Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema (Routledge Film Guidebooks) by Tejaswini Ganti

Author:Tejaswini Ganti [Ganti, Tejaswini]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136849299
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-03-05T07:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.7 Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan in Hum Aapke Hain Koun! Image courtesy of the author.

Nisha’s assent to the marriage is a result of a miscommunication and misunderstanding, a common feature of melodrama. Nisha overhears her parents discussing the possibility of her marrying into Kailashnath’s household, but she presumes they are talking about arranging her marriage with Prem, not Rajesh. Overcome with joy she agrees to the match, and only discovers the truth a few days before her wedding during her henna ceremony when her friend shows her the wedding invitation with Rajesh’s name listed as the groom. Distraught, she searches everywhere for her mother, hoping to get an explanation, but bumps into Kailashnath who expresses his utmost gratitude. He states that her willingness to marry Rajesh has given a new lease of life to Rajesh and the baby, at which point the camera cuts to Rajesh smiling and playing with his son in the garden. The next scene depicts Nisha and Prem on the phone expressing their feelings and decision to sacrifice their love and happiness for the sake of the greater good of the family. These sentiments are expressed through a song, which Nisha begins with the line, “I’ll erase all of these memories of love from my heart and for the sake of duty, forget everything.” Prem responds, “You have to fulfill your duty. How can I ever repay this debt [of bringing happiness to my elder brother]?” As the young couple appears completely overwhelmed against what appear to be the inexorable forces of family and duty, another miscommunication takes place to resolve their problem. Just minutes before her wedding to Rajesh, Nisha returns a family heirloom – a necklace given to Pooja when she married Rajesh – that Pooja had gifted to Nisha as a symbol of her imminent arrival into Kailashnath’s household with a note addressed to Prem. This note, however, unbeknownst to Nisha, is returned to Rajesh, rather than Prem, who learns in the nick of time about the immense sacrifice that Prem and Nisha were embarking upon, and thus rectifies the situation. The final scene of the film takes place in Prof. Chaudhury’s study where Rajesh reveals to the elders what Prem and Nisha were about to do. He chides them for hiding their feelings and not confiding in him. When their maternal uncle steps forward and says that Rajesh and the entire family should be proud of the young couple for trying to carry out what they believed to be their duty, Rajesh responds that it is his turn to fulfill his duty as a husband and an older brother, which is to realize his late wife’s dream of getting Prem and Nisha married. Thus, by the end of HAHK, duty is deployed in the service of desire.

Written off after preview screenings as one of the biggest flops waiting to happen, the Hindi film industry was stunned when HAHK went on to become one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the time.

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