Trip to Maratha Temple for 30th Anniversary of DDLJ

October, 1995.

I was 18, just starting out as a film writer, when I first saw and reviewed Aditya Chopra’s film The one who has heart will take the bride away. – Or DDLJAs people say it even after 30 years.

As a generation or two grew up with one of the most important films in Shah Rukh Khan’s filmography, our views on the film have also evolved and changed with time. So, visit the Maratha temple, where DDLJ Showing the only show at 11.30 am every day for the last 30 years (except the closure due to pandemic) was nothing less than time travel.

For ₹50, you get a balcony seat – and yes, about 200 of them were filled that day. It is a common practice to let the audience fill the balcony so that the auditorium appears full.

The Maratha Temple itself feels frozen in time – a 1958 relic near Mumbai Central that has recently been renovated with fresh light, where my film critic friend observed that some patrons come less for the nostalgia and more for the air conditioning. This place, with its cheap tickets, doubles as a kind of informal waiting room – people chat on the phone, occasionally glancing at the screen to annoy regular fans who have made trips across town or the country for their bucket lists.

A movie viewer in the Maratha temple. Photo courtesy: Indranil Mukherjee

love letter to patriarchy

“This is London… no one knows me except the pigeons,” begins the film with the voice of the patriarch (Amrish Puri), who misses his Punjab and yearns to go back home. “Roti paon ki zanjeer ban gayi hai” (Bread has put chains on my feet), he laments while feeding pigeons. Those were simpler times, before anti-pigeon propaganda. Today, Mumbai reminds citizens not to feed those spreading disease and producing toxic waste. We have kept other pigeons. The day after Diwali, almost the entire balcony burst into applause when the opening credits introduced Shah Rukh Khan as Raj and Kajol as Simran – as if the makers knew how these characters would become household names.

A visitor to the Maratha temple. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

While debut director Aditya Chopra’s generation saw it as desi before sunrise (1995), in which Raj and Simran fall in love on the Eurail route, father Yash Chopra’s generation saw it as the story of two NRI fathers played by the traditional Amrish Puri and the liberal Anupam Kher. One believes that the daughter should get used to her tears and take control of herself, or in the words of the mother, played by Farida Jalal, “She had no right to dream.” And the other wants his son to live his youth, too, if he feels he missed out on it – a youth that flew away while he was trying to make a living. This may have happened to every Indian parent in the 1990s – with different rules for sons and daughters – but here was a film that was supposed to start an important conversation and inspire generations of filmmakers to perpetuate it.

An iconic scene was seen during the screening of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge at Maratha Temple. Photo courtesy: Indranil Mukherjee

Karan Johar, who plays the hero’s best friend DDLJCreated the Dulhania franchise with Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, where the girl took the decisions and the boy had to develop the backbone. Luv Ranjan goes a step further and shows the ugly side of what really happens in an arranged marriage setup, even if the guy is IIT/IIM educated. marital rape topics Oracle Frustrated with this, the audience left the hall midway. Recently Aryan Khan in evils of bollywood Exposes the hypocrisy of patriarchy in his love letter to his father. The true test of a film is to see when the audience claps the loudest after 30 years. Sure, they still cheer for Shah Rukh Khan in shorts running around with an oval rugby ball in the rain, or when Kajol gets drunk and starts dancing to ‘Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main’ – but the biggest joy in the first half was for Shah Rukh in ‘Ruk Jaa O Dil Deewane’ – for telling the story through Farah Khan’s choreography – the chemistry that built up later. I am here right, Om Shanti Om And happy new yearOther songs were by Saroj Khan. So yes, times were changing.

A scene from the film Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The most unexpected applause was at the end of ‘Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko’ when Simran waves at an imaginary Raj, and then when, outside House No. 13, Raj learns that Simran and family have left London – but then he finds a Swiss cowbell, which whistles during the intermission. The beauty of the film is how well it contrasts and balances the two sides of Indians – bohemian Europeans on holidays and Indians at weddings – the modern and the traditional. and its ugly side DDLJ – Last 15 minutes – Still feeling as nervous as 30 years ago. Giving simran is not a father’s ‘trust’, and the basic decent thing a father should do with a daughter’s happiness in mind should not be the generous, praise-worthy gesture it is supposed to be. Yet “Ja Simran…Jee Le Apni Zindagi” still makes the audience happy.

A scene from the film Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Perhaps we think so little of conventional minds that we want to appreciate acts of basic decency. Yes, times have changed, romance has changed – but as the generous father tells his son: “The name of love is still love.” No matter the circumstances, love is still truly love.