Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999)

A creative adoption of novel by Maitreyi Devi, some great performances by Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan , wonderful screenplay by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and a judgmental and sweet music score by Ismail Darbar, These are few things which combine to make this a masterpiece. Film is a simple love triangle but how Bansali has served it to us is watchable. He has mixed the Perfection of direction, the strength of the emotion and joy of drama together in a way the best it could be. nobody can expect that a actress can give such a heart touching beautiful performance in just starting of her acting carrier like Aishwarya Rai did and I am still wondering how Bhansali trusted her that she could carry this big movie on her own shoulder as a fresher in industry but she did it. She lived the character of Nandini and played both her life phases so genuinely in this film that it is still one of her career's great performances. Ajay Devgan, everybody knows is a great and deep actor and he does full judgment to the expectations. His entry in the movie creates excitement and brings freshness to the Soryline. Salman Khan's has both comic and emotional touch and his performance is average in movie. Sets are Grand and the colorful and magnetic culture of Rajasthan and Gujrat states is shown beautifully in movie. Story line is so gripping that we connect us to the story right from the starting and dialogs are so good that our opinion changes according to the situation in the movie. Cinematography is nice and costumes are just perfect for every scene. Last but not the least, it is the music score of the movie which take audiences to the deep of the movie and helps actors to express their emotions on screen because it so much situational and composed beautifully. Thanks to Ismail Darbar. A MUST WATCH MOVIE IF YOU LOVE 1.PERFECTION IN MOVIE, 2.MEANINGFUL CINEMA AND YES 3.INDIAN CULTURE.

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is a spectacle of a film in the tradition of films made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) is the free spirited beautiful daughter of renowned musician Pandit Darbar (Vikram Gokhale). A half Indian half Italian young man Samir Raffilini (Salman Khan) comes to learn classical Indian music from Pandit Darbar. The inevitable romance follows and is interspersed with lots of humor, music and dancing. There is excellent chemistry between the lead pair and all seems to be well until the parents find out and as Gurudakshina Samir is asked to leave Nandini and go away forever. In the meantime Nandini has caught the fancy of a young lawyer Vanraj (Ajay Devgan). The parents arrange a marriage between Nandini and Vanraj. Vanraj soon finds out that his reluctant and indifferent bride is in love with another man. He decides to take her to Italy so she can find her true love. The rest is a story well worth watching.HDDCS is infused with energy, color and music in the first half and with a somber mood in the second half. The question one has to ask is what are the lengths to which a man can and will go in the name of selfless love, and what is the true meaning of love. The film is full of a dreamy mood, excellent locales in the desert, exquisite buildings, divine music and amazingly choreographed dance numbers. What is a bit jarring is Poland in the guise of Italy! But who really cares when all else gels well.The acting is actually very good - Aishwarya shines as Nandini the perky girl, but is a bit whiny as Nandini the separated lover. Salman is okay - I never do like him, but this is probably the best I have ever seen him and one can see why Nandini falls for him. All that talking to his dead Dad is strange and creepy. Ajay Devgan is excellent as Vanraj. His is perhaps the most uniformly well acted role in the film. You like him as the Vanraj who falls in love, and really like him as the self sacrificing Vanraj. In the moments beside the river in "Italy" when he is a little drunk - he is astoundingly good. The other supporting cast is good. But why does every Bhansali film have an evil witch-like relative? The music by Ismail Durbar is pleasing. My favorite numbers are Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan, Dholi Taro, and Nimbooda is excellently danced.Flaws? The evil witch aunt, the strange attackers in Poland, Aishwarya whining, Salman talking to his dead Dad all the time, a lot of irritating relatives in the Darbar family, the turban tying, kite flying contests..But all in all, Mr. Bhansali directs with a lot of heart and the film is generally good. Well worth a watch so go see it!

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It did most of the things I expect from Bollywood ... good songs, good dancing, a ridiculously hot girl, and at least initially a petty and simplistic plot.As the movie progressed, things got a lot more interesting and my hopes for the movie grew quite a bit as the husband character entered the picture.At the end, however, I can't help but feeling this movie let me down. It seemed to me to be a poor exercise in rationalizing the custom of arranged marriages and therefore an exercise in rationalizing what is effectively institutionalized slavery (the transfer of property rights ... in this case the "property" being Aishwarya). At the end we have the female lead expressing such notions as "love means sacrifice" which may be true, and was indeed noble when the husband was trying to find Sameer for her (although I don't quite know why the husband thinks he "loves" her when in fact he didn't know her at all at that point. He just recognized she was good-looking) but in this case the notion of sacrifice is only used as a rationalization for why Aishwarya should be willing to take on the traditional subservient role to her father and husband. CLEARLY her love of Kahn must have been silly, vain, and wrong because she wasn't "sacrificing" in that case, but now that she's agreed to do what all the males wanted her to do in the first place it is only NOW that she really understands what love means (a lesson naturally taught to her by her "husband"). And plus, her husband isn't really such a bad guy after all, so why rock the boat ... right? All pure rubbish, but I'm sure the people that feel arranged slavery is fine and dandy will have no problem sleeping at night after the twisted rationalizations that made it fine and dandy in this movie.Also, the depiction of Italians was borderline racist, but that wasn't central to the plot so I'll leave that one alone ...

The second half of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is loosely inspired by the 1983 Naseeruddin- Padmini- Anil Kapoor film "Woh 7 Din" which itself was a remake of a South Indian Film.The first half's plot is from Maitrayi Devi's Bengali novel "Na Hanyate" (English translation: It does not die) which was written in response to world-renowned scholar Mircea Eliade's semi-autobiographical novel "Bengal Nights". There are several resemblances, including the 'mirchi-eating' incident, which suggest that they are more than uncanny resemblances.There are numerous films in several languages which have been based on literary works. There is nothing inherently wrong in that, except that in this case, Bhansali has not acknowledged the 'right' source of his work. We have heard that HDDCS has been based on a script told to him by one of his Gujarati fans. Really, Mr Bhansali? Or is it a case of acting naive and passing the responsibility of plagiarism to your Gujarati fan when one finds out?