Dil Chahta Hai

Less is more in Farhan Akhtar's 'Dil Chahta Hai'. Strip away melodramatic plots which always drag on longer than they are supposed to. Get rid of unbelievable protagonists who have all the answers and can fight off a horde of villains. Have no 'villains' to speak of, with the exception of the dude engaged to the girl you fancy, who acts like a bit of a prick.

Build a story about the people you spend most of the time with - your friends, your dawgs, your posse, and ponder how you guys are going to sort out the really important things in your life. Like falling in love. Cracking on your friend who seems to fall for every girl he sees. Or your sensitive friend Sid who is in love with a much older woman - is he crazy? Wince as two of your best friends get into a very heated argument which splits them up and wonder what you will do now that you're caught in the middle. Hope for love and friendship to find a way through to reconciliation.

Make a smart movie, without elaborate dance pieces set to a sweet soundtrack that remains in the top 10 a year after the film's release. In fact have a song that parodies the 'running around trees' segment that every other Hindi film since the 1950s has had and that the guys at school used to kid about. I mean, guys don't express their love for girls that way! Keep out guns, drugs, politics, strife, and family melodrama. Lace up your script with generous doses of humor which brings to light the hereunto underused Saif Ali Khan. Finally make sure the 'heroes' have shown some growth at the end of it. Of course it's been done to death in LA. That it could have been done so well in Mumbai is the astonishing thing.

Finally, make reality cool again. Whatever your heroes wear, however they cut their hair, right down to the way they interact has to be believable. Make short hair and a goatee beard the national craze amongst guys. Put some real thought into color coding and matching outfits and give a laid-back style to the proceedings.

Welcome "Dil Chahta Hai". The film that has had the largest influence of the look and hopefully the story of the biggest Bollywood films to follow it. A film that many people have been able to relate to. It seemed so obvious until Farhan Akhtar did it. Now watch how his ideas permeate through Bollywood.

Here's looking forward to "Don" in 2006.

I stumbled over this film on late night TV and immediately ordered the DVD. It's a corker! Fresh, invigorating, romantic, bizarre even!

They don't make films like this in the West - and more's the pity but hence the freshness. The three lead actors are gorgeous - so it hardly matters that they must be the oldest students in town. The cinematography is beautiful - especially in the Australian sequences. The song and dance routines are as welcome as they are surprising.

As with all Hindi films, it is pure melodrama of course. The ability to suspend one's disbelief is a necessity. But that aside, it has all the attributes of a good old fashioned Hollywood romance. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl... etc., times three.

The core theme of friendship is a delight - as are the subtle homo-erotic overtones of Akash and Sid's relationship. Intended or not, I wouldn't have minded if they'd ended up together - but this is Bollywood remember!

All in all, fantastic fun which I plan to watch again and again. Highly recommended.

After a string of Bollywood stinkers, this film was a breath of fresh air! Upon first glance, it might seem like the story has been rehashed from the plotlines of several other Indian films. But the presentation blew me away! Yes, I agree that Dil Chahta Hai has been heavily influenced by the Hollywood style of filmmaking. But it still retains the same passion and romanticism that has become a Bollywood staple ever since the beginning, thus making DCH a thousand times better than other "Hollywood-wannabees".

Another thing that you might notice while watching the film is that there is not much of a plot. It just... floats along. But that's what makes it great; you never know where the next scene might lead you. What ties the story together is the bond of friendship shared by the three main leads. All the performances were terrific, especially Aamir Khan, who is probably the most respected actor of his generation.

Ultimately, what's great about the film is that it connects to the youth. The depiction of youth is so dead-on and realistic that you would be disgusted at the way youth is treated in other Bollywood films, where every college student aside from the hero/heroine are party-going idiots or jittery nerds! In DCH, however, the people talk like how they're supposed to talk, and nothing seems unrealistic about their personality. While watching the film, it becomes quite evident that Farhan Akhtar belongs to a breed of young, talented directors. What they lack in experience, they make up with an ambitious vision and raw talent.

If you haven't seen the film yet, go watch it. You'll be surprised at how much hope is still left in Bollywood.

Indian movies tend to have a reputation for (a) being musicals and (b) having overmodulated, distorted sound tracks, as if everyone was singing and playing through a guitar fuzzbox. Fuzz is fine in its place (heavy metal rock music, for example) but a surfeit of it can readily wear down the listener.

Dil Chahta Hai is a welcome breath of fresh air in the genre. It does have musical numbers but they're very pleasant on the ear, as is the sound track in general - modern musical styles, in some cases mixed with more traditional musical instruments (even a didgeridoo, the presence of which is explained below).

I have an absolute hatred of musicals so for me to find this movie likable it really has to be something special. The awards it has already won demonstrate that it IS something special.

The storyline is a little convoluted (which may explain why it takes 3 hours to run its course - around twice as long as its western counterparts, although Indian audiences may prefer the much longer format) but the acting is excellent throughout and the viewer is kept interested as the multiple interwoven plots twist and turn.

This movie demands concentration though, to get the whole picture. There is a good deal of spoken English mixed with Hindi, so the subtitles are a must for those who don't understand Hindi, but the English speech is not often mirrored in the subtitles, so one must both listen carefully and watch carefully in order not to miss a beat.

The subtitles themselves are not perfect, using unusual punctuation at times to emphasize a point (a word bracketed by a plus or minus symbol on one side and a two thirds fraction on the other takes a little time to absorb, for example).

But these are only minor niggles. This movie is richly textured and provides a visual a feast throughout, especially if, like me, you are not familiar with the sights and sounds of places like Bombay and Goa. A good part of the movie is also set in Sydney, Australia, providing plenty of material to keep the interest going (and hence the presence of the aboriginal instrument noted earlier).

This is very much a westernised production, with characters and behaviours that are possibly harder for traditional Indian audiences to identify with; I had no difficulty though with identifying with the three main male characters - three guys who are firm friends and have been for some years, and who may separate but somehow always manage to come back together when circumstances demand it. This kind of theme is pretty universal - the British TV series "Last of the Summer Wine" operates along pretty much the same lines, albeit fifty years on.

One of the themes is the conflict between traditionalist parents and modernist offspring (in particular the arranged marriage) and the author leaves the audience to make up their own mind about which is "right", but maybe with a slight nudge in the direction of the traditionalists.

The only gripe I have is with the choice of the anglicised title "Do Your Thing" for the US market. I think that totally misses the point of the movie. From the subtitles, Dil Chahta Hai translates as "The heart wants...", which would be more accurately and pertinently translated as "What The Heart Wants...".

In other words, the storyline is more about following your heart in love than it is about leading a self-indulgent life (which, obviously, these characters do most of the time - courtesy of being very well off and generally able to please themselves what they do; not quite the little rich kids, but verging on it).

This movie is that rare beast, a guy flick that is also a chick flick. Guys will enjoy watching it for the macho moments, girls will enjoy it for the soulful scenes (and the fact that the women generally behave with more maturity than the guys) and the weepy bits.

All in all a very enjoyable, watchable movie. If this is a new direction for the so-called Bollywood cinema, then it is very welcome and I would like to see more of the same.

As a professional writer I'd even be interested in contributing to that new direction...

DCH is like a breath of fresh air. It shows how bringing youth into an industry is always a good thing. Just compare this film with Yaadein, from Bollywood veteran Subash Ghai.

Where as Yaadein is probably one of the worst things to come out of a camera, DCH is one the best. It's just one of those films you'll find hard not to like, basically because it's exactly how the medium of Indian films should be used.

Rather than just cut and paste a song into the film, the filmmakers have done very well to make each song feel wanted, visually interesting, and they never drag. The result is a near 3hr film that just flies by. Comedy, Drama, Great Songs, love stories that work, and some truly excellent casting. Everyone carries the film, and the 3 guys, Safi, Akshay and Aamir are too good together!

Hopefully this film is a wake up call to the rest of Bollywood, who seem to be obsessed with unoriginality. Technically DCH can easily stand up against anything from the West. Editing, Directing, Cinematography, lighting, set design -- everything just works so well.

Sometimes Bollywood can produce some truly great films, and this is most definately one of them!! You must watch it.