Loneliness in Dil Chahta Hai – Julia Gron
Though I was won over by the happy ending at the end of Dil Chahta Hai, I couldn’t help but notice the theme of loneliness that runs through the movie. Though they all experience it differently, almost all of the main characters are affected by a sense of loneliness. For Tara, feeling like she has no one makes her feel like a ‘nobody’ even though she is a successful career woman. Sameer also feels more vulnerable when he is faced with the threat of being lonely. He is too afraid to reveal to Pooja his true feelings for her, though he comes close at times, because if she rejects him he would have no one to spend time with when both of his friends were gone. Sameer only confesses his love after Sid comes home and he has someone to fall back on. For Akash and Shalini, being lonely does not make them necessarily feel more vulnerable but it makes them feel removed from society. During the song “Tanhayee,” which literally means loneliness, Akash is pictured either alone in empty spaces or detached looking as people or vehicles move right by him. During the same song, Shalini is highly preoccupied with her own thoughts of loneliness, and in the moments when she isn’t alone can barely interact with her adoptive parents.
From all of the films we have seen so far, loneliness like this has really only come up once in DDLJ, when Simran is taken to India for her arranged marriage and, like Shalini, can barely put on a happy face for her wedding. For all of the loneliness and vulnerability that comes up in Dil Chahta Hai, though, it is also the movie that ends with the most unity and love compared with the other films we have watched for the class. No families had to be broken up for the lovers to get their way, married couples didn’t have to magically forget indiscretions and suddenly appear happy in their relationships, and besides Tara (who Sid debatably ‘wasn’t supposed’ to end up with in the first place because his mother disapproved and Bollywood mothers are never wrong) no one in the main couples had to die. All of the characters go through a journey to overcome their fears of loneliness in order to end up happy and in love. Even Sid finds love at the end (presumably, the last shots are a little vague) after he has 6 months to grieve Tara.
Filed by jgron at March 8th, 2013 under Uncategorized