The plot for today’s film, Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, is inspired by the Sandra Bullock vehicle While You Were Sleeping. I’ve never actually seen While You Were Sleeping,
so I won’t be commenting on similarities and differences between the
two films; I won’t be mentioning the American film at all after this, in
fact. I only mention it now because it gives me the chance to say that
Salman Khan is playing the Sandra Bullock part, and that’s a phrase
I’ll probably never have the chance to use again.
Raj (Salman Khan) is an aspiring singer from Goa who travels to the big city in search of a career. In Mumbai, he meets up with his childhood friend Abdul (Neeraj Vora), and begins to chase his dream, rather casually conning Abdul’s uncle (Shakti Kapoor) out of 200,000 rupees in the process. Still, all Raj’s efforts are met with dismal failure, and he decides to go back to Goa. Before he can, however, he witnesses a car dramatically crashing onto the nearby railroad tracks; Raj rushes to assist, and manages to pull the driver (Rani Mukherjee) from the car at the last moment. He takes her to the hospital, and because she’s dressed in bridal attire, the staff all assume that he’s her husband. When her family arrive, they all make the same assumption; it seems Pooja ( the young woman) ran off with a man named Romi without her family’s approval. Whan Raj tries to extricate himself from the situation, Pooja’s father (Rajeev Verma) suffers a heart attack, and the family accountant (Paresh Rawal) begs him to carry on as Romi until he recovers. Since Pooja is in a coma, she voices no objections, so Raj keeps up the pretense, especially since a local music executive, thinking Raj is the Oberoi son-in-law, offers him a recording contract.
The plot thickens when Pooja’s best friend and the accountant’s daughter, Jahnvi (Preity Zinta) comes back from America. Fortunately, she never met Romi in person. Unfortunately, Raj falls in love with her at first sight, and as her best friend’s presumed husband, is in no position to do anything about it.
This is not a tightly plotted film. Much of the storytelling depends on coincidence, and people make major life decisions only because it serves the plot. Still, the characters are engaging, the musical numbers are pretty good (if a bit heavy on the “Yeah, yeah"s), people dance on the edge of cliffs for no reason, and we get fine performances from both Rani and Preity, and a reasonable performance from Salman. While Salman has nice chemistry with both the female leads, the real chemistry is between Rani and Preity. No, not like that - I mean the friendship between the two comes off as really genuine and unforced, and the viewer believes that each would be willing to sacrifice her happiness for the other.
Speaking of self sacrifice: in Western romantic movies, the belief is that love can and should conquer all, and a lover must follow his or her heart above all things. Bollywood doesn’t work that way. In Bollywood, true love places somewhere well after family duty, looking after the happiness of others, and keeping your word. BW protagonists go out of their way to nobly sacrifice their love for a higher cause, and the plot will often twist to an outrageous degree to give them the opportunity to do so. In the few cases when BW protagonists do follow their heart, the movie doesn’t end there. There are always consequences.
HDJPK is not a great film; plot holes abound. Still, I found it very entertaining. I was especially pleased by HDJPK’s take on the traditional cameo by an A-list star to resolve the love triangle.
Raj (Salman Khan) is an aspiring singer from Goa who travels to the big city in search of a career. In Mumbai, he meets up with his childhood friend Abdul (Neeraj Vora), and begins to chase his dream, rather casually conning Abdul’s uncle (Shakti Kapoor) out of 200,000 rupees in the process. Still, all Raj’s efforts are met with dismal failure, and he decides to go back to Goa. Before he can, however, he witnesses a car dramatically crashing onto the nearby railroad tracks; Raj rushes to assist, and manages to pull the driver (Rani Mukherjee) from the car at the last moment. He takes her to the hospital, and because she’s dressed in bridal attire, the staff all assume that he’s her husband. When her family arrive, they all make the same assumption; it seems Pooja ( the young woman) ran off with a man named Romi without her family’s approval. Whan Raj tries to extricate himself from the situation, Pooja’s father (Rajeev Verma) suffers a heart attack, and the family accountant (Paresh Rawal) begs him to carry on as Romi until he recovers. Since Pooja is in a coma, she voices no objections, so Raj keeps up the pretense, especially since a local music executive, thinking Raj is the Oberoi son-in-law, offers him a recording contract.
The plot thickens when Pooja’s best friend and the accountant’s daughter, Jahnvi (Preity Zinta) comes back from America. Fortunately, she never met Romi in person. Unfortunately, Raj falls in love with her at first sight, and as her best friend’s presumed husband, is in no position to do anything about it.
This is not a tightly plotted film. Much of the storytelling depends on coincidence, and people make major life decisions only because it serves the plot. Still, the characters are engaging, the musical numbers are pretty good (if a bit heavy on the “Yeah, yeah"s), people dance on the edge of cliffs for no reason, and we get fine performances from both Rani and Preity, and a reasonable performance from Salman. While Salman has nice chemistry with both the female leads, the real chemistry is between Rani and Preity. No, not like that - I mean the friendship between the two comes off as really genuine and unforced, and the viewer believes that each would be willing to sacrifice her happiness for the other.
Speaking of self sacrifice: in Western romantic movies, the belief is that love can and should conquer all, and a lover must follow his or her heart above all things. Bollywood doesn’t work that way. In Bollywood, true love places somewhere well after family duty, looking after the happiness of others, and keeping your word. BW protagonists go out of their way to nobly sacrifice their love for a higher cause, and the plot will often twist to an outrageous degree to give them the opportunity to do so. In the few cases when BW protagonists do follow their heart, the movie doesn’t end there. There are always consequences.
HDJPK is not a great film; plot holes abound. Still, I found it very entertaining. I was especially pleased by HDJPK’s take on the traditional cameo by an A-list star to resolve the love triangle.
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