Presidential leadership headline

Dil Chahta Hai

Starring: Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Priety Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Kulkarni
Music: Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy
Director: Farhan Akhtar

Here’s a movie that has a distinctly “yuppie” touch in almost every frame. The story of the lives and loves of three best friends who’ve got everything you and I could wish for. Aakash (Aamir), Sameer (Saif) and Sid (Akshaye) are graduates fresh out of college (which has its grad-party at a discotheque, wow!). Their outlooks on love are as different as chalk, cheese and chocolate but they hang out together anyway. Aakash doesn’t believe in love, Saif falls hopelessly in love with every second woman he bumps into and for Sid, love has a much deeper meaning. How the three guys find the love of their lives forms most of the story.

The film is a must-watch simply because you’ll find yourself looking at the characters and thinking “Hey! That could be me!” Watching three amazing looking men set the screen on fire is just an added advantage. (Bhavan’s guys please note. The “pepper cut” and goatees are totally “in”!) The movie is packed with witty one-liners and dialogue that sounds like it is straight out of real life. Aamir and Akshaye come up with excellent performances but it is Saif who’s the scene-stealer. The songs are a visual treat and “Woh ladki hai kahan” featuring Saif and Sonali is the pick of the lot.

DCH has it’s drawbacks, too much of post-interval melodrama, being the main one. Dimple Kapadia, who plays an older woman whom Sid has a crush on, conveniently dies in the film, making you wonder whether we’re ready to accept relationships like these. (Remember the chapter on Indian cinema from the first-year English textbook?)

All the same you’ll come out of the theatre wishing you could see the film again, at least for those funny, intelligent, and drop-dead goodlooking guys.

Pick of the characters: Samantha Tremayne, who makes a guest appearance as Deepa, the wannabe Akash’s girlfriend who ends up… well, watch the movie to find out.