Dil Toh Pagal Hai Turns 25: When Friendship Meets Unrequited One-Sided Love

On October 30 1997, 25 years ago, Yash Chopra released what was then touted as India's first-ever musical romantic film — Dil Toh Pagal Hai. The script was flimsy, but the lavish production, great music and trend-setting couture rang the box office registers, and the film turned out to be a blockbuster.

The film stands out as a classic even today mostly for its foot-tapping music, well-synced choreography and definitely fashion. Dil Toh Pagal Hai follows the love story of Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), an overtly eccentric playwright, and Pooja (Madhuri Dixit), a firm soulmate believer dancer. However, there's another angle too, a love triangle at that. Akshay Kumar as Ajay plays Madhuri’s childhood friend, while the story mainly revolved around Rahul falling for Pooja, Nisha a dancer and Rahul's BFF (Karisma Kapoor) is also secretly in love with Rahul and Ajay admitting his feelings for Pooja, hence leading to a rather complicated love story. While Nisha promptly leaves the country and takes a flight to God knows where, Ajay, we hear, is still walking around with his heart-shaped stuffed toy looking for his Pooja. (Sorry, just kidding!)

Dil Toh Pagal Hai Turns 25: When friendship meets unrequited love

“Kahin na kahin, koi na koi mere liye banaya gaya hai (There’s someone somewhere who was made just for me)…” this dialogue from the film may seem outdated in the times of dating apps where falling in love is as simple as swiping right. However, 25 years ago, it had people flocking to the theatres and cemented the position of Shah Rukh Khan as king of romance.

Packaged with hummable music, soft focus frames and beautiful people dressed in beautiful clothes, the film set many parameters around the concept of love, friendship, and how sometimes these relationships require us to make sacrifices. Dil Toh Pagal Hai is probably one of the rare films that have sensitively broached the topic of friendzone, and one-sided love and dealt with it quite nicely.  

For instance, there’s a scene where we see Nisha sitting by a lake with Rahul. We know Nisha’s heartbroken after discovering that Rahul is in love with Pooja, a woman who probably loves him back. When Nisha had earlier confessed her love to Rahul, it had not been reciprocated, but the treatment of that emotionally sensitive moment was not flippant. She even joked that Rahul would probably beg her to take him back when she returned from London. Unfortunately, nothing of that sort was in store for Nisha, who’s now also harbouring a pang of jealousy. Her pain comes forth in the form of a dance face-off with Madhuri Dixit.

The conversation between Nisha and Rahul on the side of the lake is poignant because the latter makes the former realise that whom we fall in love with is not in our control. Feeling angry and sad that she is not able to feel happy for her friend, she keeps repeating herself (main buri ho), to which Rahul apologises to Nisha. He’s sorry that he’s unable to reciprocate Nisha’s love in the way she’d like. He’s sorry that he couldn’t help falling in love with Pooja. He’s sorry that he’s the inadvertent reason that Nisha is in tears. The scene feels with the right amount of vulnerability, and because of Karisma Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan for their perfectly platonic chemistry.

Twenty-five years on, we hope these characters were able to move forward from unrequited love and that their friendship stayed just as strong, perhaps even stronger. It’s a moment of learning — Yash Chopra teaches us we must love without any expectation, and we must love in our friendships too, because when we’re in love, we’re the most alive.

The views expressed are the author's own.

Suggested Reading: From Kal Ho Na Ho To Jab We Met: 8 Hindi Films With Iconic Love Triangles