Introduction
Yash Chopra is India’s premier movie mogul in recent history. Apart from Deewar and Trishul all his movies depict different flavors of love. Each story is a love story with something different about it. Be it the mature adult love in Kabhi Kabhi or be it the bizzare love story of girl loving would be father in Lamhe or be it love blossoming amidst stringent regulations in Mohabbatein, Yash Chopra has done it all.
So when Darr, based loosely on Cape Fear was announced everybody was waiting with bated breath.
The Plot
The story is about Kiran (Juhi Chawla) a happy go lucky girl with the zest for life. Her love of life is Sunil (Sunny Deol) and soon they marry and have a whale of a time. But then things take a gory turn.
A obsessed young man, Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) is madly in love with Kiran. He starts to stalk Kiran at every possible moment, making life a living hell for her. Even after her marriage with Sunil, he harbours hope of winning her over and marrying her.
Nothing is too much for this obsessed lover and he goes about planning the murder of Sunil. But, Sunil turns out to be a bit smarter than he had bargained, so Rahul pulls out all tricks from his bag including terrifying Kiran into submission.
Does Rahul get Kiran? Does Sunil catch hold of Rahul? What is Kiran’s fate? Check out Darr for all the answers.
Critic’s Viewpoint
Darr came at a point in time when Bollywood stars were shedding the guise of lover boys and experimenting with the anti-hero mantle. Even so, Shahrukh Khan’s decision to play the anti-hero role of Rahul was going to be a big risk for his career. Very few heros have tried a negative role, leave alone two (Shahrukh’s other negative role came in Baazigar) at the start of the career.
To say that Shahrukh Khan stole the movie would be an understatement. He was phenomenal in the movie. His role of a passionate lover obsessed with Kiran who would stoop to conquer and keeps having bouts of self-pity is a tremendous effort. Starting from the stuttering uttering of I love you K-K-Ki-Kiran, to the sulking nature in presence of others, to the fire in the eyes when anybody touches Kiran, the youngster has given a mindblowing performance. The stuttering style is still one of the most popular style of dialog delivery amongst kids.
But the movie was not all about Shahrukh Khan. It has Juhi Chawla, the ex-Miss India who in my opinion is one of the most under utilized actresses in India. With the cute little face that she has and the great twinkle in the eye and easy smile on her face and her ample load of acting talent she should have been numero uno heroine. But somehow she has been under utilized barring movies like Aaina and Hum hai rahi pyaar ke. But in Darr she gets to display all her talent, be it the frightened look on her face on seeing Rahul, be it the twinkle in the eyes during the song Tu hai meri Kiran or the comic chemistry with Anupam Kher. It was one of her best performances.
Sunny Deol, though the main hero in the movie gets sidelined by the performance of Shahrukh and Juhi, but in his own understated manner, he does a good job. Others including Anupam Kher and Kulbhushan Kharbanda have done a decent job.
The movie has Yash Chopra stamp all over. Adapting the stalking story of Cape Fear into a passionate love story keeping the Indian audiences in mind was simply a great feat. To add to that, Yash Chopra had said before the release of the movie that after the release of the movie he would emerge as the highest tax payer in the country and true to his predictions he did become the highest tax payer that year due to the mega success of Darr.
The cinematography and the locales on which the movie was shot also needs to be commended. The movie had a fresh and energetic look and feel about it.
The Music of Darr
Yash Chopra’s movies usually have blockbuster music albums and Darr was no exception. The duo of Shiv-Hari continue to perform brilliantly on Yash Chopra’s stage.
The album begins with the melodious Jaadu teri nazar sung by Udit Narayan. The song is made memorable by the opening sequence where in that famous Juhi smile is splashed onto the screens.
Next up, we have the teasing Darwaza band kar lo in the pleasant voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Abhijeet. The song is filmed on Juhi and Sunny.
Then we are treated to the loud love song Tu mere saamne in the voices of Udit Narayan and Lata Mangeshkar. Then we have the naughty holi song Ang se ang lagana sajan sung in the voices of Alka Yagnik, Sudesh Bhosle and Vinod Rathod.
All these songs were mega hits and were topping the music charts. The rest of the songs in the album were passable. More than the music album, the background score of the movie throughout was brilliant and enhanced the suspect effect of the movie.
Meaning of the title
Darr in hindi simply means Fear. Here it highlights the fear of a prey being stalked by a hunter.
Awards for Darr
Although the movie was such a mega hit, it had to contend with other mega hits like Baazigar and Khalnayak for the awards. So the only Filmfare award that Darr did manage to get was:
Best Commedian - Anupam Kher. To be truthful probably Johnny Lever deserved it more for Baazigar, but as it had already bagged a lot of awards, Darr probably got it as a wooden spoon.
But, later in the year Darr won the National award for Best Film.
Summary
Darr was one of the biggest hits of 1993 and again established Yash Chopra as numero uno director-producer of India.
For the brilliant direction by Yash Chopra and brilliant acting performances by Shahrukh and Juhi, this movie gets a five star rating from me.