Dil Chahta Hai


Dil Chahta Hai is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age romantic drama film, marking Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut, as well as his debut as a writer. Starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni and Dimple Kapadia, the film is set in present-day urban Mumbai and Sydney, and focuses on a major period of transition in the romantic lives of three college-graduate friends.
In 2001, the film won National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

Plot

The film follows the parallel story of three friends who navigate family and love after graduating from college. The wealthiest of the three, Akash, is afraid of commitment, running away from any girl who tries to cling to him. On a trip to Goa, he goes out of his way to avoid Deepa, who is deeply in love with him. In contrast is Sameer, a clueless romantic who looks for love at every corner. When Akash tricks Sameer's girlfriend to dump him, he instead falls for a Swiss foreigner on the beaches of Goa. This ends disastrously for Sameer, however, as she is a swindler who dupes him of his money and belongings by the end of the trip. The last of the three, Siddharth aka Sid, is a painter who is often quiet and brooding. He is prone to searching for deeper meaning in all situations of life though he can be light-hearted in his interaction with his friends. After the three friends return from Goa, Sameer's parents try to set him up with Pooja, the daughter of their family friend. Sameer is in love at first sight, but finds out Pooja is seeing someone else. Sid meets a new neighbour, Tara, an older woman who has moved into a house at the end of the street. She is a single woman whose husband has left her and the custody of their daughter is with him. She shows great intelligence by decoding his nature entirely from his paintings, leading Sid to become attracted to her. Meanwhile, Akash's parents are intent on him learning to take responsibility. They suggest he manage the family business in Australia, but Akash is not ready yet.
On Tara's birthday, when her daughter is to visit her secretly, a call from her ex-husband leaves her distraught. Sid tries to console her and the three friends take her out to dinner to celebrate instead. By the end of the night, Sid has realized he is in love, but drama unfolds when Akash, true to his nature, mocks Sid's newfound feelings. Sid slaps him in return and it seems their friendship is over. The next day, Sameer tries to play mediator but Sid has already left town to attend a painting workshop lasting a few weeks. Soon after, Akash flies off to Sydney. Left to his own measures, Sameer attempts to get close to Pooja who is visibly tiring of her current boyfriend. When she becomes single again, Sameer manages to ask her out. Akash, meanwhile, has made a friend in Shalini, an awkward acquaintance from college who he meets on the flight to Sydney. She agrees to show him around the new city, and with every meeting, Akash falls more for her. Soon, however, Shalini's fiancé, Rohit shows up from India and escorts her home for their wedding. A heartbroken Akash also returns, expressing his feelings to his father who can sense his changed behaviour. Akash learns from Shalini's uncle that Rohit's parents adopted Shalini after her parents' death. Hence she is not able to refuse to their wishes of marrying Rohit. Convinced that Shalini also loves him, Akash crashes the wedding and proposes to her. A brief altercation with Rohit is subdued by her would-be in-laws, who suggest their son to simply "let go."
In the present day, Tara has been admitted to the hospital with liver cirrhosis. Sid waits for news on her condition with Sameer giving him company. Still in India, Akash shows up the next morning to bury his grudge with Sid. In her final moments, Tara asks Sid to stay happy and then passes away leaving him distraught. Six months later, the three friends return for a trip to Goa, this time with Shalini and Pooja. At the campsite, Sid catches the eye of a pretty girl walking alone in the fields. He smiles at her, and as she smiles back, he begins walking in her direction.
The film ends with all the three couples shown making a toast at a restaurant

Cast

Production

The movie is partially based on writer-director Farhan Akhtar's diaries on his trips to Las Vegas, his 1996 month-and-a-half long stay at New York City, and a storyline narrated to him by a friend. Farhan Akhtar began work on the script in 1998; the relationship of the characters Akash and Shalini was based on a similar experience of one of Akhtar's friends. Other parts of Dil Chahta Hai were adapted from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
Initially, Akhtar wanted Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan and Akshaye Khanna in the three main roles. While Khanna agreed to do the film, Roshan and Bachchan were unavailable. Akhtar offered the part of Akash to Khanna and he offered the part of Sid to Aamir Khan. However, Khan did not want to play Sid and wanted to play Akash instead. Khanna agreed to play Sid so that Khan could play Akash. Afterwards, Saif Ali Khan joined the cast as Sameer. Preity Zinta and Sonali Kulkarni were cast as Shalini and Pooja respectively. Akhtar convinced actress Dimple Kapadia to come out of retirement to play the role of divorcée Tara Jaiswal. After 15 months of extensive pre-production, the film was shot over a four-month period in Mumbai, India and Sydney, Australia.
Dil Chahta Hai's style extended to the music and its picturisation. Initially, director Farhan Akhtar had approached A. R. Rahman for composing the music. But since Rahman was busy with other engagements, he did not accept the offer. Later Rahman commented that he was glad that the project went to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and he personally loved their work in the film. One song sequence recapitulates and, to some extent, parodies Bollywood song-and-dance history. Other songs drop the usual dance accompaniment — one depicts an argument between two protagonists through the song's lyrics, another establishes the character's state of mind through a moody photo collage, while yet another imagines the beautiful and idealised world of an artist in love through a song inside a painting. There is an extended opera sequence at the Sydney Opera House, which was exclusively commissioned for the film.

Sequel

In 2016, Akhtar stated that he had "a lot on his mind" about a sequel to Dil Chahta Hai' It will go on board from 2022.

Reception

Critical response

The film was well received by critics for portraying contemporary Indian youth as cosmopolitan and urban. The characters are depicted as upper-class with lavish houses and designer clothes. They attend art exhibitions and performances of Western opera, and travel overseas as a matter of course. Some critics opined that Dil Chahta Hai did not perform well in the non-urban areas because the lifestyle depicted was too city-oriented.
Beth Watkins of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The mix of humour, emotion, sincerity and wisdom makes "Dil Chahta Hai" a truly enduring film." Sita Menon of Rediff.com concluded that the film was "slick and witty", and Piroj Wadia of Screen called the film "an amazing debut" and praised its script, direction, music, and performances. Dinesh Raheja of India Today wrote: "DCH has a refreshingly wicked sense of humour, and is a comparatively-rare Generation X movie. Hold on — young love in Hindi cinema seems to have finally come of age — or at least is on the way."
Dil Chahta Hai was screened at the International Film Festival of India, the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival.

Accolades

Sequel

Akshaye Khanna confirms that there’s a sequel when him and Saif are 50 plus.