Dil Chahta Hai deals with the effect that women can have between friends, and how the friends deal with them. They each have different perspectives on love.
Akash (Aamir Khan) is a non-believer. He thinks the concept of love is created to ruin perfectly healthy relationships. He’s turns on (and off) expressions on a mobile face with consummate ease. Not very many actors dare to do so many close-ups that there are in Dil Chahta Hai AND come out trumps. Aamir does.
Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) is a believer. He wants to be in love. He loves being in love. The most undersketched character in the film. It’s to his credit that he rises above it. And thanks to his radiant screen presence and his almost perfect sense of comic timing, Sameer is a riot.
Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna). Is mature, sensitive and understanding. With a character rich in shades and depths, Akshaye uses his voice and expression to optimum effect. He’s a surprise. A pleasant one.
Shalini (Preity Zinta) is beautiful and vibrant, wavering between endearingly naive and confused. That’s her down pat.
Dil Chahta Hai is a film about these three distinct characters, their individual relationships and the effect that those relationships have on the three of them. As a director, Farhan Akhtar makes a brilliant debut. The light sequences in the first half or the interval point when Akshaye slaps Aamir and even some emotional moments in the second half have been shot remarkably. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music’s super woofer quality. Right from the titletrack (though the picturisation didn’t quite match its rhythm, I thought), Koi kahen and Tanhayee to the hilariously-picturised Woh ladki hai kahaan: where director Farhan Akhtar cocks a snook at the Hindi song-and-dance routine.
Dil Chahta Hai is an entertainer. Soppy, too. But good fun!