Every now and then, a movie comes along that manages to epitomize every single stereotype about its genre. For instance, "Commando" managed to epitomize a typical Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie. "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" epitomizes modern Bollywood.
The story, the characters, the choreography, the music, even the fight scenes are all very stereotypically Bollywood. The story is long, predictable, and melodramatic. Most of the characters are one-dimensional. Those that aren't are given "depth" in typical Bollywood fashion, i.e., by having them behave completely opposite in the last act of the film than they did in the first act. The scenes in India, London, and Switzerland are all beautifully filmed -- so beautifully, in fact, that they live up to the Bollywood stereotype of having bright, colorful, over-the-top locations for each of the song-and-dance numbers, and continue to reinforce Bollywood's love affair with Europe and European culture. The music is constant, pleasant, quite melodic, quite thematic, and always somehow upbeat, with heavy use of strings, the sitar, and the piano. The fight scenes are incredibly bad, again in true Bollywood fashion. The only thing missing is the requisite courtroom scene.
And yet, in spite of all of this -- or, perhaps, because of it -- there is no doubt that "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" is an incredibly charming film. It makes for good escapist fun with incredible camp value, while also having enough genuinely good material (i.e., its songs) to make the movie into a bona fide classic instead of just a camp classic. There is a reason why this film persistently makes it onto critics' "must-see" lists of Bollywood movies. It is not because this film represents the finest of Indian art cinema. This is no "Mother India" by any means. Rather, this film represents Bollywood (i.e., Hindi-language commercial cinema) in top form. For those who were uninitiated with Bollywood films, this makes an excellent initiation film.
You will not walk away from "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" feeling inspired or moved. You will, however, walk away from it with a smile on your face. As silly as what you just saw was, there was something enjoyable about it.
The story, the characters, the choreography, the music, even the fight scenes are all very stereotypically Bollywood. The story is long, predictable, and melodramatic. Most of the characters are one-dimensional. Those that aren't are given "depth" in typical Bollywood fashion, i.e., by having them behave completely opposite in the last act of the film than they did in the first act. The scenes in India, London, and Switzerland are all beautifully filmed -- so beautifully, in fact, that they live up to the Bollywood stereotype of having bright, colorful, over-the-top locations for each of the song-and-dance numbers, and continue to reinforce Bollywood's love affair with Europe and European culture. The music is constant, pleasant, quite melodic, quite thematic, and always somehow upbeat, with heavy use of strings, the sitar, and the piano. The fight scenes are incredibly bad, again in true Bollywood fashion. The only thing missing is the requisite courtroom scene.
And yet, in spite of all of this -- or, perhaps, because of it -- there is no doubt that "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" is an incredibly charming film. It makes for good escapist fun with incredible camp value, while also having enough genuinely good material (i.e., its songs) to make the movie into a bona fide classic instead of just a camp classic. There is a reason why this film persistently makes it onto critics' "must-see" lists of Bollywood movies. It is not because this film represents the finest of Indian art cinema. This is no "Mother India" by any means. Rather, this film represents Bollywood (i.e., Hindi-language commercial cinema) in top form. For those who were uninitiated with Bollywood films, this makes an excellent initiation film.
You will not walk away from "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" feeling inspired or moved. You will, however, walk away from it with a smile on your face. As silly as what you just saw was, there was something enjoyable about it.