The Popular Loner- Dil Chahta Hai

I am sure all of you have seen the movie Dil Chahta Hai. For the few who have not, its a must-see. It is the perfect coming of age movie made by the son of the famous father who simply from there has moved on in life.

The three protagonists of the movie make us all identify with the three friends who we had at some point of life.

There is Akash Malhotra, a Bandra brat with his lifestyle, clothes and attitude which were unheard of in those days. Someone who loves to live life king size and everything meaningful in life is vapour for him. He is all about things nice and elite. I mean having breakfast with a fork knife with a napkin on your collar was not something Hindi movies showed.

Sameer as the funny, forever ( sometimes unintentionally ) falling in love boy.

And lastly Siddartha aka SID a sensitive painter who i find the most alluring. In fact, he is me. The Popular Loner.

To be honest, i did have the kind of childhood and formative years like the characters in DCH. We used to have long drives, birthday parties in Kobe Sizzler and Sea Rock and lots of fun. After all there was a certain sense of false achievement that we are staying at Cadel Road, Mumbai.

Sid is me and i am him in more ways than ever. He wears a simple watch with a black strap likely to be Titan. He is a boy who is content to draw a picture of someone at a party when everyone else is eyeing for dates. In the movie there is no mention of his father, so it can be understood that he had passed away or separated . Yet there has not been shown any sense of poverty or the need to earn money which was the typical thing in our movies drawing d character to a more realistic normal life. He lives in a huge house with his mother who wears classy sarees. He has a room full for his paintings which is his den of solitude (as is shown in the initial scenes )not needed where they have the paint fight later in the movie.

A trip to Goa in a Mercedes, has him explain some philosophy to the young girl who chases Akash all the time… it has stayed with me… Life is like the grains of sand and the harder we grasp it the more it goes from our fist.

The fact that his thinking is really deep as compared to the others shows in two scenes-

where they are standing at the fort and seeing the ship that goes by… and

when Tara asks him about his fav painting he says- “wo to maine ab take banayi nahi hai  ”

The most fascinating turn of events is the arrival of Tara..his muse and love of his life. He just watches her struggle with the bags and then gets them all in. Tara senses the sense of brooding in him with his paintings and has deep emotions for him too. The most amazing part of the movie are his clashes with Akash about his insensitive and inappropriate comments as humour. “Hum dost hai iska matlab ye zaroori nahi ki humain ek dousre ki har baat chi lage, har dosti mein ek hadd hoti hai.”

Love for him is not expecting the other person to say I love you too.love to him was watching his own feelings grow and express in its pure and unedited way to her….till her last breathe. Just because nobody else will understand why i love her, doesn’t mean that my love is unreal or false…for that matter its not fr anyone..its my soul finding.
And guess what…it all makes sense to people who we fear will never get it…exactly like a huge emotional hugs and tears of the reuniting of three of them.

Thank you Farhan and Akshaye Khanna. I have grown and learned a lot.
Leaving you with the words of my fav song in this movie.. yes at par with Jaane kyu..

Kaise kisi ko bataye.. kaiser ye samjhaye kya pyaar hai
Isme bandhan nahi hai aur na koi deewaar hai
Suno pyaar ki niraali hai daastan…

Love always,
Pushkar

Comments

Dr Nidhi Dev
October 14, 2019 at 7:37 am

This movie is one of my favourites too. But this point of view is so enchanting! Delightful piece of writing, sir!



Vibha Vaswani
October 14, 2019 at 12:02 pm

The most beautiful description that got me nostalgic of every scene of this movie..Beautifully put down Sir 🙂



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