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ShareFrom the User’s Guide to Indian Films Intro
The movies described in the User’s Guide are the hit list of Indian cinema. They’re not only the best films of all time, but they give you the best glimpse of what Indians enjoy, their sense of tragedy and comedy, their aspirations, their regrets. In short, it’s a visual chronicle of Indian society in the last 50 years. Enjoy.
Week 8: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (“Something’s Happening”)
1998, Color, Hindi.
Dir: Karan Johar
Karan Johar is the boy wonder of Bollywood. He wrote and directed Kuch Kuch Hota Hai when he was only 25. It went on to become the biggest hit in Indian cinema - surpassing even DDLJ. What was the secret to the phenomenal success of this sweet musical romantic-comedy? That idyll of bourgeois pleasure and prosperity: 1960s America. Johar, like many Indians from wealthy families, grew up reading Archie comics and watching Disney films and The Brady Bunch. Archie and his gang of frisky teenage friends and that co-ed paradise of jocks and cheerleaders known as Riverdale High serve as the inspiration for Johar’s tale of Punjabi puppy love. Cocky playboy Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) falls for the principal’s stylish daughter, Tina (Rani Mukherji), breaking the heart of his best friend, brash tomboy, Anjali (Kajol). Tina dies shortly after childbirth leaving poor Rahul to raise their daughter alone. But through the help of Tina’s letters, Rahul and Tina’s daughter, who Tina named Anjali (a little cloying, perhaps?), reunites Rahul with his best friend and fated love, Anjali.. The appeal of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai operates largely on nostalgia—Archie, The Parent Trap, Beach Blanket Bingo, the Hollywood movies of the ‘60s that worshiped teens, mass consumption, and the wholesome nuclear family. And Johar cleverly reunited Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, two stars whose palpable on-screen chemistry was endearing and achingly tender.
