years, let’s thank Farhan Akhtar for having given us a gem we will cherish for our lives!