In today's review in the Mani Ratnam Week, we have Dil Se, the third in the terrorism trilogy. This time they made it the Shahrukh Khan. This 1998 film is surprisingly a flop despite Shahrukh Khan and Mani Ratnam at the helm of affairs. SRK always has chosen some scripts out of this league like Swades, Chak De India, Fan, Zero and some other films. That is why I like SRK despite not watching many of his films. How is the film? Here is my take on Dil Se:
Dil Se is a 1998 romantic drama starring Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in the lead roles. It is directed by Mani Ratnam. The story revolves around Amar, an AIR worker who meets a mysterious woman. What follows next is the story of Dil Se?
The screenplay of the film is good. After Roja and Bombay, the director of the film does one thing right. Getting straight to the point. This film specially discusses about the Indian government's treatment of the North-East. From the beginning of the film, the theme, environment is tuned perfectly to the justice and injustice by and for the North-East. Then, it turns to the love story between Amar and Meghna, a mysterious one. This actually takes away the momentum of the movie. It is way too long. It adds very little to the film and in this period, the film just is slow and boring. Luckily, the songs are good. Then, the interval twist. It is very good. After that, we see a very unique presentation. It introduces the police, some supporting actors to bring some tension in the film. The unnecessary scenes decrease a lot. The format of the film is that Indian film formula where a romantic story is integrated with the historic event or any thing related to history. Overall, this film has a good screenplay despite wasting away a lot of time with unnecessary scenes.
The acting of the film is solid. We all know SRK is the baadshah of Bollywood and can do almost any kind of role with perfection. He should be applauded to accept this film as the reputation it has today is all because of his presence. In this film too, he proves it to us. In the first half, there is lesser challenging stuff to do. He did his usual things to keep the first half entertaining. Then, in the second half, he gets some very good scenes to act and he delivers. Preity Zinta in her debut role is really good. She looks gorgeous and she too acts with the charm she is known her. We also see some very well known actors before their prime like Sanjay Mishra, Gajraj Rao, Aditya Srivastav and Raghubir Yadav. Raghubir Yadav gets the most screentime out of the four as he is likeable in his role. But, the most challenging and the best character of the film belongs to Manisha Koirala. Her role is a spoiler in itself and so I cannot reveal much about it. Her acting in the film is really very good. Her roots of the North-East help as she can get really natural in her role. Overall, the acting department fully delivers.
The technical aspects fully understand the film and make it worth a while. The cinematography of the film is very well done by Santhosh Sivan. He captures the landscape of Assam and its tea fields, the Ladakh Festival and the everything in between really well. Also, kudos for successfully shooting a song on a real moving train. Real bold stuff. The editor should have cut off the unnecessary scenes in the first half to remove the lag the film had. The length would have consequently reduced. Otherwise, this film has some decent cuts. The music by A.R.Rahman is too good. The songs of the film save a somewhat a boring first half by driving the story ahead on its shoulders. Like Chaiyya Chaiyya, Ae Ajnabi and Dil Se Re run non-stop for an hour to establish and run the story. Then, the BGM. It is some of best BGM work of A.R.Rahman in the recent past. The locations of the film are well spotted. The costume department really gave their best and overall, this film is technically brilliant.
Overall, this film is a must watch for a true SRK fan. Not because it has all the elements you love about his films but for his bold nature of choosing films ahead of its time. It has sensational songs and visuals, excellent acting but combining it with a dragged screenplay makes it just a good watch. Ignoring that fact, you can easily watch it on Netflix.
The screenplay of the film is good. After Roja and Bombay, the director of the film does one thing right. Getting straight to the point. This film specially discusses about the Indian government's treatment of the North-East. From the beginning of the film, the theme, environment is tuned perfectly to the justice and injustice by and for the North-East. Then, it turns to the love story between Amar and Meghna, a mysterious one. This actually takes away the momentum of the movie. It is way too long. It adds very little to the film and in this period, the film just is slow and boring. Luckily, the songs are good. Then, the interval twist. It is very good. After that, we see a very unique presentation. It introduces the police, some supporting actors to bring some tension in the film. The unnecessary scenes decrease a lot. The format of the film is that Indian film formula where a romantic story is integrated with the historic event or any thing related to history. Overall, this film has a good screenplay despite wasting away a lot of time with unnecessary scenes.
The acting of the film is solid. We all know SRK is the baadshah of Bollywood and can do almost any kind of role with perfection. He should be applauded to accept this film as the reputation it has today is all because of his presence. In this film too, he proves it to us. In the first half, there is lesser challenging stuff to do. He did his usual things to keep the first half entertaining. Then, in the second half, he gets some very good scenes to act and he delivers. Preity Zinta in her debut role is really good. She looks gorgeous and she too acts with the charm she is known her. We also see some very well known actors before their prime like Sanjay Mishra, Gajraj Rao, Aditya Srivastav and Raghubir Yadav. Raghubir Yadav gets the most screentime out of the four as he is likeable in his role. But, the most challenging and the best character of the film belongs to Manisha Koirala. Her role is a spoiler in itself and so I cannot reveal much about it. Her acting in the film is really very good. Her roots of the North-East help as she can get really natural in her role. Overall, the acting department fully delivers.
The technical aspects fully understand the film and make it worth a while. The cinematography of the film is very well done by Santhosh Sivan. He captures the landscape of Assam and its tea fields, the Ladakh Festival and the everything in between really well. Also, kudos for successfully shooting a song on a real moving train. Real bold stuff. The editor should have cut off the unnecessary scenes in the first half to remove the lag the film had. The length would have consequently reduced. Otherwise, this film has some decent cuts. The music by A.R.Rahman is too good. The songs of the film save a somewhat a boring first half by driving the story ahead on its shoulders. Like Chaiyya Chaiyya, Ae Ajnabi and Dil Se Re run non-stop for an hour to establish and run the story. Then, the BGM. It is some of best BGM work of A.R.Rahman in the recent past. The locations of the film are well spotted. The costume department really gave their best and overall, this film is technically brilliant.
Overall, this film is a must watch for a true SRK fan. Not because it has all the elements you love about his films but for his bold nature of choosing films ahead of its time. It has sensational songs and visuals, excellent acting but combining it with a dragged screenplay makes it just a good watch. Ignoring that fact, you can easily watch it on Netflix.
IMDb Rating : 7.6/10
My Rating : 8/10
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