Maine Pyar Kiya

Introduction

The year was 1989. It was sometime since Amitabh had taken a sabbatical from movies to enter politics. The Bollywood was full of non-descript movies and vcr and tapes were sounding the death knell of the movie theaters. As more and more actioners and sex oriented movies started coming out of Bollywood, more and more of the traditional Indian families began to boycott the theatres. It is in such extenuating circumstances that Sooraj Barjatya directed Maine Pyar Kiya.

The Plot

In a village there are two good friends, Karan (Alok Nath) and Kishan (Rajiv Verma). Karan is a mechanic and he helps fund Kishan’s higher education. Armed with this Kishan goes to the city and strikes it rich.

Many years pass and now Karan has a teenage daughter, Suman (Bhagyashree). Kishan on the other hand has a teenage son, Prem (Salmaan Khan). One day he gets an opportunity to go to Dubai and earn some quick money. So he leaves Suman at his good friend Kishan’s house.

Soon Suman becomes a integral member of the house. Meanwhile Prem completes his education abroad and comes back to India to find Suman living with his family. Soon the two teenagers get friendly and slowly this friendship blossoms into love. In the meanwhile, Kishan’s business partner has other things in his mind. He wants his daughter Seema to ensnare Prem into marrying her so that he can take full control of the business. As soon as he comes to know of love blossoming between Suman and Prem, he immediately proceeds to poison the ears of Kishan. Kishan gets manipulated and upon Karan’s return insults his social status and blames him of conspiring to ensnare Prem in Suman’s love to move up in society.

Unable to bear this insult Karan takes Suman back to his house and asks her to break all relations from Prem. Meanwhile as soon as Prem comes to know of this travesty he leaves his father and goes to Karan to ask for Suman’s hand. But now Karan seething under the insult of Kishan asks Prem to stand on his own legs away from the shadow of his father and then only come and claim Suman.

Does Prem manage to fulfill this challenge and win Suman’s heart? Or does Seema and her father have other plans cooking? Check out this pleasing romantic movie for the details.

Critical Viewpoint

Maine Pyar Kiya was the debut movie of director Sooraj Barjatiya as also the debut movies of Salmaan Khan (in the lead role, he had done a small role in Biwi ho to aisi), Bhagyashree and Lakshmikant Berde. Given this and the fact that those were the times when very few romantic movies really managed to make the mark, Maine Pyar Kiya seemed doomed to be a failed mission. But, then defying all logic it went onto become the biggest grosser of all times at that time (a few movies have surpassed it now).

The reason for the success was very simple and sweet. First of all, the movie was very simple, light and entertaining. There was a freshness about the movie highlighted none more than that enduring smile of Bhagyashree and the naughty laugh of Salmaan Khan. Everything from the cast to the presentation gave this movie a fresh feel about it.

All in all it brought a nice little goody goody feel to the movie. Sooraj Barjatiya also stays clear of introducing any unwanted vulgarity or sex appeal in the movie, thus pulling in the families back to the theaters. I remember Sooraj Barjatiya being hailed as a protector of Indian values at that time by most traditional families.

Coming to the performances, both Bhagyashree and Salmaan Khan have given outstanding performances. For their first movie, both have given performances like veterans. Their fresh look and feel is complimented by the good chemistry they work out between each other. More than anything it is the simplicity of the acting without too much undue emotions that seems to work in their favor. The chemistry can be seen from the first time they both come on the scene together which goes something like this:

Prem comes from the airport and runs straight into the toilet to relieve himself and forgets to close the door. At this moment Suman enters the toilet to keep something and sees Prem and immediately rushes out. Immediately Prem comes out and says:

Prem: Aaj kal knock karke aane ka riwaj nahi hai kya?

Suman: Aaj kal lock karke karne ka riwaj nahi hai kya?

Such small incidents which keep happening in life has come out brilliantly owing to their chemistry and that works the magic of Maine Pyar Kiya. It was really sad to see that Bhagyashree never really get a proper run in Bollywood after Maine Pyar Kiya.

Laxmikant Berde as Prem’s best friend thankfully breaks the montonity of slapstick comedy prevailing at that time with some good comedy and some of the best moments of the movie has come when he is around.

Amongst others, Alok Nath as Karan has given one of his best performances and Reema Lagoo lays her claim for the first time as a modern mother, a role which she plays brilliantly in other movies to follow like Hum Aapke Hai Kaun and Vaastav.

Music of Maine Pyar Kiya

Raam Laxman have always been blamed that they perform their best only under Sooraj Barjatya. And there is real meat to this argument if you compare the music they have given to his movies viz a viz their contribution to other directors.

The album of Maine Pyar Kiya starts with the melodious tunes of Dil Deewana Bin Sajna ke which has become an eternal love song sung in the melodious voices of Lata and S.P.B.

Aate jaate hanste gaate is a playful song with some fun lyrics by Dev Kohli. Sung again by the combo of Lata and SPB.

Kabootar ja ja was another major hit. The lyrics literally mean ’’Go Pigeon Go’’ as Kiran uses the Pigeon to take a message to her beloved.

Aaya mausam dosti ka is a friendship song for youth. The song is very lively and is picturized well, it also became a hit.

Mere rang mein rangne waali is a classical love song. The only downside is that the music of the song is direct life from the music of ’’The Final Countdown’’.

Kahe tohse sajna is a song sung in a Indian folk style by Sharda Singh. The song had some good lyrics and went also went on to be a hit with the public.

And of course, another crowd favorite the Antakshari Song. Very rarely does any music album comes, in which, all the songs are hit. Maine Pyar Kiya was one such album with all the songs vying for the top slots in the countdowns.

Other facts of MPK

The movie was first released in Hindi, but later on English and Spanish versions of this movie were released. The english version of the movie was called When Love Calls and the spanish version was called Te Amo.

MPK broke all the box-office collection records in India and also bagged a quite a few awards. It won 6 Filmfare Awards during 1989 Filmare Awards. They included:

Best Picture

Summary

For so many people making their debut, the movie turned out to an outstanding achievement which others have struggled to emulate. I would give this Sooraj Barjatiya directorial debut movie a five star rating.