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How DDLJ changed Indian mentality on love and marriage

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Ananya Bhattacharya
Ananya BhattacharyaNov 27, 2014 | 12:51

How DDLJ changed Indian mentality on love and marriage

About two decades back, Aditya Chopra might never had thought that his Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge would be able to enjoy the amount of affection from the Indian audience as it now does. Neither could Shah Rukh Khan, probably, have thought that people would begin associating his Raj Malhotra with the archetypal Indian Romeo. And as for Kajol, she might hardly have thought that she would end up glamourising the love/arranged marriage dilemma for an entire generation of Indian women. DDLJ ended up setting many standards, which, especially Indian men, have struggled to match up to over the last two decades. For emulating a Raj Malhotra is not that easy a task.

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After the film hit the theatres, single women all over the country - who had had the chance to see the movie - began falling in love left, right and centre. And if their parents objected to their choice, consider the dart having hit the bull's eye. The stauncher the opposition, the better the case…and the tougher for the hapless guy who happened to fall in love with the daughter of these Amrish Puri-likenesses. Girls began dreaming of being serenaded on board the Eurail and romanced near the snow-capped Alps' peaks. They began spending days and nights thinking of the perfect man, filling the pages of their personal diaries with clandestine compositions on love…kaisa hai kaun hai woh jaane kahaan hai, etc, remember? Even something as mundane as a train journey was never the same after this film. Every single time a girl stepped on a station, with the intention of buying something, she waited till the signal and waited with the hope of the moment some guy would extend a helping hand and hoist her onto the coach, a la Raj, with or without any romantic undercurrents there. Yes, a lot of us have done that. Admit it.

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The imaginations of the average single Indian woman, twenty years after the release of the film, have still moved only about a few inches from the image of their own Rajs. And as far as the silver screen is concerned, DDLJ began to be identified with a film that filmmakers went visiting and revisiting whenever their rom-coms needed some amount of inspiration. So, in a film like Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), Minissha Lamba takes the Eurail solely to find her Raj Malhotra; and in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya (2014), Varun Dhawan finds his Simran in Alia Bhatt, amid teary smiles and punches-and-abuses. DDLJ ended up being so relatable a film that it carved a cosy niche for itself in the memory of the Indian audience. 'Til date, in the outskirts of a small town, you'd find lovers meeting in the middle of a mustard field...only that the "Tujhe dekha toh ye jaana sanam" would probably be playing on one of the two's mobile phones.

Apart from severely drilling several family and marriage stereotypes in the Indian mindset, DDLJ re-romanticised the concept of "the course of true love is never easy". But no, the Chopras made sure that no straying was allowed. So, you don't have a girl who elopes with her lover, and you don't have a guy who forces her to elope with him. The girl's mother encourages her daughter to run away, fearing that her husband would never accept a love marriage, but Raj Malhotra's ethics saves the day, yet again... "Main yahan tumhe apni dulhan banaane aaya hoon...aur tumhe yahaan se le jaaunga tabhi jab tumhaare bauji khud tumhaara haath mere haath mein denge..." Sigh. One masterstroke. The bauji, his daughter, the family, the country - all swept over by that one dialogue. The film dared to have its heroine transgress, but within certain limits. At the end of it all, the societal, family order in place, it has a happy ending.

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From middle class Indian homes to the silver screen, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge transformed a lot of things. As the film celebrates its 1000 weeks, here's to many more Raj and Simrans, many more chiffon saree-aanchals flying in front of the Alps, many more songs in Zurich. And if the baujis and maas are offended, Raj's statement is a handy remedy...bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai!

Last updated: November 27, 2014 | 12:51
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