25 years of SRK's #DilSe—factors that made it cult classic
What's the story
Mani Ratnam's Dil Se...released on this day 25 years ago, might have received a lukewarm response back then, but over the years, it has become a cult classic.
Starring Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in lead roles, it was a tragic love story of two star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of the insurgency in Assam.
What makes it cinephiles' favorite? Let's decode.
Performances
SRK and Manisha Koirala's standout performances
SRK as an obsessive lover Amarkant Varma and Koirala as a terrorist Moina/Meghna were the spine of this romance thriller drama.
While SRK did a lot of heavy lifting in sequences where he tries to unravel Moina's truth, Koirala had relatively fewer dialogues and let her expressions do most of the talking.
Preity Zinta also delivered a confident debut performance.
Music
Which is your favorite song from the album?
There is no discussion about Dil Se...without its classic music, helmed by the "Mozart of Madras" AR Rahman, with lyrics by the legendary Gulzar.
From the gamechanger Chaiyya Chaiyya where SRK and Malaika Arora famously danced atop a train to the soulful and soft Dil Se Re to Lata Mangeshkar-MG Sreekumar's Jiya Jale—Dil Se...'s soundtrack is a gift that keeps on giving.
Themes
Did you know how the film developed its central theme?
Dil Se... was reportedly based on the seven shades of love defined in ancient Arabic literature.
These are attraction, infatuation, love, reverence, worship, obsession, and death, and viewers will remember how Varma undergoes all these emotions throughout the film, with their love story breathing its last after a bomb explosion consumes them both, and the lovers die in each other's embrace.
Cinematography
The cinematography was just as important
Ratnam's frequent collaborator Santosh Sivan's cinematography also played an instrumental role in capturing gorgeous, pitch-perfect frames for the film, especially during the songs.
They heightened the director's vision and accentuated the sentiments of a particular scene, and Sivan played effectively with colors and lightning to demonstrate a gamut of emotions felt by the central characters—love, fear, awe, obsession, and anger.