A Spectacle Like No Other

Hum Aapke Hain Koun...! (1994)
Directed by : Sooraj R. Barjatiya
Produced by : Rajshri Productions
Starring:
Salman Khan
Madhuri Dixit
Anupam Kher
Alok Nath
Renuka Shahane
Laxmikant Berde
Music by: Raamlaxman

Made as a modern day remake of "Nadiya Ke Paar",another Rajshri Productions classic, this movie turned out to be a financial juggernaut, the likes of which Indian cinema had never seen before. Families flocked to the theatres(including yours truly's) to experience this phenomenon. A sudden pressure was felt by every groom-to-be's younger brothers to be funny and flamboyant at weddings, or in other words , " to pull off a Prem".
This is Indian cinema at it's most unrealistic(though its about everyday life), most unapologetic," finger to the critics cuz this is what the people want". This is HAHK....!

The film follows the lives of an extremely rich family. The patriarch, played by Alok Nath , is the ultimate father figure, and his 2 nephews, Rajesh ( Mohnish Bhel) and Prem( Salman Khan) , love him like they must have loved their late father.Now on the outside, it looks like they arent lacking for anything, but the uncle and Prem both agree that the family lacks a woman's motherly presence. This leads to some " photo dikhai" which leads to the uncle remembering that his college friend, now a professor(Anupam Kher), has a daughter of the appropriate age(how convenient is that?). So after a brief period of getting to know each other, and courting which firmly belongs in the early nineteenth century, Rajesh and Pooja (Shahane) get engaged and eventually married, and there is song and dance and a whole lotta in-your-face merry making.
But therein lies the problem. The entire spectacle makes you sort of realize that you're never gonna be as happy in real life as those people are on the screen. These people are constantly acting as if they are overdosed on Prozac, and would not notice if someone walked up to them and shot them in the foot. It really makes you wanna go on and punch them just to make sure they are aware of the concepts of pain.
And as if on cue, the two most attractive members of the cast develop some feelings towards each other, and these feelings are based on nothing more than having sung a few duets and danced around a little, but still, love moves in mysterious ways. So Prem and Nisha, who are almost unabashedly at the focus of everything in the film, begin their courting, which is youthful enough to belong in the 1950s, and this develops into the love story it was always meant to be. Special mention to be made of Satish shah as the hammy "shaayar" doctor uncle,Laxmikant Berde as the comic relief/"apne ladke ke jaisa" servant, and Tuffy, the super deus-ex-machina dog.

Now technically, this movie is first class by Indian stndards. The music is melodious and extremely catchy, as we can glean from its tremendous popularity. The camera work has no evident flaws, the film is paced decently(yes, inspite of the gazillion songs). the problem starts with the fact that Sooraj Barjatiya comes across as someone who has lived his life inside a "Barbie's skirt" coloured pink bubble with fluffy,furry inside walls. He seems to lack any understanding regrding how a human being reacts to a situation. It might be intentional, which would make him a genius, but his later offerings suggest otherwise. I think the main reason for this movie's phenomenal succes can be the fact that its about regualr people, but it's not. It's a tease, it's a " get an eyeful cause you're never gonna have a life like this for real". A big negative that comes to mind for this movie is that the shit-loads of money that Rajshri made with this was used to finance " Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon". Well , love it or hate it( i'm still undecided on that one myself) , you just can't ignore it. I mean, admit it, you've probably seen this at least half a dozen times.
This movie has a very unique position in the history of Indian cinema, as a financial messiah and a creative plague for the industry. It means different things to different people, but it is , and always will be a spectacle like no other(yay!incorporated the thread title!)