KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #7: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (India, dir by Aditya Chopra,1995)

I think it’s time to bring Bollywood Club to Secret Movie Club! Two great clubs that go great together.

Once a month, my friend Amber, who is a Bollywood fan, carefully curates a film for us Bollywood newbies to enjoy. So far, after half a year or so, we are big fans of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), who has been one of the biggest stars of Bollywood for the past thirty years.

In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (which translated from the Hindi as basically “The good hearted will take the Bride”), he is 25 years younger than we are used to, not that we complained.

This is the earliest film we've seen for Bollywood Club, much shaggy hair on the men and high-waisted jeans on the girls. Unlike many Bollywood films, this one isn't all of the genres at once, which is an amazing feat the first time you see it. I described one film as being a war/action/comedy/romance/tragic/drama/amnesia film, and of course, also a musical, because they are all musicals. The “all genres at once” Hindi movie is known as the “Masala” film since Masala is a spice that has a bunch of different spices all put together.

Dilwale is, instead, two movies sewn together, one about a trip across Europe on a Eurail pass, and the other about trying to break up an arranged wedding in Punjab. But also a musical.

In London, SRK plays Raj, a total jackass, and Kajol plays Simran, a lovely girl who is about to marry someone in India whom she has never met. They both go on a trip across Europe with different groups of friends, managing to fall in love even though he is just terrible and frankly I was rooting for the arranged marriage.

In the second half, Simran is whisked by her family off to Punjab to get married to the guy, who is WAY worse than first-half Raj, and second-half Raj is way better, because love changes people's personalities entirely, and SRK is too lovable and charming to remain a jackass forever.

It's an enjoyable film, and apparently it ran for 25 years without ceasing, until COVID-19 closed the theatres in India. SRK and Kajol are really charming together, and it's a real treat, and not bad as a first Bollywood film, if you are a newbie since it’s often considered one of Hindi cinema’s greatest romantic comedies.

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog