Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Kuber Pandey The movie is simply awesome. Everything is well thought and blends. I was always a great fan of Ajay Devgan but it was Salman Khan whose performance in this movie influenced me the most. Every emotion is well captured. Salman's comedy and emotional roles are fantastic. Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai's roles are also superb. I just couldn't pick any flaw. The music is breath taking. Ismail Darbar has, like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, used every talent to its very best. KK's song Tadap Tadap is perhaps the best song in Indian Cinema. I am saying this not only in terms of singing and music but also with respect to picturisation and the way it has been broken to pieces and placed according to the scene in the movie. Just perfect.....10/10.

santanu_de The second half of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is loosely inspired by the 1983 Naseeruddin- Padmini- Anil Kapoor film "Woh 7 Din" which itself was a remake of a South Indian Film.The first half's plot is from Maitrayi Devi's Bengali novel "Na Hanyate" (English translation: It does not die) which was written in response to world-renowned scholar Mircea Eliade's semi-autobiographical novel "Bengal Nights". There are several resemblances, including the 'mirchi-eating' incident, which suggest that they are more than uncanny resemblances.There are numerous films in several languages which have been based on literary works. There is nothing inherently wrong in that, except that in this case, Bhansali has not acknowledged the 'right' source of his work. We have heard that HDDCS has been based on a script told to him by one of his Gujarati fans. Really, Mr Bhansali? Or is it a case of acting naive and passing the responsibility of plagiarism to your Gujarati fan when one finds out?

flickfan-10 I'm a foreign film fan but new to Bollywood movies. However, I have noticed that when they are good, they are really, really good but when they are bad, they stink. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam falls decidedly into the "good" category. What a wonderful movie! Despite the formulaic Bollywood theme, there is so much texture to this movie. The sets and locations visually match the narrative, the music evokes the range of emotions experienced by the characters, and the characters are well developed because they feel and grow just like real people (except for Italian-Indian, Sameer, played as a hulking, buffoon by Salman Khan who overacts as if he's in a cartoon and takes his shirt off way too much.) This movie "had" me with the first glimpse of Nandini ( Aishwarya Rai) walking home in the desert with her festival lantern. What a vision---the desert, the camel, and Nandini. Nobody runs in slow motion like Aishwarya Rai! The accompanying song Mitta Ki Hai is so full of energy and pumps up the fun and excitement of the desert game she plays with her friends. But it also tells you about Nandini who at the beginning of the film is still a girl at heart. She is playful, petulant, competitive and still childish. While the movie has a number of interesting characters, it really is Nandini's story because it tells of her transformation into womanhood in the context of first love and the temptations of an outsider (Sameer), the demands of her family and her culture, and the real love of a real man, Vanraj (played so honestly by Ajay Devgan.) At the start, like teenagers, Nandini and Sameer share a friendly and teasing relationship. Their antics include pranks, farting (yes, really), and 3-Stooges-like shtick. They have fun, flirt and as their interactions become more familiar, they develop a physical attraction to each other (afterall, wouldn't you be attracted to SK running around without a shirt!) and while they both believe it is love, it seems more of a crush than an "abiding" love. They have their first fight and a few opportunities to "make out". And poor naïve Nandini even believes she can become pregnant from kissing. Enter the good lawyer, Vanraj, who is smitten with Nandini when she performs Nimbooda. Aishwarya Rai just eats up the screen looking so heavenly and happy when she dances.Well, the course of true love never runs smoothly in Bollywood and Nandini and Sameer's "affair" is discovered. Poor Sameer is banished and Nandini is "arranged" to be married to Vanraj. Of course, Nandini, responding like any broken-up teenager would, is despondent and rebellious and Ms. Rai sinks her acting chops into these emotions quite competently. Intermission and the second half begins with the sexual tension rising. Nandini denies Vanraj his conjugal rights as well as any morsel of kindness because unbeknownst to Vanraj she is still "in love" with the buffoon. Vanraj doesn't get it but he is patient though frustrated. It is in the second half that the character of Vanraj is brought to the surface. A visit by Nandini's mother brings Sameer's letters via her servant which ultimately reach Vanraj's eyes. He is furious at first as he loves Nandini and feels she has lied to him. Ajay Devgan exudes a fine balance of strength and sensitivity here. There is also a good performance by Smita Jaykar as Nandini's mother who loves her daughter but wisely counsels her to smarten up…. and grow up. As her husband drags her out of the house, frightened Nandini starts to realize her life isn't a high school melodrama anymore but much more complex.Vanraj's character is revealed poignantly in his explanation to his father about why he must bring Nandini to "Italy" to find Sameer. His definition of love and what makes a real man should be plastered on billboards across the world for all to see. Nandini travels along on this quest with Vanraj and , at first, is quite surly and sullen not giving him any slack for this most generous act. As they spend more time together and have a few adventures, Nandini grows to understand his selfless motivations and then comes to respect and love him. This develops gradually as Vanraj earnestly sets out to find Sameer, as he cares for her after they are robbed and later as they clutch together in a long, soulful embrace on the train to avoid the ticket-checker. It finally culminates in their walk along the river as a drunken Vanraj releases all his emotion knowing that soon he will reunite Nandini and Sameer. As reunion time arrives, the scenes leading up to it are filled with such tenderness. Vanraj sits meditating as Nandini, now looking so womanly, so married, prepares to leave. You know she loves him when she helps him on with his jacket. The daydream scene with Sameer running across the bridge expresses Vanraj's resignation to losing her but he doesn't know that Nandini isn't feeling any ambivalence at this point. Sameer has lost. The taxi ride and their last moments together convey the true feelings of Nandini for Vanraj and vice versa as their eyes talk to each other but they don't utter a word. Ms. Rai's face sweetly expresses her interior thoughts and Mr. Devgan shows such understated agony as he watches Nandini climb the stairs to meet Sameer. Nandini's speech to Sameer reveals her maturation and new understanding that love is "giving your heart" ---hum dil de chuke sanam. Her return to Vanraj on the bridge is just beautiful….the power and importance of the mangalsatra (marriage beads) are revealed just as her mother said. Shall I say something? See this movie for the beautiful script/story, romantic music, great characters, lush cinematography, fine acting by all (except SK and the Hungarians) and Bhansali's brilliant direction.

Sherazade and here she plays a pretty little daddy's girl, sheltered away from the world in a palace type setting until an Italian-Indian student (played by Salman Khan) comes to town and steals her heart. Luckily but also sadly enough for her, her father and Khan's music teacher realises this before he (Khan) is able to steal his daughter's innocence and sends him packing. The problem is, the two youngsters are so in love and not even distancing them would set them apart. A new man comes into the picture, a local whom the whole family loves (played by Ajay Devgan) and marries Nandini (Rai) but little does he know that this is the beginning of a nightmare rather than honeymoon. Nandini is set in her ways and while she has married this man, she vows never to let him touch her. Frustrated, Devgan's character decides to take Nandini to Italy for a selfless search of Khan's character. All sorts of things happen to them along the way, and this tests Nandini's love for both men. All of this occurs under the backdrop of great music, song and dance numbers, awesome set designs, locales etc. etc. It is the ending that makes this film a true classic, as well as the superb acting of the entire cast! Rai won her first Filmfare (India's answer to the Oscars) for her role as the tempestuous Nandini.