As we see yet another film (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania) that
explicitly acknowledges its influence, it is time to ask what is it
about Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge that makes it so powerfully resonant
with so many people over such a long time? It is a perplexing question,
for the film was made in 1995, in the early days of economic
liberalisation and so much has changed since. Just to refresh our
memories, 1995 was the year in which Enron was scrapped, Amitabh
Bachchan Corporation was formed and Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman had
shared a python between them. Shah Rukh Khan’s other films for the year
included timeless classics such as Zamaana Deewana, Guddu and Ram Jaane.
It was a different time for India, and even more so for Hindi cinema.
Cinematically, DDLJ broke some new ground- but the durability of its
appeal can hardly be located there. It touched a deeper chord by
articulating a societal fault line in a way that was both precise and
real. Another film, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, too has had a great impact
since its release in 1994 but today it is seems to be a dated product of
its times.
It was easy to understand what made the film work then. It brilliantly articulated an anxiety that existed about all the changes being unleashed on India. It depicted the battle between the past and the present, and between collective custom and individual desire, in the form of a love story between two endearing characters. It served up a cinematic version of tradition and mellowed out modernity till one could barely tell the difference between the two. It offered a comforting resolution to a complex question and quietened the misgivings that had risen about social change.
Unlike most Hindi films, where the pleasure lies in the telling of the tale rather than its resolution, for that is almost always a return to the familiar, in DDLJ, it was the resolution that was new. The star-crossed lovers did not fight the world nor did they succumb to bullets/stabs in slow motion, but submitted to the authority of the older generation after making a strong moral case. The reconciliation went beyond the surface- the past and the present agreed to fuse together, the cultural continuity that was forged seemed deep and real.
The power of DDLJ becomes clearer when we examine the latest tribute that has been offered to it in the form of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, it must be said is a pleasant film, but it is unlikely to become a classic partly because it does not take itself too seriously. It is in its lack of pretension that the film becomes significant, for in the world that it depicts tentativeness abounds. Compromised tradition meets ritualised modernity, and instead of a grand reconciliation we have a workable negotiation. The forces of the past lack the moral certitude of an Amrish Puri in DDLJ and the customary rituals of the wedding too lack any real self-belief. What remains of tradition is the memory of authority, rooted in patriarchal habit. But modernity too is its mirror, for it seems adrift in the fragmented rituals that come detached from any larger meaning. The heroine outdrinks the hero, she covets a designer wedding dress and he a car, and the two sleep together even though she is engaged to someone else. It is striking that even the act of sleeping together is handled matter-of-factly. Many reviews have read this as a sign of the growing maturity of cinema- another reading is that even this action, unusual in the Indian social context, is divested of any radical meaning. It is merely a ritual of the times, like the tequila shot.
The romance is bedecked with question marks, and even the answers are not assertions but hopeful hypotheses. This is a world where parents posture, and imperfect young people huddle together with hope rather than conviction. Things change, in that certitudes crumble bit by bit, and opposites do not abrade each other quite as much. The genius of DDLJ was that it made the present rescue the past, giving strength to the former by granting honourable legitimacy to the latter. Good tradition morphed into respectful modernity-Shah Rukh Khan earned the baton from Amrish Puri. Modernity submitted to the test of tradition and came through. In Humpty Sharma, both sides are imagined to be imperfect, and the resolution happens when the quest for perfection is abandoned. The past makes a conditional settlement with the present on a case-by-case basis. What continues is that authority continues to be vested in masculine power; the conversation is still between men.
Today, the idea that the old and new will get neatly resolved is nothing but a fantasy. The years that have passed since DDLJ have told us that the past is in no hurry to retire and the present lacks the idealism and confidence to assert itself. The best case scenario today seems to be to make conditional peace with the past. We crave for the illusion that DDLJ provides precisely because it gave us an answer that seemed to be so final, besides it had Shah Rukh Khan who had just learnt how to fling out his arms and smile at the world. Raj is the hero India needs for he has all the answers but Humpty Sharma is the one we will have to make do with. The quest for grand and absolute solutions may need to give way to those that offer more modest and context-sensitive answers. Imperfectness may not be such a bad thing, for then we need each other to cobble together some form of completeness.
It was easy to understand what made the film work then. It brilliantly articulated an anxiety that existed about all the changes being unleashed on India. It depicted the battle between the past and the present, and between collective custom and individual desire, in the form of a love story between two endearing characters. It served up a cinematic version of tradition and mellowed out modernity till one could barely tell the difference between the two. It offered a comforting resolution to a complex question and quietened the misgivings that had risen about social change.
Unlike most Hindi films, where the pleasure lies in the telling of the tale rather than its resolution, for that is almost always a return to the familiar, in DDLJ, it was the resolution that was new. The star-crossed lovers did not fight the world nor did they succumb to bullets/stabs in slow motion, but submitted to the authority of the older generation after making a strong moral case. The reconciliation went beyond the surface- the past and the present agreed to fuse together, the cultural continuity that was forged seemed deep and real.
The power of DDLJ becomes clearer when we examine the latest tribute that has been offered to it in the form of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, it must be said is a pleasant film, but it is unlikely to become a classic partly because it does not take itself too seriously. It is in its lack of pretension that the film becomes significant, for in the world that it depicts tentativeness abounds. Compromised tradition meets ritualised modernity, and instead of a grand reconciliation we have a workable negotiation. The forces of the past lack the moral certitude of an Amrish Puri in DDLJ and the customary rituals of the wedding too lack any real self-belief. What remains of tradition is the memory of authority, rooted in patriarchal habit. But modernity too is its mirror, for it seems adrift in the fragmented rituals that come detached from any larger meaning. The heroine outdrinks the hero, she covets a designer wedding dress and he a car, and the two sleep together even though she is engaged to someone else. It is striking that even the act of sleeping together is handled matter-of-factly. Many reviews have read this as a sign of the growing maturity of cinema- another reading is that even this action, unusual in the Indian social context, is divested of any radical meaning. It is merely a ritual of the times, like the tequila shot.
The romance is bedecked with question marks, and even the answers are not assertions but hopeful hypotheses. This is a world where parents posture, and imperfect young people huddle together with hope rather than conviction. Things change, in that certitudes crumble bit by bit, and opposites do not abrade each other quite as much. The genius of DDLJ was that it made the present rescue the past, giving strength to the former by granting honourable legitimacy to the latter. Good tradition morphed into respectful modernity-Shah Rukh Khan earned the baton from Amrish Puri. Modernity submitted to the test of tradition and came through. In Humpty Sharma, both sides are imagined to be imperfect, and the resolution happens when the quest for perfection is abandoned. The past makes a conditional settlement with the present on a case-by-case basis. What continues is that authority continues to be vested in masculine power; the conversation is still between men.
Today, the idea that the old and new will get neatly resolved is nothing but a fantasy. The years that have passed since DDLJ have told us that the past is in no hurry to retire and the present lacks the idealism and confidence to assert itself. The best case scenario today seems to be to make conditional peace with the past. We crave for the illusion that DDLJ provides precisely because it gave us an answer that seemed to be so final, besides it had Shah Rukh Khan who had just learnt how to fling out his arms and smile at the world. Raj is the hero India needs for he has all the answers but Humpty Sharma is the one we will have to make do with. The quest for grand and absolute solutions may need to give way to those that offer more modest and context-sensitive answers. Imperfectness may not be such a bad thing, for then we need each other to cobble together some form of completeness.
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