22 years of Mohabbatein: What made this Amitabh Bachchan-Shah Rukh Khan starrer a blockbuster?

Aditya Chopra went bigger and grander and more ambitious with his second outing after the historic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The outing was five years later called Mohabbatein. An ode to Dead Poets Society, this was a take on love, romance, heartbreak, puritan adherence to protocol, and everything in between. At almost four hours, it still worked. Why? How? Maybe because of these reasons.

The Amitabh Bachchan-Shah Rukh Khan Face Off

It’s fun to debate who’s right and who’s wrong today in the day and age of social media. Some stand by Bachchan’s Narayan Shankar. After all, he’s running a massively built and immensely worshipped institution called Gurukul. Enter Raj Aryan Malhotra, designer shirts, expensive sweaters on them, stylish glasses, and a violin that has a following of its own. He eats, drinks and breathes love. He’s a rule-breaker. Here’s an arrogant and pompous guy who has the audacity to challenge the authoritarian figure. The face-offs, although repetitive at places, are a hoot. Also, their first outing together.

The King Of Romance And The Queen Of Beauty

Four months after they played siblings in Mansoor Khan’s Josh, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai came together for a love saga where the woman a man longed for, is dead. He gets to romance her spirit, and Rai, manages to make the character her own. In any other movie, at least in Hindi Cinema, spirits and souls can’t change clothes. She does. Because YRF! Even the dead have to look drop-dead gorgeous.

The Diwali Release

Shah Rukh Khan is to Diwali what Aamir Khan is to Christmas and Salman Khan is to Eid. It clashed with Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt’s Mission Kashmir, and trumped it at the box-office. That was the time when SRK was the infallible force of Hindi Cinema.

The Bachchan Enigma 

Amitabh Bachchan went through a massive slump in his career in the 90s. Mohabbatein was a career-reinvention and resurrection. Already enjoying the cult of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the actor owned every nuances of his booming and intimidating character of Narayan Shankar. He gets a fantastic introduction shot in slow-motion accompanied by the beats of a drum, before Khan arrives with a violin.

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