Review of Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) by Samara M — 16 Nov 2018

Yash Chopras's 1997 film Dil to Pagal Hai, follows Rahul (Shah Rukh Kahn), the director of a dance team, as he sets out to produce his next show that will star the yet-to-be-identified "Maya." On one hand, we think that Rahul's best friend and top female dancer in the group (who also happens to be desperately in love with Rahul) Nisha, played by Karisma Kapoor, will be tapped to play Maya. Instead, a beautiful stranger named Pooja (Madhuri Dixit) repeatedly encounters Rahul and in a classic twist of Bollywood fate, Rahul and Pooja's repeated random encounters eventually lead to the revelation that Pooja is an incredible dancer-and since Nisha has tragically injured her foot-Rahul casts Pooja as the inimitable Maya. While I enjoyed the classic fated nature of Rahul and Pooja's relationship, over the course of the film, I was continually left disappointed when the couple came to fruition. In this movie, our beloved Shah Rukh Kahn is not nearly as lovable and compelling of a hero and lover as we are used to from many of his other late 90s/early 2000s films such as DDLJ or K3G.

Anupama Chopra describes in her article "Shah Rukh Kahn: A Global Icon" our star as the one "who, in perfect proportions, blended Indian and Western cultures" in a way that made Ruhk Kahn cool and impressionable to viewers. But in this film, Shah Rukh Kahn does not achieve the same level of admirability, which I think has to do with his general disposition and demeanor as the head of his dance troupe. The best part of Dil to Pagal Hai are the sets, which mostly compromise of incredible lavish bedrooms for the young adults that are amazingly decked out in 90s style. I wanted so much to love the dance scenes-considering this is a movie all about dance-but I found that even the big group dance scenes in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham were more entertaining because they were spontaneous and grand while in this movie the dances were exactly as we would expect them to be. Sadly, the worst part of this movie for me was having to convince myself that the moral universe would be upheld through the lackluster and unconvincing chemistry of Pooja and Rahul. However, all the characters are not a lost cause: thankfully, Nisha proves to be the true hero of the movie as someone we can love and depend on to bring the moral universe together.