‘Dil Se’ still burns as bright as ever

A look at what's making waves on the global cinema scene Mani Ratnam's 1998 film, back in theatres, is still complicated, divisive and heart-stoppingly beautiful

- Uday Bhatia

It’s the one scene many fans of Dil Se would prefer wasn't there.

Amar (Shah Rukh Khan) has followed Meghna (Manisha Koirala) from her home in the northeast to Ladakh, professing his love all the way. Now, stranded in a vast frozen desert, he loses patience. He confronts her, grabs her arm as she tries to walk away, demands she tell him something real about herself. “Would you let me be if I told you the truth?” “No,” he says. They argue some more, he grabs her by her waist, tries to kiss her. I could feel the viewers in the theatre recoil. One rattled young woman later said, “I don’t remember him being such a stalker.”

Well, yes. Nothing is simple in this film, released in 1998 and back in theatres this month, along with a handful of others, to mark Khan's 60th birthday. But this much is undeniable: Amar pursues a reluctant Meghna to her hometown (likely somewhere in Assam), gets beaten up for his pains, then tracks her down in Leh. All the while she tells him she’s married, that she isn’t interested. This is Shah Rukh, so there’s great charm and no aggression until that moment in Leh. But it is, by any reasonable standard, stalking. The film is not only aware of this, but is at pains to tell you what it thinks of it. But for that, you have to tear your eyes from Shah Rukh and watch Manisha.