Reel rewind: 1998
Film that did Kuch Kuch... to moviemaking
M. L. Dhawan

RAMGOPAL Varma in his magnum opus Satya took a close look at Mumbai’s underworld. Satya (Chakravarty), worked in a seedy bar. Once he got into a brawl with a gangster and was picked up from jail by another gangster Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpai), after which he took to violent and wayward ways. He fell in love with a chawl girl — Vidya (Urmila Matondkar). By the time he decided to leave the underworld, it was too late. As Bhiku Mhatre, a small-time mafioso, Manoj Bajpai elevated the image of criminal to that of a folk hero.

When Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se was released, terrorism had created a global scare. It was thought that this fact would help Dil Se by heightening the impact on the masses. But Mani Ratnam attempt got lost in the weak screenplay and sketchy characterization and the film turned out to be a pale shadow of Gulzar’s Maachis. Manisha Koirala played Meghna, a terrorist, but her character was turn between playing human and a terrorist cause. Amar (Shah Rukh Khan) was sent on an assignment by All-India Radio to the North-East, where he met Meghna. Despite his attempts to get close to Meghna, she left him in the lurch. He then went back to Delhi and got engaged to outspoken Preity (Preity Zinta). Cinematography by Sivan and catchy tunes by A.R. Rahman Chal Chhaiyan Chhaiyan, Dil Se, Satrangi Re were the film’s high points.

Karan Johar’s directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai revolved around three college friends — Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), Anjali (Kajol) and Tina (Rani Mukherjee). Rahul and Anjali shared a platonic relationship. The campus head-turner Tina proved a perfect foil to the tomboyish Anjali and Rahul fell in love and married Tina. After Tina’s death, her daughter, also named Anjali, brought the two friends, Rahul and Anjali, together again. Every leading actress of the time had rejected the role that Rani Mukherjee essayed with finesse, making her an actres to watch out for. The film followed the traditions of feel-good films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayengey and was a thundering success at the box office.

David Dhawan’s Bade Miyan Chote Miyan was inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors. Arjun Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) and Pyare Mohan (Govinda) were two cops. Whose work brings them in contact with across Neha (Ramya), who was witness to her friends’s murder.

It goes to the credit of the two actors that they carried this scriptless and senseless film deftly on their shoulders. Apart from their rib-tickling comedy, Dhawan’s cinematic capabilities were nothing much to talk about.

Raj Kumar Santoshi’s China Gate highlighted Robert Broning’s dictum ‘Grow old with me, the best is yet to be’. The film revolved around 10 former Army men who were court martialled for fleeing the battlefield. Branded as cowards and timid, they lived a life of dishonour and disgrace, but when they stumbled upon a mission that would restore their lost glory, they left no stone unturned to prove their patriotism. Annu Malik’s Chhamma Chhamma, however, was not in tune with the script..

Deepa Mehta’s controversial film Fire explored a lesbian relationship. In a joint family, two brothers lived with their wives (Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das) and their old mother. The two sisters-in-law were neglected by their self-absorbed husbands. Nandita Das, the younger of the two, was abandoned by her macho husband for the charms of his saucy mistress while Radha’s (Shabana Azmi) husband had abstained from sex for years. Fire depicted the lesbian relationship between the two abandoned women as the only possible form of rebellion available to them. The film drew flak on account of its unconventional theme.

In Umesh Mehra’s Qila, the veteran Dilip Kumar played double role portraying twin brothers, Amarnath, a paragon of virtue and Jagannath, who was given to voices. Qila had all the trappings of a hit — Mamta Kulkarni’s sex appeal, the dancing sensation in Rekha and catchy music by Anand Raaj Anand, but it was thespian Dilip Kumar who stole the entire show.

Shaheed-e-Mohabat Boota Singh directed by Manoj Punj was a sensitive love story of a couple Boota Singh (Gurdas Mann) and his wife Zainab (Divya Dutta) who were separated by Partition.

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