Rahul Khanna Shah Rukh Khan
Anjali Sharma Kajol
Tina Malhotra Rani Mukherjee
Mrs. Khanna Farida Jalal
Anjali Khanna Sana Saeed
Aman Mehra Salman Khan
Language – Hindi & English Subtitles – English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic
Length – 177 minutes
Tina and Rahul fell in love in college. They married and had a daughter. Tina insisted they name her Anjali before dying from childbirth complications. She left behind eight letters for her daughter, one for each of her first eight birthdays.
Preparations are being made just before Anjali's eighth birthday. She is looking forward to her mother's letter most of all. Her father hasn't remarried, holding fast to his belief that you only fall in love once. He raises her with the help of her grandmother. Everything is about to change, however, after Anjali Khanna reads her mother's last letter. In it, Tina tells the story of Rahul and a different Anjali.
The movie flashes back to recapture the beginning of a love triangle. Anjali Sharma and Rahul Khanna are best friends in college. Anjali is athletic (tomboyish) and competitive. Every day she beats Rahul at basketball. Rahul is a charmer, of almost every pretty girl that he sees. On Friendship Day he gives bracelets to many girls, convincing each that she's the only girl for him. Anjali tells him he needs to find a girl that is smart as well as pretty.
The principle's daughter Tina, returns from London, where she attended Oxford. She is both beautiful and smart and Rahul is finally smitten. Unfortunately, Anjali is just realizing she's in love with Rahul. In an attempt to make him see her differently, Anjali shows up at school dressed very girly and is laughed at by everyone, including Rahul. Horrified and humiliated, she runs off. When Rahul comes after her, you see just how much he truly cares for Anjali.
Ultimately, Anjali will disappear from Rahul's life when she realizes he's truly in love with Tina. Tina's last letter to her daughter sets her on a mission to reunite Anjali and Rahul. Tina knows there was love, not just friendship between them – even if Rahul doesn't realize it. It isn't a simple task for Anjali, but she is one determined little girl. Anjali Sharma is hard to find, but once found, it turns out she's engaged to be married.
I loved this film. I was surprised to see so much English peppered into the daily language of the characters. The subtitles were a little distracting; Bollywood films are known for bringing beauty to the screen, and I wanted to see all of it.
The beginning of this film leads the audience to assume that we'll never really connect with these relationships. It seems too sweet or predictable, or both. I was surprised the movie delivered much more than I expected. I laughed and I cried.
I paid for the video rental service that provided this DVD. I was not compensated for my review.
