Bollywood Dreams !

‘Aisa pehli baar hua hai

Satrah atrah salon mein

Undekha unjaana koi

Aane laga khayalon mein’

If you know what I am referring to you are undoubtedly a teenager from the 90’s! The stanza above is Simran’s first few lines in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge(DDLJ). The poem goes on for almost 2 minutes where Simran describes her mystery boy who keeps her busy dreaming.I was 13 when DDLJ came out into the theatres. I loved the movie…watched it a couple of times in the theatre and I knew every dialogue by heart! And just like Mahi from Bachna Ae Haseeno, my little sis and I kept hoping we’d meet a Raj when we went to London for our vacation.

DDLJ is definitely the romantic movie of the 90’s. The SRK – Kajol magic, the serene landscape of Europe and Bollywood’s very own Punjab came together in this magnum opus to create history.

I remember a conversation with a friend once on why everyone in our generation wants to have a love story. He said we grew up watching DDLJ…not Deewar. After the melodramatic 70’s and the garish 80’s, the 90’s in Bollywood were all about the romance. To be precise I think the romantic wave started with the debut of the first Khan in 1988 with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and the next Khan with Maine Pyar Kiya.

We grew up believing that love had to happen. Bollywood made us believe that we could find love on a class picnic like in QSQT, at a wedding like in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or maybe ‘this is not friendship…it is love’ like in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

But none of this happened and we spent hours talking to our friends on why finding love is hard…I mean it is so easy in the movies. The truth is love doesn’t happen like in the movies…you will not find a cute Raghu Jetley (Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahin) if you are trying to run away from home. The chances are you will have some creepy looking man who will try to make conversation with you and you will try to continuously look through him…or act busy with your headphones.

I always thought that I’d find an Akash (Dil Chahta Hai) in my life. A guy, who is spontaneous, has no qualms making a fool of himself to just get your attention and is willing to ask for your love in front a bunch of random people!

Well, as you must have guessed I didn’t find an Akash. But I am not saying I didn’t find love. In fact it’s funny but I think I found love when I had stopped looking! I met him in college. He was the most unapproachable person in class and at times intimidating too. But somehow that never really got to me. I could talk to him for hours…and he’d listen to me hours. Friends around us had started seeing more happening between us than the two of us had…

And so finally one day we decided to start seeing each other. When we took that decision, there was nothing ta-da about the situation. It was simple, and it was real. There were times I’d hope something really filmy would happen…but it never did…The sound of his bike as he came home to pick me always made my heart race. Him singing English songs I had never heard before as he strummed his guitar made me smile. Not answering my calls as he had again forgotten that his cell was on the silent mode made me mad.

Somewhere all this and more made us fall in love and 3 years later we tied the knot.

I guess, the moral of the story is that love is not as complex and as dramatic as in the movies. It usually creeps up from behind quietly and hits you before you know it. Dreaming Bollywood dreams is not silly as long as you have an eye to catch signs of a simple and real love story coming your way!

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The writer is my ponjee's older sister, a marketing executive living in Bangalore with her husband. She's a complete idealist, optimist and believer. Loves the spas, traveling and Bollywood.

http://roller-coastering.blogspot.com/