Dhadkan


Dhadkan is a 2000 Indian romantic drama film co-written and directed by Dharmesh Darshan and produced by Ratan Jain. Starring Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Suniel Shetty, and Mahima Chaudhry it tells the story of a woman who leaves her boyfriend lover to marry a kind-hearted man chosen for her by her father. After sometime, she falls in love with him. 3 years later, she bumps into her boyfriend, who is now a business tycoon and still wants to reunite with her.
Made on a production budget of, Dhadkan had a worldwide release on 11 August 2000. The film received positive reviews and praise for the performances of the four lead actors, and for the direction. The film eventually emerged as a major commercial success as well as the 4th highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2000, earning over in worldwide ticket sales.
Dhadkan received 11 nominations at the 46th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director for Darshan, and Best Supporting Actress for Chaudhry. It won two awards, including Best Villain for Suniel Shetty.
It was inspired by the novel Wuthering Heights
Both Shilpa Shetty and Mahima Chaudhry's performance were considered be among their best performances. The music was a huge hit; the songs were major reasons for the success of the film.

Plot

Anjali Chauhan is a young woman who hails from an extremely rich and influential family. Her father, Narendra Chauhan, is a renowned businessman. Anjali is in love with Dev Chopra who is the poor son of Narendra's late rival Ranjan Chopra, and often cannot even afford to clothe himself properly. Dev also loves Anjali and wants to marry her. When Anjali puts forward to Narendra and her mother Veena the proposal of marrying Dev, she is rebuked and gets an outright refusal. Because Narendra does not like Dev for his bad manners and arrogant outlook. When Anjali tells Dev about this, he says that he cannot live without her. But Anjali leaves Dev. Upset by Anjali's betrayal, Dev tells all this to his mother Jhanvi, who dies after listening this.
On the other hand, Narendra and Veena have chosen for her a wealthy suitor from Delhi; and the boy is very religious minded. Not wanting to hurt her parents, Anjali finally gives in and marries Rambhan "Ram" Verma, the boy who her parents believe will be a perfect match for her. Ram is a man of great ideals, who believes in giving a rightful place to his wife and respects her sensibilities. Despite this, he is unable to win Anjali's love at first and their marriage remains on the edge. However, after seeing the magnanimity of Ram's heart in forgiving and accepting her, Anjali realizes that she has fallen in love with Ram and they happily enjoy their life as a married couple.

3 Years Later

3 years pass. Ram and Anjali celebrate their third wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, Dev, who is the guest of Soumya Malhotra, a relative of Ram's family, returns. He has now become a wealthy businessman. Anjali finds herself at a crossroads on where she would stand — for her husband Ram or with her former love Dev. Anjali chooses to stand for Ram and has no wish to return to Dev, even though it pains her to know how hurt Dev is and will be in his future. When Anjali tells Dev that she is deeply in love with Ram, Dev cannot stand rejection for a second time and sets out to ruin Ram's life. This goes on for some time, causing turbulence and turmoil in Ram and Anjali's life. In the end, when Anjali tells Dev that she is pregnant with Ram's child, Anjali begs him to leave her alone. Dev realizes his folly and becomes good. He then decides to marry his current friend and business partner, Sheetal Varma, who is his new companion and had secretly loved him for a long time. He departs with her to London as Anjali and Ram look on.

Cast

Music

The music of the album has been composed by Nadeem–Shravan in the span of three years. "Dulhe Ka Sehra" sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was composed in 1997. The other songs were also recorded in 1997–98, with the exception of "Tum Dil Ki Dhadkan Mein", which was recorded in 2000 at London. "Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se" and "Tum Dil Ki Dhadkan Mein" became legendary love tracks and "Dulhe Ka Sehra" a popular wedding song of the era. The other successful songs are "Aksar Is Duniya Mein" and "Na Na Karte Pyaar". The album was listed at second position in the yearly music charts. It became a big hit among the masses. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, around 55,00,000 albums were sold.

Reception

wrote of the film:
Adarsh described Shilpa Shetty as the "life of the enterprise", adding that she "looks good, delivers her lines effectively and emotes with utmost conviction."He said Sunil Shetty performance is one of his best especially the scenes between Sunil and Shilpa are fabulous'."He also said "Akshay Kumar shows vast improvement as an actor. He is very controlled and handles this difficult role with sincerity."
Padmaraj Nair of Screen felt the film had a "nostalgic feel to it, what with the effect of watching social drama from the good ol' 60s." He added that the film was "fairly interesting in the first half, with its slick screenplay, But the director does seem to lose his grip towards the end, as the film climaxes rather tamely. It seems as if he developed cold feet as far as justifying the grey role of Sunil Shetty is concerned, and ends up portraying him on a positive note." He felt, performance-wise, Shetty "scores over the rest", while adding, "Shilpa gets the best role of her career and doesn't disappoint. Akshay Kumar, in the role of the cool-headed husband, is impressive." On other departments of the film, he concluded writing, "Nadeem-Shravan's music is the very lifeline of the film, and all the tracks are melodious and situational. Cinematography by WB Rao is outstanding."

Awards

;Filmfare Awards
Nominated
;International Indian Film Academy Awards
Nominated
;Screen Awards
Won
Nominated