For better or worse, few things seem to define the term ‘Bollywood’ as succinctly as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, and understandably enough, there was much celebration as the film turned 25 a few days ago.
An entire generation went into a nostalgia overdrive reliving a film that despite its thematic misgivings not only went on to become synonymous with the popular Hindi film template but also ensured that a certain level of incompetence became the guiding light for future filmmakers.
More than a celebration of Bombay cinema, the Yash Chopra-produced and Aditya Chopra-directed film is a commemoration of the way the internet and social media have shaped the way a film is viewed.
It is interesting to see how new media has transformed the process of viewing popular culture. While on the one hand the democratisation of the entire process has broken the shackles of the control a few wielded on what could be considered massy enough to be talked about, on the other hand, it has also ensured that the focus remains selective.
On the face of it, this might appear a contradiction but scratch a little, and one sees how the attention is concentrated on the typical.
One of the reasons why DDLJ was routinely celebrated could have to do with the arrival of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As much time had passed from films such as Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Sangam (1964) or Guide (1965) when Aditya Chopra made DDLJ as it has today. The influence of these films can barely be seen on DDLJ, however, its effect on what followed is unmistakable.
A significant part of the joy that DDLJ evokes within the average viewer could be organic; the film has its share of moments and what have you, but to say anything more is a testimony to the power that social media has to sway perception.
By the time new media emerged, the film had completed a five-year run at a theatre in Mumbai. Consequently, each anniversary of the film invited swathes of online articles on how this was akin to the late 1970s where Sholay or the early 1980s when Hero had a similar impact.
The constant comparison placed DDLJ in the same league but unlike the past, the more social media and the internet grew, the bigger its ‘impact’ became.
More than the film turning 25 or the continual cultural success it enjoys, the real success is how DDLJ created trapdoors that automatically open under anyone who calls out such nostalgic overdrive where if you question the excess, you only add to it.
gautam@chintamani.org
Gautam Chintamani
Film historian and bestselling author