You couldn't have been a child in
the 1990s and not have been overwhelmed by the epic Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge!
I wasn’t even a teenager then, not even near being one, but I still remember
having watched this saga of love and there was born my fascination for this
phenomenon called SRK or perhaps just the eternal DDLJ Love! Ofcourse, as
time passed I grew out of it but every time I watch this movie again an
inexpressible feeling overtakes my heart for I can’t help but fall in love with
SRK’s Raj over and over again!
I must say at the onset that this
post is not for SRK detractors or people who just can’t understand the
fascination of women for SRK or DDLJ. And neither is this post about the right
age for falling in love after all it’s SRK I’m talking about! Also it's got nothing to do with Chennai Express.
I remember having watched the movie DDLJ in a hall in Shillong. It was 1995 and my winter vacations had just
begun. So on a cold December evening I went with my family to the biggest movie
theatre in Shillong, it only had so many! And in there I fell in love for the
first time in my life, quite early I must say! I fell in love even before I was
supposed to. I fell in love with the idea of Shahrukh Khan’s Raj, the idea of a man falling head over
heels in love with a girl and following her across the seven seas to fight for
her.
Men are often bewildered when women
go gaga over this movie. Well, for starters they need to be girls to fathom
DDLJ completely.
As clichéd as it sounds every woman
waits for her knight in shining armour. For the kids of the 1990s, the movie
DDLJ presented the picture of the man of their dreams. I remember having
modelled my dream man after Raj of DDLJ, as naive as it sounds! I remember
having made a wish by looking towards a falling star so that the man I end up
with resembles Raj in every sense! Silly I know but the heart wants what the
heart wants! I don’t know if it was SRK that I had fallen for, or Raj or just
SRK in the guise of Raj!
When I went to college, I remember
DDLJ being the first movie we saved into our computers. Every time we were in
need for some mush, it was DDLJ to the rescue. It just never got old! Every
time we were disappointed with the men around us we watched DDLJ. Every time we
watched this movie in our hostel we fell in love with SRK a little bit more.
Every time we watched DDLJ we repeated its dialogues to the tee! Every time we
watched and still watch DDLJ we feel a little younger and a little more
innocent!
Whether it was SRK stretching out
his hands to pull Kajol on board those classic trains, or it was Kajol and SRK
singing and dancing in Europe, or their secret rendezvous in the terrace, we
loved it all. And every time, the same scenes are played out, there’s the revival
of the dreams and feelings of that young girl in Shillong.
My husband says I’m crazy but what
does he know about the millions of crazy girls around India when it comes to
DDLJ. Ofcourse, there are exceptions like my very own sister but nevertheless
there’s hardly any escape from the magic of SRK wooing Kajol in this movie!
So are you ready to fall in love
with SRK all over again? Then what are you waiting for? Go get your copy of
DDLJ!