Kaho Naa Pyar Hai and My Introduction to Hindi Popular Films
I am a Westerner, an American to be exact. I grew up in California and the universe of Bollywood and Indian Popular film is actually new to me. I saw my first full length Bollywood film in 2000. I say full length film, because I had been watching the Indian channel on American TV for over a year, where I saw movie song shows that had stuff like SRK on top of a train dancing, single songs playing on "shuffle" mode. Those song picturizations I saw on the television fascinated me and I wanted to see more. I went to the internet and did a search for "Bollywood" and to my surprise and joy I discovered there was not only a whole sub-culture of Bollywood web sites and forums on the web, but there were also Bollywood movie theaters near where I lived. For the next week I pestered my friends to go see a Bollywood movie with me. Finally a date was made and we decided to go see a matinee of a Hindi Popular film at the Naz8 theater in Fremont California.
We drove up to Fremont California and found the theater, which was an old 8 theater multiplex (this was the old Naz8 which has now moved to a new location in Fremont) . Now we didn't know what we were going to see. I just wanted to see ANY Bollywood movie. The movie theater ticket person told us we should see a movie called Kaho Naa Pyar Hai (KNPH), which she said was very entertaining. We had no idea what to expect, the movie had no sub-titles, we didn't even know who was in it. We took our seats, the lights dimmed, and as the movie began, the familiar strains of the theme to KNPH filled the theater. At that moment my life was changed forever. I had discovered the experience of Bollywood, the world that is Indian Popular cinema.
That was in the summer of 2000. Since then I have watched over 350 Hindi and Tamil movies, from early classics of Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt, to classic Tamil mythologicals like Thiru Vilayadal, many of the new Hindi and some new Tamil releases, almost every movie made by Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, and Manoj Kumar. My favorite actress is Sridevi and I follow all of the popular film directors too, from Sooraj Barjatya to Manesh Bhatt, Subhash Ghai, to Rajumar Santoshi, and of course Karan Johar and Rakesh Roshan. I have for the past 5 years been devouring Bolly and Tollywood with passion. Yet in all this time I have still not forgotten my first love, and I still hold a near and dear spot in my hear to that movie KHNP.
Remember KNPH
I always seem to return to KNPH and I think I have seen the movie about 10 times. For years I thought KNPH was the best Hindi film ever made, but now after having watched a few other great Bollywood films I realize that it is actually one of many amazing movies produced by the Hindi film industry. KNPH is actually part of an evolution, and has its place as a very important film in the growth of Bollywood. For one, KNPH is one of the pivotal films that captured the hearts of 100,000s of NRI and turned on many Westerners (including myself) to Bollywood. What Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Taal initiated in creating a powerful diaspora audience, it was KNPH that cemented the deal.
The movie was a huge success in the United States, Canada and England. KNPH was released at the peak of the internet boom (before the bust) in the United States. Its hipness and fun lured many diaspora youth back back to the joys of Bollywood at a time when Hindi Popular film was in danger of becoming un-cool in the eyes of second gen NRI. Ek Pal Ka Jeena became an anthem, and it became cool have the soundtrack of KNPH on one's CD player. Secondly KNPH started the Hrithik craze and was also the debut of Amisha Patel. Well I could go deeper into the Hrithik craze and Hrithikmania as it was to become called, but that is another story. Also the story and analysis of KNPH is still another story. Let's just say that the stories of KNPH are not finished.The story of Bollywood is not just a description of this or that's film's plot, or just a love for the actors and actresses of the Hindi movie screen, but it is also what Bollywood has to tell us about ourselves and how it has changed us all as we watch and sing along.
