‘Dil Chahta Hai’ is the ultimate male-bonding movie, but today, the females seem more fascinating.
So Dil Chahta Hai turned 15 this year. It hasn’t aged all that well. That’s the thing about being such an embodiment of your era that mere English words cannot do justice to what you captured. You need something heftier, something more German. You need a word like Zeitgeist. If Farhan Akhtar’s first film were a perfume, you could spritz it and the air would smell like 2001, like urban India 10 years after liberalisation. Even if we weren’t like Akash (Aamir Khan), Sid (Akshaye Khanna) and Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), they made us feel they were cool people to aspire to be. I remember the oddest bits about the film, like how Akash has a salad for lunch. A salad. That sound you hear is Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan scratching their chest hair and snickering. But even they’d agree Yeh dosti had changed. It wasn’t about tootling around in a motorcycle anymore. It was a road trip to Goa in your Benz.
And yet, today, these guys have receded in the rear-view mirror, and it’s the women I find interesting. Like Preity Zinta’s Shalini. When I first saw the film, I didn’t think much of her. I’m no fan of martyrs, and what else do you call someone who chooses to be with a chauvinist pig of a fiancé (he all but asks her to sit, heel, stay, down) simply because his parents raised her as their own? Today, I see her differently. Her parents died in a car accident. Had her fiancé’s parents not taken her in, she may have had a very different life. She may not have been in Sydney, having that salad lunch with Akash. It’s a life filled with first-class air tickets and opera. I’m not suggesting that she’s a gold-digger. No. I’m just saying champagne has a way of making you feel more grateful. It can make you light-headed enough to justify your fiancé: “But Rohit’s a good guy. He has a few flaws. Who doesn’t?”
And what about Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni)? She gets a scene that no other Hindi-film heroine has been in. Sameer summons up the guts to tell her he loves her. Tell isn’t quite the word for what he does. He struggles, he stammers, he begins his speech like a schoolboy before a teacher – she is seated, leg draped over leg, while he stands with his hands inside his pockets. He sits down. He drives circles around the topic. Then it spills out. He loves her. Her reaction makes me laugh. She raises her eyebrows. He says, “I agree we don’t know each other very well. But I understand the kind of love you are looking for. Trust me. I’m telling the truth.” She pauses. Then laughs out loud. It’s not the coy, tinkling laughter we usually hear from women on screen. It’s the girl equivalent of the guy-laughs that erupted from Akash and Sid when they discovered Sameer’s Goan blonde wasn’t after his heart but his money. Pooja is doing what the guy usually does, skirting an awkward subject by making a thigh-slapping joke out of it.
Which is not to say the film doesn’t have its stereotypes. We have The Piner (the girl who longs for Akash; the girl who has to be told love is like sand, the more you try to grip it the more it slips through the fingers). We have The Ball-buster (the controlling girl we first see Sameer with, who expects him to sit, heel, stay, down). And we have The Mother, an assortment of them actually, rich women who don’t do much more than be rich. But Sid’s mother (Suhasini Mulay) is different. She works. We don’t know what she does but she says things like “I’m leaving for the office.” It must be a hell of a job. She keeps a hell of a house. Asian Paints could film their next ad there, and they wouldn’t have to change a thing. She does the usual motherly things like ask Sid when he’s getting married, but she also does unusual motherly things. She glances at her watch when Sid delays her – we don’t hear it, but there’s that tch of impatience. There’s no mention of a husband. If Sid’s mother had been played by Nirupa Roy, her situation would have expressed itself with the inevitability of an equation. White sari = dead husband. But here we wonder. The fact that we wonder about a mother was something new in 2001. It still is.
Then there’s Tara (Dimple Kapadia). The film begins with Sid. He’s the one we see first, in the hospital. But Tara is the reason we see him there. She’s the one in the ambulance screeching through the night. But we don’t see her in the hospital. We see her, first, as she’s moving into her new home, on Sid’s street. She’s surrounded by heavy suitcases that aren’t really suitcases. They’re baggage. She comes with tons of it. Alcoholism. A divorce. A little girl she isn’t allowed to see anymore. My favourite scene of hers is the one where she psychoanalyses Sid through his paintings. That he’s closed off. That people don’t really know him – he doesn’t let them. It’s the moment he falls for her. It’s the moment we fall for her. Not because she’s beautiful or knows her art, but because she can see this sensitive boy’s soul. It’s the nakedest moment in Hindi cinema with clothes on.
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2016 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
bingethinkings
October 1, 2016
Wonderful that u caught the “baggage” symbolism, rangan sir.
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sravishanker1401gmailcom
October 1, 2016
BR : ” She keeps a hell of a house. Asian Paints could film their next ad there, and they wouldn’t have to change a thing.” Vow !
“Not because she’s beautiful or knows her art, but because she can see this sensitive boy’s soul. It’s the nakedest moment in Hindi cinema with clothes on.”
Simply brilliant ! Like the movie……
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pankaj1905
October 1, 2016
Wonderful column, Sir. The women in the film are actually fascinating I recently wrote on Deepa, who was perhaps the bravest character in the film and certainly, much braver than the friends. Aakash is afraid of falling in love, Sameer is afraid of falling out of love, and Sid is afraid of not being understood in love. In contrast, Deepa is not afraid of falling in love, does not care if her love is not reciprocated, and never gives up trying to fight for her love. And, they all made fun of Deepa. Really.
And, that baggage thing, also notice that all her boxes are labelled fragile (like her own state?)
http://dichotomy-of-irony.blogspot.com/2016/06/dil-chahta-haiof-subtext-of-fear.html
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the brangan fan
October 1, 2016
was expecting this was a long time
only some movies like this and kuch kuch hota hai(imo) still seem fresh….dunno why
but what a tragedy it was to see farhan akthar take of to an all new tangent in parts(the don franchise) and whole(as actor)
what a waste of a director
enni ettaavadhu varusham… avan thanga zoya akthar industrya join panna… but the same case more or less..that,i think,is the real akthar-siblings syndrome.. loosing the way after a good start
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venkatesh
October 1, 2016
It hasn’t aged well ? Really ? To me it still looks very “with it”.
Am i the only one who feels like that ?
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Anu Warrier
October 1, 2016
I loved the women in the film as well, BR. I thought it was interesting that a young man had caught the rhythms of a woman’s soul so well – especially in Tara’s case. I could understand Shalini’s conflict though it made me itch, and Pooja made me laugh. A lot.
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Venu
October 1, 2016
Wonderful post. One of my favourite Hindi movies. I feel the movie’s aged pretty well. I still enjoy watching it and not a single scene makes me cringe.
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balaunico
October 1, 2016
The last line “It’s the nakedest moment in Hindi cinema with clothes on.”.
Wow!What a brilliant choice of words
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Anuja Chandramouli
October 1, 2016
Actually, the first time I saw the film, I thought DCH was nice but not NAICE if you know what I mean. The buddy buddy stuff was hardly earth shattering material though the trio were the height of coolth and had decent chemistry. The Aakash – Shalini romance was cringe inducing at times. Especially the way the latter used a crowbar to pry open his lids to the fact that he loved her, at the opera no less and the drama at the engagement dinner scene which stuck out like a sore, pus – infected thumb. As for Samir and Pooja it felt like lightweight filler. Or chaff.
But I adored the Sid – Tara thread. Given all the baggage she was caring it was lovely that Sid as well as the film managed to see that there was so much about her that was wonderful. I miss the Farhan Akhtar who made stuff like that. Now he is a gym monkey who aggressively hawks umpteen products on our TV screens.
And that was quite a performance from Khanna. I Always thought he was tragically undervalued by Bollywood. Hope we see more of him…
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vandy
October 2, 2016
Enjoyed!
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Akhilan
October 2, 2016
@venkatesh: Not at all…!! DCH will forever be one of my all time favorite Hindi movies…. For me, it transcends time… And somehow, despite BR’s detailed analysis here, I’ve never really found any of the stereotypes that jarring or in any way spoiling my viewing experience…
@Anuja: Completely Agree…!! What an understated and nuanced performance by Akshaye Khanna…!! Very underrated… I do wonder though how Aamir Khan would have interpreted Sid’s role had he taken it up since Farhan did say during the 1st season of KWK that initially, it was offered to Aamir…
P.S. A huge shout out to SEL’s awesome music…!! Timeless for me, and whenever I listen to Tanhayee, it still haunts me to this very day…
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Dracarys
October 2, 2016
That Nirupa Roy bit is one of the best lines about Nirupa Roy! 👌
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Madan
October 2, 2016
I agree in the sense that barring Sid, the male characters were pretty typical. Wasn’t it just in Sarfarosh that Sonali Bendre was telling Aamir Khan that Is Deewane Ladke Ko Koi Samjaaye. I mean, if Sonali Bendre doesn’t get somebody to make love…
I don’t find the Sonali Kulkarni character so interesting anymore but even then it was a ‘new type’ at that time for our movies. For the other two, the word baggage sums it up. They had a story whereas Aakash was just a rich brat prancing around and wasn’t very endearing at all, not to me. Yeah, basically other than Sid, the men were so empty.
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sanjana
October 2, 2016
I think without Akhash, the film would have become too serious and gloomy. He provided some relief. We need some friends like him. Dimple recovering and with Akshay in the last frame would have given positive vibe. For me it was somewhat a dark film.
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apynchofmadness
October 2, 2016
Reblogged this on The Diary Of A Philosophical Freak.
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Madan
October 2, 2016
For me it was somewhat a dark film. – Interesting how much perspectives differ. Well, that is what makes art worth discussing so much about. I would not associate the word dark in a million years with DCH and mostly found conflict resolution all too easy and convenient in the film. Wish it was so easy for a woman to actually walk out of a marriage on the day of the marriage.
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rosh
October 2, 2016
Reblogged this on Of Hills, Beaches, Rains & the Sky. and commented:
This is the first time I’m reblogging another writer’s post. And I’m delighted to be doing so. Dil Chahta Hai, the women in the movie, Baradwaj Rangan – a really potent combination that makes for a thoroughly enjoyable post. Read on…
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Apan
October 2, 2016
Farhan mentioned in an interview with Rediff(the best place covering films in those times) that the film started not as a story of friendship, but as relationship between Akash and Shalini, then the intrigue that what happens to hero’s friends in movies let it evolve into what it eventually became:
“At first it was just the story of Akash and his girlfriend and their divergent views on love.
But as I worked more on the story, I felt this script wasn’t exciting or different enough. The other characters, as his friends, were sketchy — the way they are in every film. No one really knows what happens to the hero’s friends in our films.
So I started developing their characters and that sort of changed the whole concept. Gradually, Akash and Shalini almost became a subplot as the story began to pivot around the three friends.”
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2001/aug/16farhan.htm
When I now see Dil Chahta Hai, it comes across to me as a story about different ideas of love, from the perspective of three close friends, each with a personality of their own. Therefore I really don’t agree when some people find the focus shifting on love stories as divergence from the core of the film. The friendship bit was undoubtedly brilliantly done, but it stood out because it’s relatable to anyone, and the chemistry the boys had.
I love the film way too much, but more as sum of its parts, rather than as a whole, and that’s fine. It’s still a great trip if you had lot of amazing experiences, when compared to a trip that revolved around just one thing. 🙂
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Vanya
October 2, 2016
DCH came up on another thread too recently. The film as a whole doesn’t work for me anymore, which is sad considering this is one of the few movies I’ve watched multiple times in the theater and it was that rare flick that all of us (urban) college kids agreed on. But there are many scenes that are still very effective — Akash and Shalini’s run-in with the homeless person at the train station, Samir’s proposal scene, pretty much any Sid-Tara scene.
One thing I appreciate even now is how Tara is presented to the audience. When she first explains the circumstances of her divorce and custody arrangement, you assume the alcoholism was a trumped up allegation by a vindictive spouse. By the end of the movie, several cues suggest otherwise. But regardless, there’s no judgment, not from Sid, and not from the movie.
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Neetole Mitra
October 2, 2016
I can’t begin to explain how much I enjoy reading your posts
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Anu Warrier
October 2, 2016
I actually liked DCH, and continue to like it; barring a couple of scenes, it still works as a film. (For me.)
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JPhil
October 2, 2016
Wiser people than me have noted that ‘Sid’ from ‘Wake Up Sid’ is a new(er) avatar of the rich Mumbai kid and perhaps an amalgam of these three men in their journey for love and meaning.
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Aditi
October 2, 2016
Wonder what it is that makes a movie “work” even years after its release. Tried watching DCH again recently, and it just did not work for me. And it’s not just that I’ve watched it multiple times growing up, because Kandukondain Kandukondain, on the other hand, still works. That’s another one of those rare movies where the women are written very well (Although I found the mother a little too annoying and whiny and chest-beaty) – probably ’cause Jane Austen wrote them? 🙂 Don’t have too much hope from our Tamil movie directors. Even a Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, which is supposedly woman-centric, showed Jessie as such a ‘strange’ person, without ever getting into her mind.
I also can’t wait for Tamil movies to start showing mothers as more than just sacrificial, ever-patient lambs, who’re there just for the Amma Sentiment.
P.S: Kandukondain works for the men, too. Or rather, Man. Ajith….Drooollllllllllll.
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Rahul
October 2, 2016
I liked DCH, and me and 3 of my friends on our trip to Goa an year after kept referencing it. In many ways it was representative of those times, but at least in one way it was very filmi – the incident that caused the years long conflict between Sid and Akash. Sid`s trash talking was very lame compared to what is normally done between friends , and I think this is true for both guys and girls.
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venkatesh
October 2, 2016
@Aditi: So you are the one,,,,,, I have been searching far and wide for the female who thinks Ajith is drool-worthy. Its been a long mission spanning multiple blog posts over several years.
Ajith , really ?
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Aran
October 2, 2016
Interesting that you praise the very scene in the Sid – Tara romance that was cringe-worthy to me. Every other scene in that thread worked well for me, except that one. That one seemed off, like armchair psychologysing. Even your phrase in the write-up: “psychoanalyses him through his paintings” rings false. Perhaps it is an introvert’s view on the one hand and a trained psychological counselor’s on another (I’m both), but things aren’t that cut up and laid out really.
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Aditi
October 2, 2016
@venkatesh- Guilty as charged 😀 That smile though.
@aran – I agree about the psychoanalysis scene. Sounded like complete bullsh*t to me. Like handwriting analysis. Or the Rorschach test.
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Vanya
October 3, 2016
@Aran and Aditi: To me it seemed more realistic that it sounded like complete BS — they weren’t psychologists/ psychiatrists; they were artists/ art aficionados. They connected because of their mutual interpretation of his work.
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venkatesh
October 3, 2016
@Aditi: Without wanting to completely derail the thread – do you prefer the Chocolate hero Ajith or the current mass “thalai” avathar ?
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nobodystalking
October 3, 2016
This is so great and refreshing. Makes me want to watch the movie again.
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shaviswa
October 3, 2016
I never understood the hype around this movie. It looked like a teen movie enacted by 30+ adults. The climax was straight out of a soap opera.
Only redeeming aspect in this film was some good music by Shankar, Ehsan, Loy.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
October 3, 2016
shaviswa: Although not a big fan of the film, I feel it’s way ahead of 3 Idiots!
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shaviswa
October 3, 2016
3 Idiots was worse. Amir Khan was probably 10 years older in that teen movie 🙂 And to add further insult, they cast Madhavan too.
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Madan
October 3, 2016
@ Honest Raj: Agreed, 3 Idiots was way overhyped.
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swaroopmami
October 4, 2016
I’m really curious to know why you think it hasn’t aged well. I watched it even recently and didn’t find it even a bit dated.
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Snehal
October 4, 2016
From the rediff interview posted by Apan,
Farhan Akhtar: At that stage, I had written all the dialogues in English. After that it took me two months to write them in Hindi and tune the roles to suit the actors. But I shifted the characters’ parametres towards their real-life personae, not their screen images.
This explains LHHE, “Listening Hindi, Hearing English.” phenomenon that BR talks about in the Akhtar siblings movies.
Coming back to DCH, I do remember Deepa fondly. Even though the movie made fun of her mostly, the scene on the beach between Deepa and Sid made me really feel for Deepa.
The moment where Aamir calls his Dad from Sydney and his father doesnt need any words to figure out something’s wrong, that amazed me. Parents are really like that, they can sense your state of mind through voice inflections alone. I haven’t watched it in a while, wonder whether it will feel aged.
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blurb
October 7, 2016
Lovely write-up 🙂
My favorite scene in the movie. Sid tells Tara he wants to make a thasveer of her’s. He says he’ll be right back and starts home.
As he goes home to get his things — he first walks.. then, a bit faster. Then jogs. And eventually runs full speed.
He gradually becomes surer of what he wants.
What a wonderful scene.
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Vijit Jain
October 7, 2016
Wonderful. You made me nostalgic…I still remember first watching this movie and sensing I had watched something different.
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Apan
October 7, 2016
@blurb Wonderfully put. That scene has had such an everlasting impression. One can sense the excitement and joy in Sid, where his art and love are about to meet.
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insightsaboutinsights
March 3, 2017
Reblogged this on Insights about Insights and commented:
It’s the nakedest moment in Hindi cinema with clothes on.
– Fab article recalling the Fab ‘Dil Chahta Hai’
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DN
August 12, 2019
BR- the post is relevant even today and I have to say, I had very similar views on Suhasini Mulay. I still remember the scene between Dimple and her where they are introduced. The greys and the grace of both the women in a single frame, I say!!
And it is also the first commercial hit of a band. Remember SEL. 🙂 🙂 What literally shook me with the movie apart from the obvious “coolness quotient” was the music. I had a similar feeling when ARR did Thiruda Thiruda. That flutters still last even today- when I hear the music of both the movies, I must say.
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lyricalbeautyblog
August 12, 2019
It does age well. I don’t agree with your view in that. But all other things are spot on.That painting scene alone stands off as a masterpiece. And other women too. As always, I loved your review. Never stop writing please!
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SC
August 14, 2019
You Know? When I first watched Dil Chahta Hai, my first thought was, if this were made 10 years later, Sid could/would be gay. (Of course, it’s totally another thing that Sec 377 wasn’t struck off even 10 years later. 🙄😐)
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Jai
April 20, 2023
Amazing writeup, BR. Loved your take on all the women in the film, especially your observations about Tara, Sid’s Mom and Pooja. I must say, you have a wonderful way of encapsulating a scene with such an astute take, that it literally brings out goosebumps!
Those last 2 lines of your post, where you analyse the scene where Tara psychoanalyses Sid through his paintings :-)- and why Sid and the audience fall for her – took my breath away. Reminded me of the very first review of yours I read- Band Baaja Baraat, where your beautifully subtle and perceptive analysis of the Bittoo-Shruti story had me in thrall!
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Jai
April 20, 2023
Oh- one more thing I missed in my comment above. The one part of your post I didn’t agree with was where you say DCH hasn’t aged well. I don’t think so at all. It still feels very fresh and entertaining – for me, the only small sore point as I said in the other thread, is Aakash’s love confession scene at Shalini’s wedding, but otherwise the film still feels extremely engrossing.
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Madan
April 20, 2023
My take on why DCH was seen as epochal then and has gradually faded in opinion is that the trio were, as BR writes in this post, the shining image of newly liberalized India, an India where Hinglish was cool, where preferring to speak in English (in a Hindi speaking part of the country) was still feted. ZMND probably bookended this fondness for the yuppie segment (and it as such was a lot like a film about how the trio from DCH would have fared as they hit midlife crisis).
DCH also came by just as the metros were getting malls. At that time, malls had a wow factor. Today, they are just some places for the middle-upper middle class to go shopping (or mostly to eat at the food court). DCH happened just as the middle class fell in love with consumerism. That obsession with consumerism has peaked. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying Indians are going all spiritual. The economic data suggests indeed that consumerism has returned with a vengeance post-covid. But it, again, is just a normal part of life. There is no “look ma, I am shopping” about it. Cut out the fabulous locales and the even more fabulous attire of the main characters of DCH and it’s a decent but not amazing drama about dysfunction in friendships and, like Akash, is too obsessed with being cool to really go there and let the conflict explode.
In short, DCH was so much a part of the 2001 moment in metropolitan life that it doesn’t hold quite the same appeal today. It’s not a bad film by any means but I think it would be difficult for someone catching up with films of that period TODAY to see why this was seen as such a phenomenon back then. Lagaan-TZP- 3 Idiots would inform the narrative of the 00s much more.
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