Retro Review: Dil To Pagal Hai

Comments [ 14 ] By Gurprit K. | 20 May 2013 | 8:42pm

BollyCurry brings to you a Retro Review on a film that ruled people's heart at the time of it's release and still even so today. It is classed as one of Yash Raj Chopra finest pieces due to several reasons, each one better than the one before; one of being due to the Queen of Expressions, Madhuri Dixit Nene, who with her spectacular dancing skills and expressions to die for enthralled the audience. As the dancing diva celebrates her birthday this month, BollyCurry brings to you one of her classics - Dil To Pagal Hai.

Dil To Pagal Hai is a musical romantic film, which released in 1997 and had a star-studded cast that included the likes of Madhuri Dixit Nene, Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapur and Akshay Kumar in a special cameo. It was produced and directed by Yash Chopra, while the music was provided by Uttam Singh. It was a tale about the love lives of three people and how they were interconnected. Along with music, dance and love, Dil To Pagal Hai introduced many new, Western concepts such as Valentine's Day, dance parties, and dating before marriage. Some of these concepts were very uncommon in Hindi films. However, along with new concepts, the film still held old and noble values intact, such as finding your soulmate and loving them until eternity.

The plot revolves around the idea of love of three people: Pooja (Madhuri Dixit Nene), Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) and Nisha (Karisma Kapur). Pooja believes in soulmates and that there's someone made for everyone. Rahul doesn't believe in love, and neither in the fact that you can live all your life with just one person. Nisha believes that love lies within friendship and that friendship will one day blossom into love. The film is about their journey of friendship, love, their passion for dance, heartbreaks, and, above all, hope. The moral of the story is that the heart is crazy, and no matter how much you avoid it, it will eventually lead you to your true destination of where your heart really belongs.

Dil To Pagal Hai was highly appreciated and praised worldwide upon it's release. It was declared a super hit at the box office in India and a blockbuster overseas, being the second highest grossing movie of the year. Both audience and critics praised the film's storyline, concept and songs along with an entrance in the good books of the critics. It was also announced as one of Yash Chopra's top 10 films. Along with fame, the movie swept away most of the awards of the year including all major awards at the Filmfare Awards in 1997 such as Best Film, Best Actor (Shah Rukh Khan), Best Actress (Madhuri Dixit Nene), Best Supporting Actress (Karishma Kapur), Best Art Direction, Best Music Direction, and Best Dialogue. And not only this, the film also swept away two National Awards and ten awards at the Zee Cine Awards in 1998.

Did You Know?

The role of Nisha was originally offered to actresses Kajol Devgn, Juhi Chawla, Shilpa Shetty, Manisha Koirala and Raveena Tandon but they all rejected the offer and hence it went to Karisma Kapur.
Karisma Kapur won her first National Award with Dil To Pagal Hai.
Dil To Pagal Hai is the only film where Shah Rukh and Karisma were cast opposite each other.
Uttam Singh had played 100 tunes to Yash Chopra out of which Chopra selected 9. He set aside some more tunes for the future but never used them.
Earlier the film was variously titled as Maine To Mohabbat Kar Li and Mohabbat Kar Le.
This was the last movie in which Lata Mangeshkar sang for Madhuri Dixit Nene.
Ram-Laxman became so angry with the success of Dil To Pagal Hai's music that they did not call Lata Mangeshkar to sing in their next Rajshri film, Hum Saath Saath Hain.
Dil To Pagal Hai was the inspirational source for the Hollywood blockbuster, Moulin Rouge.