Dil Se..

<p>Amarkant Varma is a program executive for , dispatched from to cover festivities in . On his way there, during a rainy night, Amar is stranded for hours at railway station to catch the . As he waits, he tries to have a smoke and asks a mysterious person for either a match or a lighter. Suddenly a strong gust of wind blows off the person’s shawl, revealing a beautiful woman. Amar approaches, tells her she’s beautiful, and tries to strike up a conversation. She ignores him. He persists and she eventually asks him for a cup of tea. When he returns with the tea, he watches as she boards the next train with three male passengers and rides off into the distance. Amar reaches his destination and spots the same woman in . He attempts to talk to her, but she says she cannot recall meeting him before. As part of his news reporting assignment, for the occasion of fifty years of , Amar interviews many citizens, and an chief, who blames the for and poverty in the region. The chief states the do not wish to enter into any dialogue with the government, and justifies their resistance in . Some time later, Amar describes his encounter with the woman, over the radio, which she hears. He again spots her at a in Silchar. At this juncture, she tells him to leave her alone; but he follows her and tells her that he is in love with her. She resists and tells Amar that she is married. Amar decides to apologize to her, but she arrives with two men who beat him unconscious. During the beating, Amar learns that the men are presumably her brothers and that she had lied about her being married. He rejoices in this discovery, despite being badly bruised and bloody. He reaches her home and learns from the locals that she has left. Amar then goes to the post office where he initially spotted her and bribes the PCO owner into giving him her contact details and learns that she is telephoning to . Subsequently, Amar travels to , and while recording the , a suicide bomber is chased and shot dead by the . Amar spots the woman again. As the woman and Amar board a bus, military officers question each passenger before the bus is allowed to leave. Amar tells the officers that he is reporting on the festival, and the woman falsely tells the officers that she is travelling with Amar. After some travel, the bus breaks down and the passengers are required to walk to a nearby village. En route, the woman reveals her name: Meghna. Amar continues to pursue Meghna, despite her protestations. Meghna tells Amar that her destiny prevents her from being with him. She reveals a traumatic personal history and lets slip that if they were to be together, she would want eight children. Her ambivalence and their mutual attraction is depicted by a daydream dance scene in the desert. The two end up travelling together and recuperate near one another in the desert, over night. In the morning, Amar wakes to find Meghna gone. Heartbroken, Amar returns to his home in Delhi, where his family introduces him to Preeti Nair from as a potential bride for him. Preeti confides that she was recently rejected in love and gets Amar to reveal that he was also just dumped. On their date, Amar spots one of Meghna’s associates, Kim, who banished him earlier. Amar chases him down to , where he loses track of the man. Unbeknownst to Amar, the man kills himself with a cyanide pill after being stopped by local police. Because of the extremist nature of the situation, the police relinquish the incident to the . Back at home, Amar agrees to marry Preeti and wedding preparations promptly begin. Much to Amar’s surprise, Meghna shows up at his engagement party and asks Amar for a place to stay and help getting a job at Amar’s All India Radio office, which he does. Amar continues to pine for Meghna, not knowing she arrived in Delhi as part of a group which has planned multiple in at the upcoming . She stays in Amar’s residence to escape from the inquiry operation. At one point, Meghna expresses misgivings about her plans to kill innocent civilians. She is scolded by a member of her group and reminded of her duty to their cause. Based on an eyewitness identification of the Connaught Place incident, Amar is now a prime suspect of the CBI. He is questioned by police and pieces together that Meghna is involved in something dangerous. Amar finds Meghna and questions her motives. She finally reveals to Amar that her name is actually Moina, and as a child, she had been a rape victim of the army. She describes villages being burned to the ground, and family members being raped and murdered. She accuses Amar of having no understanding of her history. She says she seeks justice and liberation through her activities. Amar infers she is planning a on the and the during . While trying to grab at a cyanide necklace hanging from her neck, Amar gets arrested for harassing the woman. In a separate scene, the CBI convinces the of to grant permission to conduct security checks of all the Army and tankers participating in the parade. An associate of Moina’s is privy to the government’s secret security plans. Moina’s associates bribe the police officers holding Amar to release him. They follow him out of the police station and assault him again. Amar fights back and renders his attacker unconscious. He then answers a call from Moina, which she had placed to his attacker’s mobile phone. Amar pleads with Moina to stop all this and marry him. Moina tearfully says that it is too late and that her fate is sealed. The scene ends with the sounds of bullets, which imply Amar has been shot and killed. But Amar returns home, beaten and bloody, only to find out from Preeti that Amar’s mother is also being questioned and that Moina’s location is at Sunder Nagar. Preeti asks if he has any intention of marrying her, and Amar says he’s the only one who can stop Moina. Amar is arrested again and unable to convince the CBI that he is not working with the terrorists. He says he is in love with Moina and that he met her while interviewing an extremist leader. He says he wants to prevent them from perpetrating an attack. The CBI is not convinced. They sedate him for further interrogation later. Through sheer will, Amar is able to resist the sedative effects of the injection he received. He escapes from the and continues his relentless pursuit of Moina. The next day Moina is prepared for her role in a suicide attack, as an explosive device is concealed under her dress. Amar finds her. He expresses his undying love for her and his desire to be with her. He pleads with her to leave with him, so the two of them can start fresh in a new place. He asks her to say that she loves him. When she does not answer, he persists. Desperate, he asks her to at least let him die with her. He pulls her towards him, and continues to plead with her to say she loves him. She embraces him. As the two embrace one another, they cry, and the bomb carried by Moina explodes, killing them both. Filming began in November 1997, while Shah Rukh Khan was also simultaneously shooting for ‘s . selected to play the lead role, after he was unable to get through to . was chosen to play a supporting role. was approached by the team to appear in the “Chaiyya Chaiyya” song, but turned down the offer citing her disinterest in featuring as a part of an . , and were the production and art designers for . The principal photography took place in , , , , , and Ladakh over a period of 55 days. was the casting director. Pia Benegal and were the costume designers. The song “Chaiyya Chaiyya” was shot between and on top of the , en route , and , the train is particularly painted in brown for the song sequence. The travelling scenes, other crucial scenes were shot between and Shah Rukh Khan near , during the in . The longest song of the film “Satrangi Re” with the lead pair was shot near , the mystical ruins, and Pangong lake near in . The song “Jiya Jale” was shot between Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan near , , , and in . Several action sequences in the film choreographed by were shot near , and . is said to be a journey through the seven shades of love that are defined in ancient Arabic literature. Those shades are defined as attraction, infatuation, love, reverence, worship, obsession, and death. The character played by Shahrukh Khan passes through each shade during the course of the film. Authors Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti of also compared Khan’s romance in the film to the trajectory of love in ancient Arabic literature, believing the lyrics in two of the songs to have delivered an “apocalyptic fatalism”. The film is a dramatization of the attraction between a character from the heart of India and another from a peripheral state and a representation of opposites in the eyes of the law and society. is described as a film “structured through deferment and unfulfilled teasing promises”. said about the film, “The entire feel of the film is appropriately poetic, with a few romantic exchanges standing out quite memorable. Tigmanshu Dhulia has handled the film’s dialogues adroitly. Amid moonlit desert dunes, there is a particularly stirring conversation between the leading pair. Amar reveals his hate for Meghna’s eyes – because he can’t see the world is hidden behind them and his love for the same, stunning eyes – because he can’t see the world hidden behind them.” Elleke Boehmer and Stephen Morton in their book (2009) believe that the songs and their exotic locations in the film were very important in masking the impossible reconciliation between a terrorist and an uptight government agent by evoking pure fantasy. They argue that this is a phenomenon called the “liminal space of dreaming” in that the terrorist woman cannot fulfill her sexual desire so the songs fill the void of this desire by “their sumptuousness and exotic locales” in the region. The theme of the movie was reported to be paying homage to the 1981 British film . released on 21 August 1998. Though the film was shot mainly in Hindi-language, director also dubbed and released the film in Tamil and Malayalam in the title ( ) which became very popular among Tamil-audience with its songs and in Telugu with the title ( ). Shah Rukh Khan’s Tamil dialogues were dubbed by in the film. Though received an average box office response in , it found success overseas. It was screened at the and the . The film went on to win the at the , two , and six . The intense political agenda of the film with the trials of the on the , the love story and the fact that it coincided with the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations became a major factor for its success overseas, particularly amongst the in the west. The film became the first Indian film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts. Even months after its release in September 1998, the film was still screened on five screens, five times per day with an average of 3,000 spectators across all screens in the Cineworld complex in , West London. Deepa Deosthalee wrote a positive review to the film, calling it “a picture-perfect ode to love” and praising the direction, writing and performances. found the film disappointing, noting it “fine performances, technique and music” but panning its lack “of that crucial element called a story”. of wrote, “Amid the reels of tripe churned out by Bollywood every week, is a noble attempt. But coming from Mani, that’s simply not good enough.” The film was included in ‘s “Best of Bollywood” list in 2010. was also a hit in . The soundtrack features six songs composed by . Raja Sen of called it, “Rahman’s finest soundtrack, by far.” The soundtrack album sold six million units in India. The song ” “, based on (lyrics based on the Sufi folk song, “Thaiyya Thaiyya” by ) and , became especially popular and the song has been featured in the film (2006), in the musical , and in the television shows and . The soundtrack was recorded in several other languages. Malayalam lines for the song “Jiya Jale” was written by lyricist . The bass guitarist , who played on post- albums , and played bass on title song ” “. All lyrics are written by and Malayalam lyrics from the song “Jiya Jale” was penned by ; all music is composed by . All lyrics are written by and Malayalam lyrics from the song “Nenjinile Nenjinile” was penned by ; all music is composed by A. R. Rahman. All lyrics are written by and Malayalam lyrics from the song “Innaalilaa Ledule” was penned by ; all music is composed by .</p>