31 Dec 2003 @ 21:28, by V. Susan Ferguson
Starring: Shahrukh Kahn, Manisha Koirala, & Preity Zinta
Dil Se is a movie that captures you on so many levels. The actors are wonderful and itÂ’s a pity that Shahrukh Khan is not better known here in the USA, because he is pure magic. Maybe if you think of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro combined with someone with great moves, who can really dance, you just might come close to describing Shahrukh.
IndiaÂ’s huge Bollywood star, Shahrukh has one of those marvelous subtle faces that can simultaneously express multiple layers of feeling. In one moment he is handsome, seductive, and in the next he is vulnerable, awkward, and magnetically ordinary. His enigmatic, little boy, rascal smile will steal your heart.
There are two famous actresses in Dil Se, but Manisha Koirala plays the heroine, a lovely mountain peasant girl. At age 12, she saw her family gunned down by soldiers who then raped her. She walks in a world warped from pain and frozen emotion most of us could never comprehend and, along with her fellow terrorists, has become a suicide bomber.
Shahrukh meets her by accident and mistakes her aloof cold manner for siren mystery. As she shuns his advances at every turn, he – a rather spoiled radio journalist – is driven deeper into his desire for her. That desire becomes obsession – Dil Se. She cannot become whole again to return his love, and he cannot endure life without her. He begs her to take him with her, and so she does.
What draws me to this film is not just the profound spontaneous depth of the actors and their willingness to show a wide range of feelings, but Dil Se made it apparent to me how stiff and mechanical my own culture has become. Even the Bollywood musical numbers are somehow fun, fresh and captivating. The sheer beauty of the photography is stunning and Manisha has the power to be a rough desert girl, a sophisticated beauty, or the most classic odalisque of the French painter Ingres.
On the back of the DVD it says: Ancient Arabic literature classifies love into seven different shades...HUB...their eyes meet, it is like a touch...a spark...Attraction. UNS...the touch of the eyes was as if, it was infatuation. ISHQ...the flame of the body is felt, his breath starts igniting...Love. AQIDAT...ReverenceÂ…she touches him like a whisper, as if silence is mixed in here eyes...he prays, knelt down on the floor, a little consciously & a little unconsciously...IBADAAT...he is entangled on her path...entangled in her armsÂ…Love turns to worship. JUNOON...his living is an Obsession...his dying is an obsession...apart from this there is no peace...MAUT...let him rest in the lap of Death...let his drown his body in her soul... DIL SE...a journey through these seven shades.
Perhaps it’s only poetic illusion and sweet madness, but if so – play on!
I love this move, Dil Se.
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