Hence it is proved; change is indeed the only constant. With 20 years or 1000 weeks behind its back, it still remains as one of the most celebrated movies of our time.

Yes, I am talking about the Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Brave Hearted Will Take Away the Bride). Released on 20/10/1995, with the running time of 186 minutes the movie is topped with some wonderful melodies with ever refreshing lyrical notes.

Add to it some sharp editing and amazing concoction of soil of Punjab and mountains of Europe and blended together in the vessel of Indian cinema and we had a wonderful serving in the name of DDLJ. With IMDb rating of 8.4 we witnessed a wonderful love story, made from heart meant to click the hearts.

To girls this movie proved them, there is a Simren in everyone and if that Simren is there, then a Raj is always somewhere around the corner and his arrival is awaited.

The time then and the time now have changed significantly in terms of our thinking, our habit of checking our phones every five seconds, the instant messaging services, the dependency on apps and the urge to tell the world what we have been up to lately, jumping to the conclusion without seeing the situation other way around and much more.

This movie does helps in taking a detour into the lost world of faith and belief; as for me the best scene from the movie that exemplifies the word belief is- Raj didn’t give up on his love for Simren.

He left after fighting all the odds and he leaned outside the gate of his compartment lifting his hand in air asking Simren to come. And just then girl’s father turns up as the idol; Simran meets Raj and the son & father in law duo share thumbs up chemistry.

In an illustrious career spanning for over two and a half decades, SRK has been a heart throb. He has been an example, he has been a lover, he has been a hard work junkie and he has been a person who refuses to give up (by giving up, I mean many have come and gone he has his niche intact.)

I strongly believe the best movies of his career were Swades and Darr (please save your outrage and arguments for some other day). But it was DDLJ that showed him the way towards stardom and a way into every girl’s dream then.

Very few people know- the lead role was first offered to Saif Ali Khan and thankfully he denied and before that there was this name- Tom Cruise; that was being referred to play the male lead, as the sole idea was to make it an Indo-European/American love tale.

And at last the role found the best man for the job- Shahrukh Khan. And come today nobody can imagine the character Raj being portrayed by someone else. No one can fill those shoes now.

If the West has its quota of saucy and steamed up love stories then we will always have a DDLJ packed with a wonderful family that holds respect, a family that believes in living for each other, a family that takes time to learn- yes love is the winner at the end.

But above all that DDLJ symbolises the heritage of India and the very emotion of love; with love being an emotion that delivers you with the power to convince.

To me the most underrated character in the movie was, Chaudhary Baldev Singh, Simren’s father. Mr. Amrish Puri gave his heart to this role and it was clearly visible from his body language and his way of speaking dialogues and the way he portrayed the character of a father of an Indian girl. There was respect and there was love in his character.

I still remember the time when this movie was released in our city- Udaipur, it was brought to us in theatre Chetak Cinema, which has shut down now. It will always be a memory, the small ticket window and the shaggy parking stand.

It was the time when going to movies was a lesser crime in itself. It was the time when seeing movies in theatres used to be a thing meant to be shared. These were some small yet some wonderful experiences from our childhood.

In present times the love has changed; airports are seemed as the place to realise- he or she is the one. If there is a person who can live without Whatsapp then that person is regarded as something different and to be looked for. And if that person is not available on Facebook then that person is referred as a lonely being. And if that person often watches DDLJ then he is surely not moving along with the world; sad but true in present vulnerable times.

Written by: Kushal Wadhwani