Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain...
Producer : D.Rama Naidu.
Director : Satish Kaushik.
Music : Anu Malik.
*ing : Anil Kapoor, Kajol, Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik, Johnny Lever, Parmeet Sethi, Shakti Kapoor, Mink & Rakesh Bedi.
'Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain' is Satish Kaushik' s third attempt at making a successful movie after the disasters 'Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja' and 'Prem' and admittedly is a notch better than them. It is the remake of a southern super hit 'Pavitra Bandham' and even though despite all the heavy duty melodrama and tears it is essentially a commercial potboiler - but with more of a 'southern flavour' if you know what I mean.
The movie opens with Vijay Chopra(Anil Kapoor) returning from U.S.A., to join his family business. The only son of the widower industrialist Vishwanath Chopra (Anupam Kher), Vijay carries home with him the attitudes of the Western world, some good like equality of man and woman in relationship and some bad, like failure to recognize marriage as an institution. And off course with the added charm and ability to 'make any go to bed with him with a couple of dollars - unlike our desi Bharatya nari's!!! Sheesh - they make us sound like crazed, womanizing pissheads or something!!!
Anyway, Vishwanath Chopra hopes to bring some stability into his
son's life through marriage and Vijay is all the more reluctant
to tie the knot. A compromise is finally struck between the
father and son with Vijay agreeing to marry with a condition. The
condition being that if he was not compatible with his wife after
a year of marriage, he would leave her.
Though
disgusted and furious with the condition, Vishwanath Chopra
realizes that a marriage with a condition is nevertheless better
than no marriage at all. But which girl in her right senses would
marry a person who wants to sign a contract stipulating the one
year compatibility contract? Vishwanath Chopra feels that there
is no one better suited than Megha (Kajol), his trusted and
efficient secretary, who is capable of changing his son's heart
within a year of marriage. Megha is the sole breadwinner of a
middle class family. Even though she finds that one year of
marriage may ruin her life, the lure of settling her family plays
an important role in
deciding to marry Vijay.
In the
one year of marriage Megha realizes that Vijay is not a bad
husband at all. He treats her as an equal partner in marriage and
gives her the respect and privacy of an individual. The year just
flies by and extremely happy Megha and her father in law
Vishwanath Chopra believe that Vijay has finally turned around to
believe in the institution of Marriage. Sadly Vijay thinks
otherwise
on their first anniversary, he enforces the contract. His
explanation is that Megha and he are more friends than wife and
husband. Megha leaves his house and goes back to her mother's
house. She finds a job in another firm and starts working again.
Once society realizes that Megha's marriage was a one year
contract, they make fun of her and brand her characterless. When
Vijay comes to
realize what is happening in Megha's life, he wishes to take her
back as his wife. However Megha refuses pointblank to come back
to a man who does not know the value of marriage.
Vijay tries every possible trick to woo his lady love. He buys
out the company she works for, he organizes music shows with her
favorite artists, he wears her favorite colors etc. In the midst
of all this Megha realizes that she is pregnant with Vijay's
child. Vijay is elated and so is his father. But Megha still
refuses to go back to Vijay. She is ready to acknowledge Vijay as
the father of her child, but not as her husband anymore. How he
wins back her love form the climax of the story...
Honestly speaking, the movie as it stands abounds with flaws - mainly overtly melodramatic and almost ridiculous ending - up to that point I thought 'yeah a different movie with a nice message' but the ending - eeps - it was supposed to be serious but was instead unintentionally comical. Aside from this the so called 'comedy' and 'relief' in the movie is absoluely unbearable - thos rather dry comic situations entice no laughter whatsoever and mar the flowing and narrative.
But the movie has several redeeming factors which save it from falling flat on it's face. Now I'm getting really tired of saying this but Kajol steals the thunder with an endearing performance. Notice how her eyes do the talking in the close up scenes. Her dialogue delievery is perfect along with her look and get up in the movie. She is truly a pleasure to watch as the neglected 'sati savitri' turned superbitch - this flick is worth every penny only because of her!!! With a competent and author backed role one would expect Anil Kapoor to be relegated to the sidelines. Instead he comes up with an honest and subtle performance as the 'hubby who wants to live his life'. The scenes between Anil-Kajol are excellent - especially the confrontation scene where Kajol goes on about how Anil had wronged her and he retaliates by reminding her that it was a two way agreement - she had also married him because of her selfish needs.
Anupam Kher is also good and the father - daughter in law relationship between him and Kajol is well developed. The comedy as I mentioned is not worth a mention and neither are the actors who pull the scenes off. Shakti Kapoor & Parmeet Sethi are unfortunately as annoying as hell.
Technically, the film is good with good camerawork during the songs. The songs range from good to plain awful, However three songs stand out - 'Chuup Gaya' (an excellent and well picturised track) along with the title song and 'Kasam Se'.
Overall, one would say that this is a worthwhile move mainly because of several scenes - where Anil touches Kajol's feet and reminds her that husband and wife are equal and neither one needs to be put on a pedestal or treated as a doormat. Alongwith, off course the confrontation scens which I already mentioned. Watch the film for Kajol's and Anil's superb performances but be prepared for a rather stupid and melodramatic ending which 'leaves a bitter taste after a rather initially great tasting wine...'
Rating:
