Movie Analysis Dil se (1998)

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Dil se released on August 1998. It was the time when SRK was mainly doing candyfloss romantic cinema like Dil to Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Yes Boss and moreover DDLJ was just 3 years old. Mani Ratnam has always been ahead of his times in terms of the subject and concepts of his movies. So this union of Mani Ratnam, SRk , A R Rahman, Gulzar was bound to create huge expectations. The movie released and it bombed. It was a disater at the box office. I happened to watch movie way back in 1998 and found it OK types. 17 years later, I watched that movie again on DVD and I was simply blown away by its sheer intesity. The movie to me was the best from Mani ratnam so far. It was not run of the mill normal love story that used to come those days. It was a very passionate love story woven around political backdrop of north eastern states an their conditions. I guess why It did not work when it released was probably it was dark in nature. It had no protagonist or antagonist and the characters were flawed. It was not the perfect love story with perfect end. It was about imperfect people dealing with their insecurities, traumas, desires and inner conflicts. Now, when I see it, I feel had this movie came 10 years later, it would have been a different story altogether. Dil se to me is surely among top 5 work of SRK, it surely is Mani Ratnam's best for me, the background score from A R Rahman was haunting and soul stirring that only added to the dark theme of the movie. Manisha Koirala was restrained in her performance which was the requirement of that complex character and Preity Zinta was awesome as it was her first movie. I wish Shahrukh does few more movies like this.