Review of Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) by Emily P — 13 Nov 2018

Dil To Pagal Hai is a love story amongst dancers in the same dance troupe. Nisha (Karisma Kapoor) is clearly in love with her best friend, Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan). However, after an injury, Rahul needs to find a dancer to replace Nisha in their upcoming performance called "Maya." After multiple coincidences, Rahul finds Pooja (Madhuri Dixit) to dance the part. Throughout the film, Rahul and Pooja fall in love but neither does anything about it until it's almost too late.

Dil To Pagal Hai and the film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham both involved a female character who gave up her love for a man she believed would never love her back (respectively Nisha and Naina). The supportive friend is a common female character throughout many Bollywood films but in these instances, they go above and beyond. However, in Dil To Pagal Hai, Nisha becomes much more of an asset to Rahul's ultimate happiness than Naina, who pretty much left after she realized that Rahul (in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham) would never be completely happy with her. I absolutely loved the costumes throughout the film. Anupama Chopra even discusses Karan Johar's love of fashion but how Dil To Pagal Hai was just one film too early to really see Karan Johar turning it up a notch, especially with Shah Rukh Khan's costumes.

Even though the dancing in the rain with local children felt very out of place, I really loved that dance number. I found it very entertaining and exciting. However, my favorite dance number was the dance off between Pooja and Nisha. There was so much tension and the stakes were also extremely high for multiple reasons: Nisha believed that this could change Rahul's mind romantically, Nisha believed that this could change Rahul's mind in who he was casting as Maya, or Nisha could further injure herself. Overall, an entertaining film that kept me yelling at my T.V.