Dil Se..

Dil Se.. (lit. 'From the Heart..') is a 1998 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film set in the backdrop of the insurgency in Northeast India, written and directed by Mani Ratnam, and produced by Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, and Shekhar Kapur. The film stars Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in the lead roles, while Preity Zinta makes her film debut in a supporting role. Written by Ratnam and Tigmanshu Dhulia, the film is an example of parallel cinema and is noted as the final installment of Ratnam's thematic trilogy that consists of Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995).[4][5] Though the film was shot mainly in Hindi-language, director Mani Ratnam also dubbed and released the film in Tamil in the title Uyire.. (lit. 'Darling..') which became very popular among Tamil-audience with its songs.[6][7][8] Shah Rukh Khan's Tamil dialogues were dubbed by Arvind Swamy in the film.[9]

Dil Se..
English release poster
Directed byMani Ratnam
Produced byMani Ratnam
Ram Gopal Varma
Shekhar Kapur
Screenplay byMani Ratnam
Tigmanshu Dhulia
Story byMani Ratnam
StarringShah Rukh Khan
Manisha Koirala
Preity Zinta
Music byA. R. Rahman
CinematographySantosh Sivan
Edited bySuresh Urs
Production
company
Madras Talkies
Varma Corporation
Distributed byEros International
Release date
  • 21 August 1998 (1998-08-21)
Running time
158 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi[1]
Budget₹11 crore (equivalent to ₹40 crore or US$5.6 million in 2019)[2]
Box office₹28.58 crore (equivalent to ₹104 crore or US$15 million in 2019)[3]

The film was screened at the Era New Horizons Film Festival and the Helsinki International Film Festival. Noted for its aspects nonlinear storytelling, the film won awards for cinematography, audiography, choreography, and music, among others. The film was a success overseas earning $975,000 in the United States and £537,930 in the United Kingdom,[10] becoming the first Indian film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts,[11] and it was also a hit in Japan.[12] The film won two National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards, while also receiving a special mention at the Netpac Awards.[11][13] The film's soundtrack album, composed by A. R. Rahman, sold six million units in India.[14]

Plot

Amarkant Varma (Shahrukh Khan) is a program executive for All India Radio, dispatched from New Delhi to cover festivities in Assam. On his way there, during a rainy night, Amar stops at Haflong train station to catch the Barak Valley Express. 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 the shawl off the person, revealing it to be a woman (Manisha Koirala). Amar finds her very attractive and tries to strike up a conversation, but she ignores him for a bit and then 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.

Later, Amar spots the same woman in Silchar. 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 Indian Independence, Amar interviews many citizens of Assam, and an extremist chief (Gautam Bora), who claims that the reason behind human rights violations and poverty in the region is due to the Indian Government, and that the Liberationists do not wish to enter into any dialogue with the government, and further justify their resistance in Utthar Purv.

A few weeks later, Amar describes his encounter with the woman, over the radio, which she hears. He again spots her at a post office. At this juncture, she tells him to leave her alone; but he follows her to the house and tells her that he is in love with her. She resists and tells Amar that she is married. Amar wishes 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 reaches her home, and learns from the locals that she has left the place. 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 Ladakh. Subsequently, Amar travels to Leh, and while recording the Sindhu Darshan Festival, a suicide bomber is chased to death by the military, and 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. While Amar tell the officers that he is there reporting on the festival, the woman uses Amar to her advantage and tells the officers that Amar is her husband.

After some travel, the bus breaks down and the passengers are required to walk to a nearby village. En route Amar forces the woman to reveal her name: Meghna. The two end up traveling together and recuperate. In the morning, Amar wakes to find Meghna gone. It is later revealed that Meghna is part of a Liberationists group which has planned multiple suicide attacks in New Delhi at the upcoming Republic Day celebrations.

Amar returns to his home in Delhi, where his family has found Preeti Nair (Preity Zinta) from Kerala as a potential bride for him. Amar agrees to marry Preeti because he has no hope that he will ever meet Meghna again. On his date with Preeti, Amar spots one of Meghna's associates, Kim, who banished him earlier. Amar chases him down to Connaught Place, where 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 CBI.

Much to Amar's surprise, Meghna shows up in Delhi and asks Amar to help her get a job as an office assistant at Amar's All India Radio office. It is later revealed that Meghna actually arrives in Delhi with her terrorist group and stays in Amar's residence to escape from the CBI inquiry operation. Based on eyewitness claims of the Connaught Place incident, Amar is now a prime suspect of the CBI (Piyush Mishra). At this juncture Amar follows Meghna and questions her motives, and she reveals to Amar that her name is actually Moina, and as a child, she had been a rape victim of the army and seeks liberation through her suicide attack on the Indian army and the President of India during Republic Day. Now the CBI convinces the Army general of India to grant permission to conduct security checks of all the Army convoys and tankers participating in the parade.

Amar is again assaulted by Moina's associate (Aditya Srivastava) and the terrorists and as Amar fights back the terrorists receive a call from Moina on their mobile. Amar grabs the mobile and pleads with Moina to stop all this and marry him. Moina reveals that it is too late, and presumes Amar is being killed. But Amar returns home, only to find out from Preeti that Amar's mother is also being questioned and that Moina's location is at Sunder Nagar. The CBI also misconstrue that Amar is part of the terrorist group and arrest him.

Amar claims to the CBI that he is not in cahoots with the terrorists, but in love with Moina and that he has interviewed one of the extremist leaders and wants to prevent them from perpetrating the attack. The CBI rejects Amar's claims and sedates him for further interrogation. The next day Moina is ready for the suicide attack. Amar escapes from the CBI and tries to hold Moina back. Amar expresses his love and desire to be with her. When she is still indecisive, he tells her he will even die with her if she does not wish to stop her suicide attempt. He embraces her and continues to plead with her to live with him. As they embrace, the explosive vest worn by Moina explodes, killing them both.

Cast

Production

Sameer Chanda, and Wasiq Khan were the production and art designers for Dil Se.[10][15] The principal photography took place in Himachal Pradesh, Leh, Assam, New Delhi, Kerala, and Bhutan over a period of 55 days.[10][15] Tigmanshu Dhulia was the casting director. Pia Benegal and Manish Malhotra were the costume designers, Simran Bagga was Mani Rathnam's first choice for the role that Preity Zinta eventually accepted.[16] The song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" was shot between Malaika Arora and Shah Rukh Khan on top of the Nilgiri Express, en route Ooty, Coonoor and Kotagiri, the train is particularly painted in brown for the song sequence.[17] The travelling scenes, other crucial scenes were shot between Manisha Koirala and Shah Rukh Khan near Alchi Monastery, during the Sindhu Darshan Festival in Leh.[17] The longest song of the film "Satrangi Re" with the lead pair was shot near Thikse Monastery, the mystical Basgo Monastery ruins, and Pangong lake near Pangong Tso in Ladakh.[17] The song "Jiya Jale" was shot between Priety Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan near Athirappilly Falls, Alappuzha backwaters, Periyar National Park, and Periyar Lake in Kerala.[17] Several action sequences in the film choreographed by Allan Amin were shot near Connaught Place, New Delhi, Rajpath and Old Delhi.[10][17]

Themes

Dil Se is said to be a journey through the seven shades of love that are defined in ancient Arabic literature. Those shades are defined as an attraction, infatuation, love, reverence, worship, obsession, and death. The character played by Shahrukh Khan passes through each shade during the course of the film.[18] Authors Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti of Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance 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".[19]

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.[20] Dil Se is described as a film "structured through deferment and unfulfilled teasing promises." [21] Rediff.com 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."[22]

Elleke Boehmer and Stephen Morton in their book Terror and the postcolonial (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.[21] 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 Ladakh region.[21]

Release and reception

Though Dil Se received a poor box office response in India, it found success overseas. It was screened at the Era New Horizons Film Festival and the Helsinki International Film Festival The film went on to win the Netpac Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, two National Film Awards, and six Filmfare Awards. The intense political agenda of the film with the trials of the Assamese on the India-China border, 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 South Asian diaspora in the west.[23][24]

The film became the first Indian film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts.[11] Even two months after its release in September 1998 the film was still screened on five screens, five times per day with an average of 3000 spectators across all screens in the Cineworld complex in Feltham, West London.[23] Deepa Deosthalee wrote a positive review to the film, calling it "A picture perfect ode to love" and praising the direction, writing and performances.[25] Khalid Mohamed found the film disappointing, noting it "fine performances, technique and music" but panning its lack "of that crucial element called a story".[26] Anupama Chopra of India Today wrote, "Amid the reels of tripe churned out by Bollywood every week, Dil Se... is a noble attempt. But coming from Mani, that's simply not good enough."[27] The film was included in Time Magazine's "Best of Bollywood" list in 2010.[28] Dil Se was also a hit in Japan.[12]

Awards

The film has won the following awards:

Award Category Recipients and Nominees Results Notes
1999 Berlin International Film Festival (Germany) Netpac Award Mani Ratnam Won Special Mention
1999 National Film Awards (India) Best Cinematography Santosh Sivan Won Silver Lotus Award
Best Audiography H. Sridhar Silver Lotus Award
1999 Filmfare Awards (India) Best Female Debut Preity Zinta Won
Best Music Direction A. R. Rahman
Best Lyricist Gulzar for "Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Best Male Playback Sukhwinder Singh for "Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Best Cinematographer Santosh Sivan
Best Choreography Farah Khan for "Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Best Actress Manisha Koirala Nominated
1999 Star Screen Awards (India) Best Male Playback Sukhwinder Singh for "Chaiyya Chaiyya" Won

Soundtrack
Dil Se...
Soundtrack album by
A. R. Rahman
Released8 July 1998 (1998-07-08)[29]
RecordedPanchathan Record Inn
GenreWorld Music
Length36:38
LabelVenus
ProducerA.R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
'Jeans
(1998)		 Dil Se... 'Earth
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Planet Bollywood[30]
All Music[31]

The soundtrack features six songs composed by A. R. Rahman. Raja Sen of Rediff called it, "Rahman's finest soundtrack, by far."[22] The soundtrack album sold six million units in India.[14] The song "Chaiyya Chaiyya", based on Sufi music (based on the Sufi folk song, "Thaiyya Thaiyya" by Bulleh Shah) and Urdu poetry,[32] became especially popular and the song has been featured in the film Inside Man, in the musical Bombay Dreams, and in the television shows Smith and CSI: Miami.[33] The soundtrack was recorded in several other languages.

Malayalam lines for the song "Jiya Jale" was written by Malayalam lyricist Gireesh Puthenchery.

Pink Floyd bass guitarist Guy Pratt for post Roger Waters albums Delicate Sound of Thunder, The Division Bell and Pulse played bass on title song Dil Se Re.[34]

The background score was also appreciated and said to have contributed largely to the film.

Original Version

Hindi (Dil Se)

All lyrics are written by Gulzar; all music is composed by A. R. Rahman.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Chaiyya Chaiyya"Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasthi6:54
2."Jiya Jale"Lata Mangeshkar, M. G. Sreekumar & Chorus5:07
3."Dil Se Re"A. R. Rahman, Anuradha Sriram, Anupama & Febi Mani6:44
4."Ae Ajnabi"Udit Narayan & Mahalakshmi Iyer5:48
5."Thayya Thayya (Remix)"Sukhwinder Singh4:35
6."Satrangi Re"Sonu Nigam & Kavita Krishnamurthy7:25

Dubbed Versions

Tamil (Uyire)

All lyrics are written by Vairamuthu; all music is composed by A. R. Rahman.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Thaiyya Thaiyya"Sukhwinder Singh, Malgudi Subha & Palakkad Sriram6:55
2."Nenjinile Nenjinile"S. Janaki, M. G. Sreekumar & Chorus5:09
3."Sandhosha Kanneere"A. R. Rahman, Anuradha Sriram, Febi Mani, Anupama6:42
4."Poongkaatrilae"Unni Menon & Swarnalatha5:45
5."Thayya Thayya (Remix)"Srinivas, Sukhwinder Singh & Hariharan4:19
6."En Uyire"Srinivas & Sujatha7:26

Telugu (Premato)

All lyrics are written by Sitarama Sastry; all music is composed by A. R. Rahman.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Thaiyya Thaiyya"Sukhwinder Singh & Malgudi Subha6:52
2."Innaalilaa Ledule"K. S. Chithra, M. G. Sreekumar & Chorus5:06
3."Ninnele"A.R. Rahman, Sowmya Raoh, Dominique Cerejo & Kavita Paudwal6:37
4."O Priyatama"Mano & Swarnalatha7:25
5."Chaiyya Chaiyya (Remix)"Sukhwinder Singh4:17
6."Ooristhu Ooguthu"Srinivas & Sujatha5:42
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gollark: I think Firefox has an option for it.
gollark: Even less with DNS over HTTPS, which a lot of ISPs are against.
gollark: But ISPs, at least, can't see *that* much as things stand.
gollark: I mean, probably?

References
  1. Shelly Walia and Tanushree Ghosh (21 January 2013). "Language no bar". Business Standard. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. "Dil Se Budget". Box Office India. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  3. "Dil Se Box office". Box Office India. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  4. Ciecko, Anne Tereska (2006). Contemporary Asian cinema: popular culture in a global frame. Berg Publishers. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-84520-237-8. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  5. Pat Padua. "FROM THE HEART – The Films of Mani Ratnam". cinescene.com. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  6. Sruthy Ganapathy Raman (20 June 2018). "Manisha Koirala on her acting journey: '200 per cent more focussed than ever'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. Sowmya Rajendran (15 August 2017). "25 years since 'Roja': Has the depiction of 'patriotism' on screen changed?". The News Minute. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  8. Anjana Sekhar (16 August 2018). "From fighting for freedom to killing terrorists: The Indian patriot in Tamil cinema". The News Minute. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  9. Sujatha Narayanan (29 November 2016). "Shah Rukh Khan's conquest of the South: DDLJ to Dear Zindagi, how SRK won over fans". Firstpost. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  10. "Dil Se – Starring Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta, Raghuvir Yadav, Mita Vashisht, Zora Sehgal. Dil Se's box office, news, reviews, video, pictures, and music soundtrack". Ibosnetwork.com. 21 August 1998. Archived from the original on 16 December 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  11. Aftab, Kaleem (October 2002). "Brown: the new black! Bollywood in Britain". Critical Quarterly. Blackwell Synergy. 44 (3): 88–98. doi:10.1111/1467-8705.00435. The first Bollywood film to enter the UK top 10, Dil Se / Uyire was nevertheless a flop in India. Such factors attest to the crucial role of the NRI audience in the commercial fate of Bollywood produce.
  12. Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (2013). The Indian Media Business. SAGE Publications. p. 188. ISBN 9788132117889.
  13. Cary Rajinder Sawhney (2006). "Dil Se." British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2008.
  14. "Rahman @ 25". CNN-News18. CNN International. 8 September 2017.
  15. "Making movies with Mani Ratnam". rediff.com.
  16. "Simran explains it all". minnoviyam.star.track. October 1998. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  17. "Movie > Dil Se – Movies and Locations – Filmapia – Reel Sites. Real Sights". filmapia.com.
  18. "Dil Se... A Mani Ratnam film". Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  19. Gopal & Moorti 2008, p. 166.
  20. Chaudhuri, Shohini (2005). Contemporary world cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Edinburgh University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7486-1799-9. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  21. Boehmer, Elleke; Morton, Stephen (October 2009). Terror and the postcolonial. John Wiley and Sons. p. 350. ISBN 978-1-4051-9154-8. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  22. "Weekend Watch: Dil Se". Rediff.com. 21 October 2005. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  23. Dudrah, Rajinder Kumar (2006). Bollywood: sociology goes to the movies. Sage. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7619-3461-5. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  24. Meyer, Michael (2009). Word & image in colonial and postcolonial literatures and cultures. Rodopi. p. 230. ISBN 9789042027435. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  25. Deosthalee, Deepa (22 August 1998). "A picture perfect ode to love, Dil Se". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  26. Mohamed, Khalid. "QUITE A DISAPPOINTMENT". Filmfare. Times Group. Archived from the original on 2 October 1999.
  27. Anupama, Chopra (31 August 1998). "Movie review: Dil Se.., starring Shah Rukh Khan, Manisha Koirala". India Today. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  28. Corliss, Richard (27 October 2010). "Dil Se – 1998". Time. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  29. "Dil Se (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes.
  30. "Dil Se – music review by M. Ali Ikram". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  31. "Dil Se – music review by Bhaskar Gupta". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  32. Basu, Anustup (2010). Bollywood in the Age of New Media: The Geo-televisual Aesthetic: The Geo-televisual Aesthetic. Edinburgh University Press. p. 164. ISBN 9780748643233.
  33. "Dil Se Soundtrack". Amazon.com. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  34. "Dil Se Soundtrack at arrahman.com". arrahman.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.

Bibliography
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