Histórias de Amor

Put a legend, an icon, a star, and six fresh buds waiting to bloom all in the same movie and what do you get? Mohabbatein. Sure, the story is the oft-repeated tale of forbidden love, unappreciated lovers and the traditions that gag and bind us, but the all-star cast, the skilled direction, and lively musical numbers all contribute to make this a movie worth noting.

The setting of Mohabbatein is the Gurukul School, an elite school housed in a cold, uninviting, castle-like edifice. Narayan Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan) is the stern, disciplinarian and somewhat tyrannical headmaster of Gurukul who rules the school with an iron fist.

The story begins on a dark and quiet night at the local train stations where three young men, prospective students at the school, meet on the platform and set out on a journey that brings them closer together than they ever could have imagined. Vicky (Uday Chopra) is an athletic, energetic playboy type, seemingly unshaken by the harsh reality of the school. Sameer (Jugal Hansraj) is the timid and shy one with boyish charm and innocent looks. And Karan (Jimmy Shergill) completes the trio as the more mature, intense member of the pack.

The three lads are struck by cupid's arrow when they meet the three heroines; Vicky loses his heart to a rich and spoiled girl named Ishika (Shamita Shetty) while Sameer is reunited with his childhood buddy, the bubbly Sanjana (Kim Sharma) and Karan falls hard for the bashful widow, Kiran (Preeti Jhangiani).

As with every true-to-form Bollywood movie, their love stories are met with several obstacles, such as differences in class, no-good boyfriends, and familial obligations, but the most important hurdle in their path is none other than Narayan Shankar who is convinced that love is a pure waste of time. A glimmer of hope comes their way when a maverick music teacher, Raj Aryan (Shah Rukh Khan) sweeps into the picture and helps nurture their young loves. What follows is a battle of good and evil, love and hate, and sheer determination and conviction on both sides at the end of which … (well, let's not get carried away! Just make sure you have a box of tissues handy!).

The movie was one of the biggest hit in Bollywood and won some awards too. After all, it was a perfect entertainer "paisa wasool" movie. The length come out as as positive part. In India the more length is the movie the more "paisa wasool" it is. Especially movie like this, which is full of romance, drama, music and female body shows.

I love the music of the movie. It was great. Also the acting by the legends Amitabh and SRK. And as usual of Yashraj films, the filmography and camera work was great too.

The problem I have is with what exactly message the movie wants to spread? I feel that the movie is trying to say, love first other things later. Other things including discipline, your studies and your career. The "Gurukool" is an ideal school for the college students. The principle expects from them that they should only concentrate on their studies, their career, personal development and their future, at least for the time which they will be spending in this college. (Thats another problem. What kind of school is it? Is it after 10th or after 12th school? And if it is after 12th, why are they wearing uniform?) And to accomplish this he has some strict set of rules. (They are too strict, Agreed.) Now from nowhere a new music teacher comes to college (when the principle does not allow any cultural program in college, why at first place he appointed this music teacher?). Now the music teacher is a real romantic guy, who has done romance with the daughter of the principle, when he himself was in the same college. As this is against the rules of college, principal throws the boy out, and his lover suicides, as her father rejected her love. (This is far too stretched. What? No, it isn't. OK. Not far stretched, and can happen in reality.) And this teacher has now swore that he will fill the entire college with the love. Means he will teach the student the cheap acts of how to write love letter in more effective ways (like using 'Piple ka Panna' as letter), or bung the lecture to meet the girlfriends, and also by bringing neighboring girls to the hostel in absence of principal.(In reality, one of those girls will get pregnant in such situation.)By doing this he think he is doing a great thing for the boys and for the society.

By now, you must have understood what my problem is. They say at the end that a balance of discipline and love is required, but actually more weight in given to love, and the man with the discipline has negative shades in character. The next part of the movie is clear. These three students fail in their exam, or pass with the low score, and after college has problem in finding job, and very low knowledge for opening their own business. But the movie ends way before this happens.

It is good to give entertainment to the people, but then one should also pay the attention to what actually you are teaching. The movie which was released at the same time "Mission Kashmir" was having exactly opposite characteristics. The movie was having very less entertainment but gives out gives out good moral to the people. And again it is fact that "Mission Kashmir" flops and Mohobbatein was a great hit. Sometimes, things like these upset me for Bollywood. But fortunately now the Bollywood audience is also giving attention to the spirits of the movie. And hence KANK is super-flop, and Munnabhais are doing great in all parts.

Mohabattein was the first Hindi movie I ever saw. It was sent to me by a friend who is crazy for Shahrukh Khan.

My first impressions were, `WOW, this Shahrukh guy has a tremendous screen presence (but, yikes, what a profile!)' and `I love the old guy with the black hair and the white beard. He's too cool.' As for the movie itself, I wondered how in god's name anybody could enjoy that horrid cat-in-heat screeching which issued forth whenever that gorgeous young woman (Aishwarya Rai) opened her mouth to sing. And I found the interminable love stories of the three young couples to be boring, boring, boring. I spent all my time waiting for Mr. Aryan and Mr. Shankar to come back onscreen.

As for the story, I was completely out of sympathy for the silly idea that it's more important to spend your college years running around trees and going to dance parties with scantily clad girls than to be studying or going to prayer. As a westerner who has watched my own treasured Catholic traditions thrown overboard one by one for every goofy, modern idea that comes down the pike (clown Masses, anyone?) I was firmly on the side of Mr. Shankar: `I don't like change, Mr. Aryan!'

I've since learned that Amitabh Bachchan is like the Sean Connery of Indian cinema, and that Shahrukh Khan is known better for his manic, over-the-top performances than the quiet, mature act I saw in Mohabattein. (I cringe whenever he is referred to as `The Tom Cruise of India'…Tom Cruise can only wish he had Shahrukh's talent and screen presence. Sharhukh definitely would win that contest by a nose.)

But to be honest, I didn't like this movie much, and after seeing about 50 Hindi films since then, I still don't like it much. It has some great songs that are almost completely destroyed by the ancient, crackling voice of Lata Mangreshkar (sorry if I spelled it wrong), and I still can't sit through the endless love stories of the three young couples. ONE couple would have been plenty to get the point across, and it would have cut the movie by 45 minutes or so, which it badly needs.

As a person who grew up on the MGM musicals of the 40s and 50s, I have eagerly embraced Bollywood (but no kissing). And although I get bored pretty easily with the dancing around trees (it all starts to look the same), I just can't get enough of those Holi celebrations! Bring ‘em on.

Okay, this film stars Bachchan and Khan in a film showing a sort of clash between the two over practically nothing. The two do really well. Khan is very, very good in this energetic but relatively subtle performance, and Bachchan is imperious and towering in his pride. The two work very well together. But besides that, you have a story which is not very convincing and worse, most of it centers on the young stars and starlets and their college romances, with Khan given the task of matching them all up together. Instead of focusing on the ideological differences between Khan and Bachchan, Aditya Chopra makes them the background through a great portion of the film, turning what could have been a good drama into something that resembles a very cliched and boring high-school romance. This entire track lacks credibility. Other than Khan and Bachchan, the film has a beautiful Aishwarya Rai in a short appearance, and it is very memorable today for its magic track "Humko Hamise Churalo", sung to perfection by the divine Lata Mangeshkar, who was, hold on to your seats, over 70 years old when singing it. Unbelievable. It's a pity the film doesn't live up to this level, and just ends up being really overlong, and for no justifiable reason.

I have seen some good movies in my life but this one totally caught me off guard. I have never seen any character, in movies or real life that believes in love and the power of love as strongly as Raj Aryan does. Raj Aryan's character is everything that is good about mankind. Ironically it was a quirk of fate that made him the way he is, but nevertheless his character is most amiable. Amitabh's character is just perfect for him, something he is very comfortable playing. With the changing times, he had turned from the `Angry Young Man' to the `Angry Old Man' - he plays it wonderfully. One can actually feel his pain and sympathise with his character. The three love stories are the only loose ends of the movie but without them the overall movie would not have been able to take shape. If you believe in the inherent goodness of mankind then this movie is for you. It teaches us no matter what we do, love finds a way. But the real reason you should see this movie is because it's a real entertainer.