Anjali kuch kuch hota hai
But it’s more than that, something about her face just grabs the camera and holds on, like we are staring right into her soul when she is onscreen. She doesn’t parse out her dialogue or practice her mannerisms, she goes out and just exists within the character. She has always been what I think of as a “naked” actor. There’s two parts to why we feel this so strongly. Think about how differently you feel for Kajol in this song, versus the other two, even though all three characters are going through something big. We don’t feel sympathy for her, we don’t want her to have a happy ending because she deserves it, we feel with her and we want her to have a happy ending because we want a happy ending for ourselves, selfishly. They are just trying to do the best they can with what they have, trying to live happy lives without hurting anyone else. Poor Rani, poor Shahrukh, poor Little Anjali, even poor Salman. This is one of those pleasant movies with no real bad guy in it. Empathy says, “I am feeling what you feel.” We feel sympathy for everyone in this film. Sympathy says, “I understand how you feel”. But it’s not the same as what we feel for Kajol. That’s interesting, and enjoyable to watch, and certainly more than enough for the audience to sympathize with them and understand their emotions. Shahrukh grows up to be a confident happy successful man who loves his daughter and has some deep seated grief and guilt about his wife’s death. Rani is a sensitive quiet type who is swept away by Shahrukh’s courtship but also feels sad for what it is doing to Kajol.
Shahrukh is a slightly immature flirt in college who finds his first love and lies to himself that he isn’t also in love with his best friend. Shahrukh and Rani are good characters and good performances, but the usual level of good.
No one else in the film really reaches that level of “real”. Or, I’ll put it another way, her character is so clearly drawn and so perfectly performed so that she truly feels like a real person and, like any real person, she is unique. I don’t want to say “different from the usual heroine” because that minimizes her. Kajol’s character in this film is just amazing. It is Kajol that is different, Kajol that is special. He doesn’t feel like a brand new character in the flashback, he is still the same person we already saw in the present.
Shahrukh is different in his flashback college persona than from his modern persona, but it is a subtle difference that the film does not bother to emphasis. And Kajol gets the slow unbundling of her character as well.
Anjali kuch kuch hota hai full#
Kajol gets the full glamour intro, with dramatic spins and music. And only after that slow intro do we get to see Kajol. Widower, small child, good job, doesn’t plan to ever fall in love again. No mystery either, we know everything about him and who he is right away.
Anjali kuch kuch hota hai movie#
This movie opens with Shahrukh, he gets no build up at all, his face is literally the first shot of the film. DDLJ, Kajol and Shahrukh’s last film before this one held off for a long time too. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Karan’s next film, holds off for over 10 minutes before we see Shahrukh. But then, Indian films often don’t open with the protagonist. The whole film is driving towards a happy ending for Kajol, only Kajol, and it will not make sense unless you see that. Shahrukh is her reward and complication and end goal, and Rani serves the plot purpose of an obstacle in her path. She is the central character, it is her actions that drive the plot, and it is her life that changes the most over the course of the film. The most important thing to understand about Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is that Kajol plays the protagonist of the film. Last Kuch Kuch post! Sad for those of you who love Kuch Kuch, happy for those of you who are sick of it.