[.ca] Dil Se..

Pure Magic!:
Dil Se is a movie that captures you on so many levels. The actors are wonderful and it's a pity that Shahrukh Khan is not better known here in the USA, because he is pure magic. Maybe if you think of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro combined with someone with great moves, who can really dance, you just might come close to describing Shahrukh. As one of India's huge Bollywood stars, Shahrukh has one of those marvelous subtle faces that can simultaneously express multiple layers of feeling. In one moment he is handsome, seductive, and in the next he is vulnerable, awkward, and compellingly ordinary. His enigmatic, little boy, rascal smile will steal your heart. There are two famous actresses in Dil Se, but Manisha Koirala plays the heroine, a lovely mountain peasant girl. At age 12, she saw her family gunned down by soldiers who then raped her. She walks in a world warped from pain and frozen emotion most of us could never comprehend and, along with her fellow terrorists, has become a suicide bomber. Shahrukh meets her by accident and mistakes her aloof cold manner for siren mystery. As she shuns his advances at every turn, he - a rather spoiled radio journalist - is driven deeper into his desire for her. That desire becomes obsession - Dil Se. She cannot become whole again to return his love, and he cannot endure life without her. He begs her to take him with her, and so she does. What draws me to this film is not just profound spontaneous depth of the actors and their willingness to show a wide range of feelings, but Dil Se made it apparent to me how stiff and mechanical my own culture has become. Even the Bollywood musical numbers are somehow fun, fresh and captivating. The sheer beauty of the photography is stunning and Manisha has the power to be a rough desert girl, a sophisticated beauty, or the most classic odalisque of the French painter Ingres. On the back of the DVD it says: Ancient Arabic literature classifies love into seven different shades...HUB...their eyes meet, it is like a touch...a spark...Attraction. UNS...the touch of the eyes was as if, it was infatuation. ISHQ...the flame of the body is felt, his breath starts igniting...Love. AQIDAT...Reverence...she touches him like a whisper, as if silence is mixed in here eyes...he prays, knelt down on the floor, a little consciously & a little unconsciously...IBADAAT...he is entangled on her path...entangled in her arms...Love turns to worship. JUNOON...his living is an Obsession...his dying is an obsession...apart from this there is no peace...MAUT...let him rest in the lap of Death...let his drown his body in her soul... DIL SE...a journey through these seven shades. Perhaps it's only poetic illusion and sweet madness, but if so - play on! I love this movie, Dil Se.

LUUUUVUN' DIL SE:
Dil se was an absolutley awesome movie. the colors, the drama, the music, the dancing...there's no way to beat it! You have to see it!

My first true Bollywood experience really opened up my eyes (and ears):
Before watching "Dil Se.." ("From the Heart") the closest I had come to seeing a Bollywood movie was "Bride and Prejudice," which had the virtue of being in English. However, if you are not reading the subtitles because the characters are speaking (and singing) in Hindi, then it does not really count. I picked "Dil Se.." for my first true Bollywood experience for the simple reason that it has the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" in it. I first heard the song in the opening sequence of Spike Lee's "Inside Man," and finally downloaded it. Discovering that it was originally in this 1998 film I decided to find out what the catchy song is all about. The joke ended up being on me because watching the movie only gave me a vague inkling on that score and I had to head to the Internet to satisfy my curiosity. I remember hearing that the great thing about Bollywood movies was that when you went to the theater and wanted to see a musical or a romance or an action film or any other genre, that is exactly what you were going to see regardless of which theater you walked into. Now I know what they meant. Amarkanth Varma (Shahrukh Khan) runs into Meghna (Manisha Koirala), and is immediately smitten by her. But they go their separate ways and he bemoans the shortest love story of all time before the film launches into the big "Chaiyya Chaiyya" production number: He whose head is in the shadow of love Will have heaven beneath his feet Whose head is in the shadow of love Walk in the shadow. Walk in heaven, walk in the shadow. There's a friend who is like a sweet fragrance, Whose words are like poetry Who is my evening, my night, my existence. That friend is my beloved! Amar works for All India Radio and has been sent from New Delhi to the northern provinces where he starts finding out about a separatist group engaging in acts of terrorism to secure a free and independent state. When it comes to politics Amar knows nothing, and he gets quite an education in that regard in this movie. I have only a general understanding of the disputed areas of Kashmir and Jammu, and it seems to be that the film is using the politics as a dramatic backdrop rather than actually taking a stand on the issues (the plague on both their houses would be another way in which "Dil Se.." is reminiscent of "Romeo & Juliet"). Meanwhile, Amar's obsession for Meghna is failing to make much of an impression on the mysterious woman, who hints at a tragic past that forestalls the possibility of love. The assumption that the political and romantic elements of the film are intertwined is correct, but like Amar we have to wait for things to be spelled out for us before it is clear how everything comes together. There is also your standard love triangle complication when Amar becomes engaged to Preity (Preity Zinta), who seems to be everything that Meghna is not, in ways both good and bad. That is the basic set up of the film, which leads to fist fights and explosions, shouting and weeping, singing and dancing, and the proverbial much much more. There are only five songs in "Dil Se..," but each is a major production and since they are not translated how they add to or comment upon the action is completely lost on me (even now that I have sought out translations of the songs on the Internet). They almost function more like commercials, providing breaks in the narrative, and there is a sense in which the story would be more riveting without the musical digressions. It would also be a lot less fun, which is of some consequence in a film that runs 2 hours and 43 minutes. I do not know how representative of Bollywood director Mani Ratnam's film might be, and I am only now become aware of the requisite stages from "hub" (attraction) to "maut" (death) are key to the formula, which only tells me that the happy ever after ending of "Bride & Prejudice" may well be another aberration from the Bollywood model. Just do not ask me what American movie most reminds me of this entertaining conglomerate of cinematic elements because I seriously do not have a clue.