Kajol and SRK pay a touching tribute to DDLJ

The popular on-screen couple talks about the iconic train sequence from the movie, which completes 20 years at the cinemas today.

And can Dilwale be far?

Also read: How Dilwale's success lies in Kajol not Shah Rukh Khan

SRK and Kajol shared a steady chemistry that was accentuated by the magic of songs such as “Tujhe Dekha to Yeh Jaana Sanam”. Raj and Simran’s holiday across Europe, an event that sets the stage for their love, was, to many Indians, representative of the freedom that they desired for themselves. Even so, the movie endeared itself to the elders by making the protagonist earn his spurs as the consummately Indian lover boy. Raj comforting a frazzled Maaji, Simran’s mother played by Farida Jalal, after she begs him to run away with her daughter, marked both a quietly feminist touch and the then-still-new prospect of a mainstream hero walking the fine line between new-age faddism and entrenched tradition.

That said, the cult around DDLJ has muddied some of the movie’s appeal. A bevy of new-age directors, led by Karan Johar, have paid detailed, and often dreary, homages to the film in their productions. Stars from the film make routine pilgrimages to TV studios on anniversaries of the film’s release, while the story about Maratha Mandir playing it since forever is now plain tiresome.

Cue Dilwale. Kajol, on her part, has been extremely selective about the work she has done lately. She is one of those actors who was part of the transformation in Bollywood but retired before she could fully enjoy the fruits of that change. The only memorable roles of hers over the last decade were in Fanaa with Aamir and My Name is Khan with SRK. Actresses like her, a list that also includes Karishma Kapoor, must dream about the sort of meatiness that a Deepika Padukone or a Kangana Ranaut get to chew on today.

Which is why it is important for Rohit Shetty to get off his silly bandwagon for once and make a film that deserves her. That SRK has gone down the rabbit hole of mediocrity is old news. His presence in 2013's Chennai Express was so tedious he will struggle to live it down artistically (money wise, sadly, even trash featuring him is always a spinner). One hopes that Kajol would ensure that Dilwale retains a semblance of meaning. The actor has said in the past that she is not always satisfied with the transition from script to screen. Here’s hoping that tragedy does not befall Dilwale.

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