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dangermousieYes, am still behind on replies. Mea culpa!
Have started my umpteenth rewatch of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge aka "Dangermousie's most rewatched movie ever."
This is the movie that made me irrevocably love Bollywood (and even my husband likes this flick), and that, mircale of miracles, keeps up on rewatches.
And whenever I am tired or down or grumpy, I pop in and presto: ten minutes in and I am grinning and feel happy. If there is such a thing as a perfect movie for me, that is it.
Things I've been thinking about on this rewatch:
1. I love that the movie doesn't open with either Simran or Raj - the lovers who are the main characters, but with Chaudhary Baldev Singh, Simran's father. His bit of reflective nostalgia for India and his resignation to being in England instead, before we know any of the story or meet anyone else, really makes me see him as deeply human. And that is crucial to the story. Unlike many 'obstacle' parents in movies, CBH is not an evil person, not a stereotypical unreasonable father. He is old-fashioned, somewhat autocratic, but he is a person with feelings - he loves his wife and his daughters, he misses his birthplace etc. It's a nuance often lost in DDLJ's successors. And they keep having these touches in throughout the movie - just remember that delicious scene when he comes into a party of women and guys singing and playing around and everyone freezes expecting disapproval, but instead he starts singing to his wife, looking 20 years younger. It's moments like these that make the end and his letting Simran go to Raj believable and not a deus ex machina which makes no sense.
2. Simran's father might love Punjab and be nostalgic for it (we are presented with bright and joyful colors of the fields as opposed to the muted London) but hey, at the end, Simran ends up going with Raj to live in London, she doesn't stay in Punjab. Punjab might be home to her father, but London is Simran's home - she was born there. It's not really about one place being better than another, but which one is a home and which one has those things you want.
3. Simran's little poem about an unknown stranger at the beginning. I love that when she does meet her future love, he isn't some sort of a dream prince - respectful and sweet and with the two of them falling in love at first sight and swooning into each other's arms (which is what you'd expect in a standard romance). Nope, Raj is a joker and is immature at the start and Simran and Raj get along as well as oil and water. But that is the cool thing - Raj might not seem like Simran's ideal but he ends up being it. And unlike Simran who does not change too much from the beginning to the end (why should she? She is awesome already), Raj actually grows up tremendously because of love and obstacles. By the end, he is completely worthy not just of Simran's love or her mother's trust, but every little poem Simran could come up. This is pretty neat.
4. The thing that always gets me the most with this movie is the narrative of female helplessness - in the society Simran has been raised, she has no right to dreams of her own unless they coincide with her father's or that arranged husband she's never met. I always get a lump when she tells her mother she forgot she had no right to dream and her mother replies that of course she has a right to dream, she just can't have them come true. Or the scene when she asks her father to let her have a month out of her own life, as if it's a huge favor. Her life, all of it, should belong to nobody but her! And of course the scene when her mother comes to her in India and asks her to give up her hopes of Raj and remembers how she (Mom) promised to herself if she had a daughter, things like that would never happen to her but she should have known a woman doesn't have a right even to promises.
That is why I love that Raj is so Westernized. I don't think it would occur him to order Simran to do anything any more than it would occur him to fly to the moon (during their trip together all she has to do is show a hint of tears and he goes into an overdrive to try to stop her from crying. You know, even when he acts like a goof, he takes excellent care of her).
And it's clear that what Raj and Simran will have is a relationship of equals. They manage to find equality even within confines of the very rigid traditional Singh household: I loved Raj before, of course, but I think my love reached a whole new stage when he fasted on Karwa Chauth, because Simran decided to (it's a festival at which women fast for health of their husbands or prospective husbands). It didn't even occur to Kuljit, Simran's proper fiance, to do that, but for Raj if Simran fasts, so must he: and he doesn't do it to score points with her or anything, he just does it with no fuss as an internal rightness thing and if Simran's younger sis didn't blab, Simran would have never found out about it.
And of course it's clear that Simran is no meek little woman with Raj. I am not even talking about on the trip, when she is as much of a catalyst and actor as he is. I am talking in the Singh household. She insists that he should be the one who gives her bread and water when the fast is over (a husband is apparently supposed to to it) and gets her own way, making him come up with a solution. She might be stuck in a traditional, rigid society, but she will find as much individuality and freedom as she can within it. (And of course at the end, she is free to go and live with Raj in London, and be free, period, not get limited freedoms within traditional confines).
5. The little scene when Raj confesses his love to Simran in first half and getting no reaction turns into a joke is LOVE.
GUUUH, I love this movie. I plan to watch the second half tomorrow.
Have started my umpteenth rewatch of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge aka "Dangermousie's most rewatched movie ever."
This is the movie that made me irrevocably love Bollywood (and even my husband likes this flick), and that, mircale of miracles, keeps up on rewatches.
And whenever I am tired or down or grumpy, I pop in and presto: ten minutes in and I am grinning and feel happy. If there is such a thing as a perfect movie for me, that is it.
Things I've been thinking about on this rewatch:
1. I love that the movie doesn't open with either Simran or Raj - the lovers who are the main characters, but with Chaudhary Baldev Singh, Simran's father. His bit of reflective nostalgia for India and his resignation to being in England instead, before we know any of the story or meet anyone else, really makes me see him as deeply human. And that is crucial to the story. Unlike many 'obstacle' parents in movies, CBH is not an evil person, not a stereotypical unreasonable father. He is old-fashioned, somewhat autocratic, but he is a person with feelings - he loves his wife and his daughters, he misses his birthplace etc. It's a nuance often lost in DDLJ's successors. And they keep having these touches in throughout the movie - just remember that delicious scene when he comes into a party of women and guys singing and playing around and everyone freezes expecting disapproval, but instead he starts singing to his wife, looking 20 years younger. It's moments like these that make the end and his letting Simran go to Raj believable and not a deus ex machina which makes no sense.
2. Simran's father might love Punjab and be nostalgic for it (we are presented with bright and joyful colors of the fields as opposed to the muted London) but hey, at the end, Simran ends up going with Raj to live in London, she doesn't stay in Punjab. Punjab might be home to her father, but London is Simran's home - she was born there. It's not really about one place being better than another, but which one is a home and which one has those things you want.
3. Simran's little poem about an unknown stranger at the beginning. I love that when she does meet her future love, he isn't some sort of a dream prince - respectful and sweet and with the two of them falling in love at first sight and swooning into each other's arms (which is what you'd expect in a standard romance). Nope, Raj is a joker and is immature at the start and Simran and Raj get along as well as oil and water. But that is the cool thing - Raj might not seem like Simran's ideal but he ends up being it. And unlike Simran who does not change too much from the beginning to the end (why should she? She is awesome already), Raj actually grows up tremendously because of love and obstacles. By the end, he is completely worthy not just of Simran's love or her mother's trust, but every little poem Simran could come up. This is pretty neat.
4. The thing that always gets me the most with this movie is the narrative of female helplessness - in the society Simran has been raised, she has no right to dreams of her own unless they coincide with her father's or that arranged husband she's never met. I always get a lump when she tells her mother she forgot she had no right to dream and her mother replies that of course she has a right to dream, she just can't have them come true. Or the scene when she asks her father to let her have a month out of her own life, as if it's a huge favor. Her life, all of it, should belong to nobody but her! And of course the scene when her mother comes to her in India and asks her to give up her hopes of Raj and remembers how she (Mom) promised to herself if she had a daughter, things like that would never happen to her but she should have known a woman doesn't have a right even to promises.
That is why I love that Raj is so Westernized. I don't think it would occur him to order Simran to do anything any more than it would occur him to fly to the moon (during their trip together all she has to do is show a hint of tears and he goes into an overdrive to try to stop her from crying. You know, even when he acts like a goof, he takes excellent care of her).
And it's clear that what Raj and Simran will have is a relationship of equals. They manage to find equality even within confines of the very rigid traditional Singh household: I loved Raj before, of course, but I think my love reached a whole new stage when he fasted on Karwa Chauth, because Simran decided to (it's a festival at which women fast for health of their husbands or prospective husbands). It didn't even occur to Kuljit, Simran's proper fiance, to do that, but for Raj if Simran fasts, so must he: and he doesn't do it to score points with her or anything, he just does it with no fuss as an internal rightness thing and if Simran's younger sis didn't blab, Simran would have never found out about it.
And of course it's clear that Simran is no meek little woman with Raj. I am not even talking about on the trip, when she is as much of a catalyst and actor as he is. I am talking in the Singh household. She insists that he should be the one who gives her bread and water when the fast is over (a husband is apparently supposed to to it) and gets her own way, making him come up with a solution. She might be stuck in a traditional, rigid society, but she will find as much individuality and freedom as she can within it. (And of course at the end, she is free to go and live with Raj in London, and be free, period, not get limited freedoms within traditional confines).
5. The little scene when Raj confesses his love to Simran in first half and getting no reaction turns into a joke is LOVE.
GUUUH, I love this movie. I plan to watch the second half tomorrow.
