Review of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) by Dani M — 16 Nov 2018

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is a modern love drama that shifted the paradigm for Bollywood films when it was released in 1998. The movie stars Bollywood power couple Kajol and Shahrukh Kahn-two of India's most globally renowned actors-as well as Rani Mukerji. It tells the story of Rahul (the cool jock played by heartthrob SRK) who falls in love with Tina (Mukerji's hottie next door) and Anjali (Kajol's awkward tomboy) who realizes her love for Rahul too late. The movie starts with widowed Rahul and his young daughter Anjali (named after Rahul's college best friend) with a series of letters from her late mother Tina that take us through an extended flashback to their college years. The rest of the film (arguably a bit dragged out, but fun nonetheless) is young Anjali's adventure as she works with the universe to reunite Rahul and Anjali.

The film is directed by Karan Johar whose films introduced a seismic shift in Hindi cinema in the 1990's and as Sangita Gopal writes, "marked what cinema scholars term as the Bollywoodization of Hindi film." His films are characteristically melodramatic and over the top-from the fantastical nature of the plot, the huge celebrity casts, the elaborate dance and song sequences to the sheer extravagance of the set and costume design. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is exactly this-Bollywood to a whole new extreme.

Set in a larger-than-life college campus that hardly resembles any real educational institution in India, this movie is a clear departure from old Bollywood. Saris are swapped out for Gap hoodies and neon leggings, traditional accessories for visors and necklaces that spell out the word C-O-O-L. The songs sequences also have a new sound, which made the movie album the bestselling soundtrack of the year and really reminds the viewer that this is a new era of Bollywood-nothing like that of the earlier generation. Rather than guided by social critique or the family's opposition to the star couple that characterizes older films, this movie sends a new message: in the universe of Bollywood, love conquers all. Similar to the other wildly successful KJo film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (which also stars SRK and Kajol), KKHH uses fantastically entertaining humor, catchy and colorful song sequences and the glitter and glam of the era's biggest starts to create a Bollywood movie that is longer, funnier, and more extravagant than those that came before it, all wrapped up with the perfect happy ending that viewers expect.