The Perfect Romance

Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge that marked film-maker Aditya Chopra’s debut in filmdom, has been in news for making the cut as the longest running Indian film with 1000 weeks at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir. The more significant achievement however, is its contribution to creating new business territories and a new template for the romantic hero. Such was its popularity that the Kajol-Shah Rukh Khan jodi caught the junta’s imagination, putting them in the league Bollywood’s favourite on-screen couples.
It altered the business remarkably by harnessing the Indian diaspora with a common cultural ties that existed beyond the home territory. The NRIs, complete with western clothes, the unmistakable firang accent and yet, with an acutely desi penchant for karva chauth and colourful sangeets have since gone on to create their very own niche in the narrative of Indian cinema—a few within the mainstream and others outside.
Chopra had perhaps, unexpectedly broken new ground because a larger number of directors till then struggled within the ambiguity of rural and urban India. And this was a time when multiplexes with expensive tickets for burgeoning middle class were still a distant reality in India. The diaspora audience which paid for tickets in pounds and dollars, over time, became quite significant, perhaps far more than the small town denizens whose cinema needs were serviced by single screens that demanded a pittance in comparison for tickets.
DDLJ’s popularity among the NRIs perhaps gave King Khan a head start over his contemporaries when it came to foreign territories. Among the Khan triumvirate, Shah Rukh Khan evolved and shaped into the slick urbane hero with an appeal that transcended national boundaries. It is to Khan’s credit that he grew this fan base and is now one of the most widely followed Indian stars around the world with fans in European countries.
Of course, a lot else has changed all around us. Romance, since DDLJ which combines the western sensibility and Indian sanskar—Raj (Khan) is comfortable with holding up a girl’s innerwear in jest, but refuses to elope without her father’s consent—is a lot easier and permissive. Promiscuous even. The Swiss Alps, London combined with Punjab’s sarson ke khet; all captured the dual identity and expanding universe of the globe-wandering Indian in a rather succinct way.
But beyond the business savvy and fresh approach to a love story, Chopra’s effort was laud-worthy for its sensitivity in projecting the dilemma of the modern educated Indian woman and her conflicted identity. That Simran (Kajol) has to literally plead for taking the liberty of living the way she wants to before being married off to a boy of her father’s choice is telling. Even the leading lady admitted that she could hardly understand why Simran was so afraid of asserting her own identity and speaking her mind before her parents! But scores of girls empathised and identified with Simran’s dilemma, hoping against hope to find their Prince Charming who was not just handsome like Raj, but also as patient and understanding of the travails of an Indian girl.
The romantic hero both on -screen or off it, has never been the same again. Chopra and Khan can take a bow.