Dil Se

## Over View

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). 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. Shah Rukh Khan's Tamil dialogues were dubbed by Arvind Swamy in the film.

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, becoming the first Indian film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts, and it was also a hit in Japan. The film won two National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards, while also receiving a special mention at the Netpac Awards. The film's soundtrack album, composed by A. R. Rahman, sold six million units in India..The flim is owned by Red Chillies Entertainment.

## 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 railway 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

* Shahrukh Khan as Amarkant Varma
* Manisha Koirala as Moina
* Preity Zinta as Preeti Nair
* Mita Vasisht as Mita
* Arundhati Rao as Kanval Dev Burman – AIR station director
* Raghuvir Yadav as Shukla ji – AIR manager
* Zohra Sehgal as Amar's Grandmother
* Janagaraj as Taxi Driver
* Gautam Bora as terrorist Leader
* Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as terrorist
* Aditya Srivastava as Terrorist
* Sanjay Mishra as terrorist
* Anupam Shyam as terrorist
* Shabbir Masani as terrorist
* Krisn Kant as Kim terrorist
* Manjit Bawa as terrorist
* Vineeta Malik as Amar's mother
* Piyush Mishra as CBI investigation officer
* Gajraj Rao as CBI investigation officer
* Priya Parulekar as Young Moina
* Malaika Arora in the item number "Chaiyya Chaiyya"
* Vanitha Malik as school teacher
* Tigmanshu Dhulia as cameo appearance as man at the post office
* Sameer Chanda as cameo appearance Tuba music shop dealer
* Shaad Ali as cameo as citizen of Silchar
* Wasiq Khan as cameo
* Pia Benegal as cameo
* Chintu Mohapatra as cameo
* Karan Nath as cameo
* Hemant Mishra as cameo
* B. M. Shah as cameo
* R. K. Nair as Preeti's father
* Alka as Preeti's Mother
* Rajiv Gupta as Sub inspector
* Avtar Sahani as Army general
* Lakshmi Rattan as Hazarika army official
* Sheeba Chaddha as Moina's sister
* Suhail Nayyar as child artist
* Jessica as child artist
* Ishitha as child artist
* Subhadeep Sanyal as child artist

## 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. 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".

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. *Dil Se* is described as a film "structured through deferment and unfulfilled teasing promises."  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."

## 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.

The film became the first Indian film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts. 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. Deepa Deosthalee wrote a positive review to the film, calling it "A picture perfect ode to love" and praising the direction, writing and performances. Khalid Mohamed found the film disappointing, noting it "fine performances, technique and music" but panning its lack "of that crucial element called a story". 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." The film was included in Time Magazine's "Best of Bollywood" list in 2010. *Dil Se* was also a hit in Japan.

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack features six songs composed by A. R. Rahman. Raja Sen of Rediff called it, "Rahman's finest soundtrack, by far." The soundtrack album sold six million units in India. The song "Chaiyya Chaiyya", based on Sufi music (based on the Sufi folk song, "Thaiyya Thaiyya" by Bulleh Shah) and Urdu poetry, 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*. 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.

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