Even when we flex on the 90s movies, there are some which are akin to a rite of passage in Bollywood films. Sooraj Barjatya’s movies are at the top of the list. With movies like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, and Hum Saath-Saath Hain, he created the Rajshri Production trend of festivals and songs and romance and a full-fledged family drama all crammed into one, and most importantly, made it work. Even though his ideas are now the stuff of memes, there are still things only this director can get away with, even today!
1. A dance for every f**king occasion
Did someone get engaged? You dance. Someone is pregnant? You dance. You’re playing cricket? Dance, baby! Only Sooraj Barjatya has the absolute power to cram dancing and singing every 20 minutes into the movie, and still have the audience in the palm of your hands. While the credit does go to the amazing songs, and Madhuri being her absolute best, we all know that it’s the director’s keen eye that perfected the balance between too much and just enough.
Image via: Cinestaan
2. You meet, you get engaged
In Vivah, Prem (Shahid Kapoor) and Poonam (Amrita Rao) meet each other for the first time. Granted, her uncle (Alok Nath) has a trustworthy person who finds the groom, but they meet for hardly 30 minutes and decide to get engaged. Alok Nath Ji, do you maybe want to wait and find out if the family is really as great as they say? This would never fly in 2021, where people date for 5 years before even thinking about marriage. Maybe it’s the extra cuteness of the protagonists or the mushy romance, but Barjatya gets away with it.
Image via: YouTube
3. Family honeymoon
Where would you like to go for a honeymoon, beta? Our ancestral village, please. Oh, and can we bring the entire family along, so the children are forever scarred by the romance of 3 couples, and we sing ABCD like a bunch of kids? *hard eyes roll* While India is a country where you cannot step two feet anywhere without meeting a relative, bringing them on a honeymoon, however close the family is, is just next-level weird. But, like everything else, Sooraj Barjatya managed to make it work.
Image via: Laughing Colours
4. Naming all his protagonists Prem
Did Sooraj Barjatya’s astrologer tell him that his films would only work if all the actors were called Prem? Maybe it’s like Karan Johar’s obsession with the letter K, but it is seriously weird how all his directorial films have Prem, from Maine Pyar Kiya to Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. There are other names, Mr. Director!
Image via: TOI
5. Celebrate *every* occasion in 3 hours
Parents’ anniversary? Check. Bhai-Dooj? Check. Wedding? Check. Honeymoon? Check. Makar Sankranti? Check. Another Engagement? Check. Another Wedding? Check. In any other film, we would have gotten tired and switched the film off, but not in a Sooraj Barjatya film. No sir, that does not work here. You see every (and I mean every) occasion, you enjoy it, and finish the film.
Image via: YouTube
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