Dil Se - Movie Review
Published: April 20, 2011
Starring Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta
Directed by Mani Ratnam, one of India's top filmmakers, Dil Se is his third film dealing with love relationships underscored by terrorism. The first two were the award-winning Tamil films Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995). His trilogy is a prime example of Indian cinema's ability and willingness to depict religious and political fanaticism unflinchingly and intimately—but without sympathy—a tricky balance that Hollywood wouldn’t dare attempt.
Terrorists in Indian films are usually not two-dimensional boogeymen—they are evil, yes, but also fully developed. And they are not strange foreigners, but the friends, relatives, neighbors, and even lovers of the innocent. Indian films about the subject typically delve deeply into its complications by exploring how one keeps, loses, and potentially recovers one's humanity in the face of violence—all within the context of relationships with others.
The main character of Dil Se, Amar (played by Shahrukh Khan), is an upstanding person who is genuine and open. He's a journalist for a government-sponsored radio news broadcaster in Delhi and he's sent to Northeast India, a region that's geographically isolated and ethnically distinct from the rest of the country and marked by violent political unrest, led largely by armed separatist insurgents. Amar goes there to interview terrorists leaders about their motivations.
On the way to his destination, Amar meets Meghna (Manisha Koirala), a common rural woman, at an empty train station, and she is as cold and stormy as the night. He pursues her while working on his assignment and she repeatedly rebuffs him, which only spurs him on more. He isn't dissuaded even when her brothers beat him up. He does get frustrated, though, and he becomes too aggressive with her, which causes her to have a psychological breakdown. She is not steely, it turns out, but viciously wounded, perhaps beyond repair. The revelation causes Amar's feelings for her to evolve from want to love.
After Meghna disappears, Amar returns to Delhi and his engagement is arranged to a family friend, Preeti (Preity Zinta), a playful, educated, modern young woman. She has reservations about marrying, but she and Amar hit it off. Their budding relationship is sidetracked when Meghna appears on Amar's doorstep, looking for a job and a place to stay, which Amar gives her, and a terrorist plot to detonate a bomb at the Republic Day parade develops, putting Amar and Meghna in an impossible situation.
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