Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut, Dil Chahta Hai, which released 25 years ago, redefined male bonding in Hindi cinema, moving away from the traditional macho template to offer a refreshing and breezy take on friendship, becoming a timeless classic.
Key Points
- Released on August 10, 2001, Dil
Chahta Hai marked Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut and redefined
male bonding in mainstream Hindi cinema.
- The film, starring Aamir Khan, Akshaye
Khanna, and Saif Ali Khan, explored the complexities of friendship among
three men with distinct approaches to life and love.
- Cinematographer Ravi K Chandran
chose Dil Chahta Hai over Devdas, aiming for
a 'real, modern, and young' visual style, particularly evident in the
iconic Goa sequences.
·
· Twenty-five years ago, three young men changed the macho template that
was till then the staple of Hindi cinema to give us Dil Chahta Hai,
a refreshing, breezy take on male bonding not centred on romance.
·
Farhan Akhtar was only 27 when he made his directorial debut with the
film that released on August 10, 2001.
·
The film, the first project of Farhan and his friend Ritesh Sidhwani's
production banner Excel Entertainment, stars Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Saif
Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Dimple Kapadia and Sonali Kulkarni.
· 'It had
universal appeal, unlike those films which appealed more to NRIs than to
Indians'
·
At its heart is the friendship between the
three men who approach life and love in markedly different ways -- Akash,
cynical and commitment-averse, Sameer, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and
Sid, the introspective artist who channels his emotions into his work and his
relationship with an older woman.
·
Their differences gave the friendship its
texture, allowing the film to explore not just the joy of being young but also
the inevitable friction that comes when friends begin choosing different paths.
·
"It had universal appeal, unlike those
films which appealed more to NRIs than to Indians. You know, the common Indian,
even if he was urban, could relate to the characters, the situations, the way
the film was presented, the music, the lyrics, and the looks," film
historian S M M Ausaja tells.
·
He views the film as path-breaking film for
several reasons.
·
"Everything had a novelty value and a
relatability with the audience. So that connection has continued because the
basic elements of emotion were intact… the look, the feel, and the styling were
different-and refreshingly different."