Just three years into the film world, Aishwarya Rai was already a top star in brief cameo in the Shahrukh Khan/Amitabh Bachchan led
Mohabbatein (2000).
A film I had a problem with from the get-go as, if you know Hindi, there is no word as Mohabbatein. Written and directed by Aditya Chopra who is a true cinema buff, who made one of my all time favourite films DDLJ and a movie I hated passionately, Befikre. Sadly in fact, from DDLJ onwards, its been diminishing returns, his films have had more glamour, glitz and high production values, but the poetry has been bumper-car sticker lite, not as profound as intended, which always befuddled; when you have acccess to Javed Akhtar, Gulzar and Honey Irani...cough cough... why not tap into the natural resources of great writing and profound thinking that only age can bring in?!
When Mohabbatein first came out - my mother, a Hindi teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya - first looked at the word and went... what??!! A sign of the haan-ji-sir-ji culture of Mumbai film industry, in his entireeeeee team, no one had the courage to bring it up to the boss-man, that the word ain't right?!
Anyhoo, but nothing succeeds like success as of course this movie was a smash hit and made tonnes of money - think nine times the budget... so who argues with a crore-maker when we are hazaar-critics.
The picture; well, Ash was 26 during the making of the film, her co-star 34. King Khan
This on set pic, Khan holding the cig is the dead give-away, sparked rumours of the alleged affair between the two which created chaos in her personal life, the storied chaos of the Salman Khan alliance that sold a lot of tabloids and earned the keep of many a hack. Doubt there was any truth to it other than Ash's fandom of SRK and Khan's famed affection for all his co-stars, but Indian tabloids rarely let facts get in the way of a good newsstand selling (fiction) story. Which reminds me, the images of a kiss between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai (a cheeky one so relax!), allegedly earned the photographer top dollar, well, top Ruppee as it was a Cine Blitz exclusive.
Rai looked glorious in the movie - truly a vision and backed with iconic songs, two scenes and a wardrobe that is still being emulated to date, she proved that its not the length of the role but its impact that matters.
We long to watch Rai and Khan in a film again. Sadly, we think those days are done. But one never knows... we can manifest it to happen with a Netflix budget or something...
As a film, it felt... fluffy. Essentially a launch pad for six newcomers, a life changing career move that.. sadly they couldn't sustain. Mohabatein was a summer, easy-breezy-blockbuster - that released in October! Delayed productions as Rai fell ill in between... The film requires very little thought and its candy and gelato colour scheme just made for fun viewing, not profundity. Which no one is really looking for in a Bollywood musical of large-scale production.
Fan of parts of the movie... others are so skippable. Always wondered how they brought all those Canadian maple leaves to India... Some sad sack had to carry that from continent to continent....
