Some Love Stories…Live Forever… Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein is set in the artificial environ of a Gurukul (in an English castle!) droning on for over three-and-a-half hours over a conflict between discipline and love. Here you know the Mohabbatein Movie Review.
Narayan Shanker, the 55-year-old patriarch of the Gurukul believes in tradition and discipline and not in Mohabbat. Whoever said they couldn’t coexist, and did nobody inform him that love is a part of Indian tradition! His daughter Megha (Aishwarya Rai) had given up her life for love, but that hadn’t softened the man.
One doesn’t know what exactly is taught in this Gurukul, and why 20-somethings come to a place that is more as penitentiary than a college. Into this waltzes Raj Aryan (Shah Rukh Khan) with his violin and teaches the boys – three in particular – to rebel against the rules and go fall in love. So the three (Uday Chopra, Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergill) chase their girls (Shamita Shetty, Kim Sharma, Preeti Jhangiani), while Narayan Shanker fumes. Frankly, one doesn’t know what the fuss is all about: what is wrong with discipline in an educational institution? And shouldn’t 20-year-olds be encouraged to study and build their careers instead of marrying the first person of the opposite sex they encounter! It’s all incredibly ridiculous, but to the writer-directors credit, some scenes are quite moving – like the Holi scene between Shanker and Aryan, the one in which a woman (Shefali) makes a plea on behalf for her young widowed sister-in-law.
Raj Aryan’s monologue towards the end in which he tells Narayan Shanker why he has lost also packs a powerful punch and Shah Rukh performs brilliantly in that scene. Amitabh Bachchan, though dressed in absurd black garb, simply towers above the rest. Without so much a twitching a muscle, with just the right look in his eyes, he walks off with the film.
The youngsters have a lot to learn from him and Shah Rukh Khan. Neither has to take his shirt off and flex his muscles to get attention!
More On Mohabbatein
It’s time for the romance Moguls, Yash Chopra, and family to give Bollywood a new Romantic love tale. But this time Aditya Chopra who is making a comeback to the silver screen after five years has a romantic with a twist!
The difference that Mohabbatein will make to the Chopras’ long list of love stories is the introduction of Shahrukh and Amitabh at the focal point of the film. The former believes in love and the latter who does not caught in a tussle between a three-in-one love story. Mohabbatein introduces Yash Chopra’s youngest son, Uday Chopra, besides being a celluloid host to a host of newcomers including Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergill, Shamita Shetty, Kim Sharma, and Preeti Jhangiani.
Apparently, after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was released, Aditya Chopra started work on Dil to Pagal Hai on papa’s adesh. Bored of loves stories, Aditya decided to work on a thriller but could not keep his mind off his ten-year-old Mohabbatein file. So he’s found the perfect compromise: no mushy tale of boy-meets-girl but a love story with a twist! All for the pyar of Mohabbatein!
Four years after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Aditya Chopra is back with his new venture setting the screen ablaze, with the fiery combination of Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. Aditya’s debut film was a long time ago, but Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is still fresh in our memory. And now Aditya Chopra is all set for a Diwali dhamaka with a movie with a self-explanatory title and a formidable cast. Those who’ve heard snatches of the music by Jatin-Lalit are ecstatic. The film is complete and ready for Diwali 2000 release and has generated a lot of interest as it has Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai as the romantic lead. According to the trade, this is a safer and predictable casting than the one in Mansoor Khan’s Josh where the two played twins. However, the clash between Big B and King Khan is the highlight of Mohabbatein. Shefali Chaya also has a decent role in Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein, and that too as Amitabh Bachchan’s heroine in the film.
Mohabbatein has a campus backdrop and the film is set in a hostel in London. Narayan Shanker (Amitabh Bachchan), is a strict principal who will not tolerate any nonsense (read flirting, dating or romance) within the campus. Raj Aryan ( Shah Rukh Khan) is a young lecturer in the college, who’s immensely popular among the students, and who’s in love with Narayan’s daughter in the film, Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya is dead and appears only in flashback sequences, we are made to believe. Enter six young students played by Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergil, Shamita Shetty, Preeti Jhangiani, Uday Chopra and Kimi Sharma who are in love with each other. Till Shah Rukh Khan helps Amitabh Bachchan to realize what is love about and how he could see his lost daughter by believing in love and helps him forget his past agonies and in the process. This, along with the endeavors of his own daughter and her lover will finally melt the heart of the elderly principal. Running concurrent to this basic theme is also the story of three young couples in the college, whom Shah Rukh help in realizing their love by telling them about his past stories and about Aishwarya. The conflict of values amongst the three generations makes an interesting movie. And then, Narayan Shanker and Raj Aryan join hands together. Aditya Chopra is wrapping up Mohabbatein in at a breakneck speed. A very well-made film with emotions at a very high standard and outstanding performances such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan makes the film so extraordinary.