Dil Ka Rishta

Directed by: Naresh Malhotra

Starring: Arjun Rampal, Aishwarya Rai, Ishaa Koppikar, Paresh Rawal, Rakhee Gulzar

Released: 2003

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

Was this a film or an Argentinian soap opera? Can´t decide for the life of me. It reminds one of a train wreck (or should I say a car wreck?) - you inwardly know from the start it´s going to be horrible to watch, but you just keep on watching. Mostly because you have no idea what to do and the feeling of being utterly helpless against silliness they are trying to sale you by being all so serious. This is definitely one of those films one wonders how did everybody manage to keep a straight face.

Who´s this guy anyway?

Arjun (with some really weird, unflattering hair that kept distracting me) plays a wealthy guy Jai, who supports charity and has a habit to talk to his dead mother´s anklets in time of need. He falls in love literally on the first sight with a beautiful teacher Tia (Aish) and soon after proposes to her. Much to his unpleasant surprise Tia is already in a relationship with a perfect guy, and hence Jai has to satisfy himself with creeping up on the couple here and there with painfully unfitting joyful music in the background as he does that (Hey hey hey... la la la.....). After he drinks too much one night, Jai causes a car accident. He survives, but his friend Anita (short and useless role for Isha Koppikar) dies on the spot as well as – gasp – Tia´s husband! Tia herself survives, but looses her memory. Her amnesia is that special Bollywood kind (see also Jab Tak Hai Jaan) when reminding her would kill her you know.

Because in Bollywood you´re supposed to root for creepers.

So now we have Jai, who, instead of going to jail for killing two people because he was driving totally drunk, offers Tia´s mom (Rakhee fuming flames and basically just waiting for Karan Arjun even though she´s in a different movie) he would whisk her, Tia and Tia´s little son into South Africa, where nobody can remind Tia of her past, and he would tell her the baby is his and Anita´s. Tia accepts all this without questions and pretty much from the next day till the end she keeps blabbering how important it is to move on from those who died (HA! If only you knew you´d be the mopy one!) and does everything in her power to romance Jai, who in his turn has bad conscience.

Mere Karan Arjun aayenge!

For God´s sake snap out of it, woman!

Indeed, every ten minutes felt like an episode of a soap opera, with mood swings and silly reasons for action. The ending is abrupt and pretty much useless. If you´re waiting for some drama when Tia remembers – she is probably the first on screen character who doesn´t and happily falls in the arms of her old creeper.

Arjun is a poor actor. I used to be quite impressed by him, but more films I see the more clear it is to me how limited and repetitive he is. There is no passion in him, and while his voice is pleasant to listen to, the intonation is far from being utilized. Aishwarya is better than him, but as much as I think she rocks in subtle, quiet, dignified and mature roles, she is a major pain in bubbly/funny/girly ones – and this is one of the latter. Somebody should stop her from laughing on screen! She dances beautifully, but no song is truly memorable, and to put give you a shocking news, I don´t think she looked good in the film either.

Dil Ka Rishta is a bubblegum nonsense, a kind of story I imagine Danielle Steel putting together to make some of her female readers teary-eyed. Not worth your time if you´re looking for recommendation.

Yo te quiero Don Jai!

Daag

Directed by: Yash Chopra

Starring: Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Rakhee Gulzar

Released: 1973

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

The complete title is Daag – The poem of love, heralding right from the beginning that you are in for something cheesy and self-indulgent (though the latter not by far on the scale Yash Chopra started doing films in the 80s. Indeed compared to lavish Veer-Zaara, Chandni or Dil To Pagal Hai poor Daag looks like a disowned relative nobody talks to in family gatherings). It is also not „a poem of love“, unless you call bizarre romantic. Because bizarre, perhaps even with a capital B, it is.

After accidentally killing a man trying to rape his wife Rajesh Khanna escapes from the police, leaving bechari Sharmila Tagore pregnant and thinking he died. However as destiny would have it they meet again several years later, with Sharmila having a son and Rajesh having a huge moustache, bungalow, daughter and Rakhee Gulzar for his wife. Oh the drama! I was really curious at this point at how is Yash Chopra going to solve this one in order to please general public. But I was disappointed when it became clear that Rajesh is in fact not married to Rakhee and he is not a father to her child. He only told so everybody so to save Rakhee from gossip, because her lover had ditched her once she told him she was pregnant. And then Rajesh spent 5 years with her under one roof, with her million rupee daddy sponsoring them, growing a moustache, but he never even touched her, because you see, he loved Sharmila. As to why in the world did he never ever even tried to find her up (with millions at his dispose that wouldn´t have been so difficult anyway) is never explained. 

But even his „marrying“ Rakhee is as bizzare as hell. I for sure wouldn´t bring a random person from a train station to my home in the middle of the night, spilling to him what the rest of the world must not know and accept his immediate proposal for „marriage“ within an hour. The ending however was the most bizarre thing of all, with Rajesh and Sharmila being reunited (thus making Rakhee´s undesirable situation known to the world – which previously was that very thing they tried to stop the whole time) and choosing to live with Rakhee and her father in one household, because "their relationship is unbreakable now". BTW Rakhee was the one with millions and bungalow while Rajesh and Sharmila had, as we say in our country, naked butts. But Sharmila makes this decision seem like she is actually making a favour to Rakhee,who by the way is in love with Rajesh and thus making the whole thing even more questionable (urgh... how exactly did they arrange the house and bedrooms? And how the heck they explained it all to the kids?)

This was only my second film with Sharmila and Rajesh respectively. Rajesh I have previously watched in Khamoshi, but that one was completely Waheeda Rehman´s show. Here he showed me he had a beautiful voice, but was not really good when it came to being angry or agitated. It felt too fake really. Sharmila did well (and surprisingly was not a representative of what we today call „a Yash Chopra heroine“ aka looking like a heaven-sent creature), but the one to really capture my attention and sentiments was Rakhee. She was different in her approach than Sharmila. More focused. Less conscious of the camera. She was becoming her character with great conviction. And her character deserved so much better.

All in all I don´t think Daag is a great film. And well, I don´t think Yash Chopra is a great director either. My love for some of his films is rooted usually in performances and performers, sometimes also music. But it rarely has much to do with his direction. The self-indulgent, epicness-boasting titles do not help either.