Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam clocks 25 years Sanjay Leela Bhansali denigrates Aishwarya Rai’s Nandini

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam clocks 25 years Sanjay Leela Bhansali denigrates Aishwarya Rai’s Nandini

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directorial Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam clocks 25 years of its release.

At that time around Sanjay Leela Bhansali wasn’t the revered filmmaker acknowledged for his unique style. But he was a director who had just made one movie, Khamoshi, which won the appreciations by the people who actually watched it.

When he made Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which can now be seen as the emergence of the ‘Bhansali-mania’ in Hindi cinema, he ensured to make it a spectacle. However, alongside the havelis, and the ghagra-cholis, and the dance numbers, it was Aishwarya Rai’s incredible screen presence that made this one of the most memorable films of the 1990s.

In the years since Hum Dil… released, the conversation around the film has evolved a fair bit. There was a time when fans questioned why Nandini (Rai) would choose to stay with her husband, and it was somehow believed that a mainstream Hindi film couldn’t really take the risk of ‘disrespecting’ the sanctity of marriage. There was also a time when the audience questioned why Aishwarya RaiBachchan just accept her husband in the first place?

He was the innocent bystander who seemed like a nice guy and also tried to do the right thing by her. But the biggest question that is still not answered is why Bhansali took.away Nandini’s agency?

News Edit K.V.Raman