Dil Se.. (1998)

This movie is not meant for anyone looking for a "masala" or commercial movie simply due to presence of a commercially successful actor in it! It stands out on all parameters being assessed in reviewing or judging a movie as per Indian standards. Shah Rukh Khan is not what he is thought to be and this can be proved by watching this movie alone. You cannot expect any superstar to choose so demanding and intense roles at peak of their career. He is soul and Manisha is body of this movie. They both have broken all the stereotypes and its a treat to have them on your screen for 2H:43Mins. The music is phenomenal and direction is awesome but I wont discuss about it much because others have already done it! I would insist you to go and give this movie a try and just feel it from within, you'll understand how clearly SRK has shown all seven shades of love as discussed by an Arabic literature. Beauty also lies in eyes of Manisha which is so expressive that you'll straight away feel the pain and agony she is going through. This movie has got some of the best actors of contemporary Hindi cinema, namely Piyush Mishra, Sanjay Mishra, Raghuvir Yadav, Aditya Shrivastav, Priety Zinta, Zohra Sehgal, etc. This movie can be called an example of parallel cinema and still you wont feel it sluggish or boring due to artistry and cinematography being executed so well. Hats off to Mani Ratnam for giving us this masterpiece and whole team to execute it up so beautifully. Thank you guys for this piece of art, It would be a pleasure for us if we can get something like again in future. Till then this movie would have a special place in my heart and life.

The movie begins at a north eastern railway station in India where on a stormy night Amar(Shah Rukh Khan) meets a beautiful young woman : Manisha Koirala. Thus begins the saga of a beautifully picturized tale full of suspense and uncertainty .Mani Ratnam , as always the genius storyteller he is , keeps us under his spell for the entire time. Shah Rukh Khan does a brilliant job as a Radio Jockey for the All India Radio while Manisha Koirala plays her part in a quite challenging role as a motivated but love struck suicide bomber . Preity Zinta is lovable as a young adult with her marriage round the corner to Amar. She is playfully meek and absolutely fits into the role of an about to be married young girl .Mani Ratnam through his 'gem' has also tried to put light onto the grim and often neglected scenario in the North East where Rebels are trying to get for their region what they deserve . Being cut off from the mainland and being quite a distance from the National Capital seems to have made the government officials oblivious to the plight of the citizens there with people having far less resources and opportunities than mainland India.A R Rahman's music is mesmerizing with Lata Mangeshkar stealing the show with her masterpiece "Jiya Jale" and Sukhwinder Singh with the famous train song "Chhaiya Chhaiya" being totally out of the world.It concludes in a melodramatic fashion , this film has all that brings out all the emotions from the viewer . A definite must watch for one and all.

The last movie in Ratnam's terror trilogy and I must say the previous two flicks, Roja & Bombay were awesome! Not that Dil Se.. is bad, but you know the movie is very long unnecessarily.Shahrukh Khan is amazing with his phenomenal acting - all the aspects as an actor were taken care of. Manisha Koirala, I think, sucked with her ever gloomy face and crooked gait. Preity Zinta did what she was supposed to.Why Indian public loathed this movie is yet another theory which strengthens the hold that it is too realistic but shows the truth altogether.Soundtrack is amazing just like its predecessors.Can be watched with a typical Indian family? MAYBELanguage: No Sex: No Mouth-Kiss: Yes, but is taken from a long shot Nudity: A semi-visible rape seen can be seen; bodies are hidden Violence: Yes; no goreFore more - [email protected]

Scene 1- (Year 1998) I was 11, when i took my brother with me forcefully to watch my favorite actor's(Srk's) movie. The movie had already bombed at the Indian box office. But i heard somewhere that this movie has made it to the Top 10 list of UK Box office. So i insisted, but later regretted. After the movie was over,i was like-- where is the real SRK that we all love??why is he overreacting in the movie??what is this girl doing in the movie??. Though i loved Preity Zinta like all of us did. But i thought i would never watch such movie again in my life.Cut 2--(Year 2009) I have been a regular visitor of IMDb, there are 100's of movies which i loved and i have watched it over n over again, but never bothered to register on this site to comment on them. But today, I broke my years long promise of not to watch this movie and i saw it again, and i was taken aback. I specially took some time out to register on this website and to post something about this movie. I did this just because of the following reasons, which actually justify why i have given 10 stars rating to this movie: - -- It is one of the most intelligent movies that Bollywood has ever produced. Expect few songs, the entire movie runs at a very fast speed.-- Santosh Sivan did a wonderful job in not only capturing the beauty of Ladakh, but also in involving us as much as he could.-- A.R. Rehman's best work till date. Though some songs were unnecessarily added in the movie, but still I didn't mind that because they are simple outstanding. Not just his songs but also his background music is something to write about, which is simply superb.-- High production values.-- Proper doses of humour and romantic elements, has made this Romantic thriller, very pleasant to watch.-- Extra Ordinary Direction by Mani Ratnam.( I don't know how much Shekhar Kapoor, Ram Gopal Verma and Bobby Bedi were involved in writing and execution of the movie)The story is powerful and its execution is out of the world.The subject has been treated very cleverly by Mani Ratnam.-- Lastly and most importantly, Supreme Performances by its lead actors. After few minutes into the movie, I never felt that this is SRK and Manisha Koirala, who are acting there in Sub Zero temperature. This is SRK's best work till date. No one in bollywood could have played this part with such an obsession like SRK did. Not for a second, i thought this is SRK. I was so involved in his character and that was possible only and only because of SRK. Manisha Koirala has done complete justice to her role of meghana. Just watch her emote in every sequence of this movie. Its really sad to see that she is not getting good roles now a days. What a waste of such a brilliant actress. Both the actors deserved an award, but there used to be a rule in bollywood(and still is??)that if the movie is a success, the even the worst actors can get best actor's award.Just because indians were not ready for such an intelligent movie, this movie was a disaster at the Indian Box Office. But, this is a Masterpiece which grows over you with every scene of it.