2001 was the year when Lagaan, Gadar, Dil Chahta Hai became speedily iconic: 25 Years of Indian Cinema

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The making of Lagaan, which runs nearly four hours, is a fascinating story. Amongst other things, it became known as the first Bollywood film to use synch sound (the standard being lip-synching dialogue in dubbing rooms after the shoot was over). This meant a set where silence reigned, as the lines that the characters spoke had to be recorded: this, for its time, was revolutionary.

Aamir Khan and Gracy Singh in a still from Lagaan.

In Anil Sharma’s Gadar, Sunny Deol plays a brawny salt-of-the-earth Sardar intent upon getting his beloved wife back from her tyrannical father in neighbouring Pakistan. It gave Sunny his biggest hit, which only the sequel, Gadar 2, with a near-similar theme, has surpassed.

Karan Johar’s K3G was a film whose USP was its dizzying ensemble, gathering the biggest stars of the time — Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Kajol, Rani and Kareena Kapoor — in the same frame. It was also single-handedly responsible for spreading amongst the believers the undying craze of zardozi, karvachauth rituals, and young girls who wanted to be Poo.

But the biggest game-changer that year was Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut, Dil Chahta Hai. It changed the relationship Bollywood had had with wealth, both generational and aspirational. In the matter of fact way it depicted rich dads, layabout sons, easily accessible Mercedes coupes, spur-of-the-moment Goa breaks, and those stunning houses with equally stunning interiors — Akhtar’s tasteful aesthetic told us that money in and of itself wasn’t a bad thing, nor were the people who possessed it–the laxman rekha dividing bad ameers and the good gareebs was finally breached.

Akshaye Khanna, Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan in a still from Dil Chahta Hai.

Dil Chahta Hai was also an urban-cool bromance of the kind Bollywood hadn’t attempted before, in which a younger man falls for an older woman despite his mother being unhappy about the relationship. It had uber-rich kids hanging out in each other’s dens filled with recliners and 40-inch TV sets, with boys-and-toys getting prime space. Aamir’s soul patch on the chin became a rage, and Saif got himself an immortal line about going everywhere for cake.

The other film which defined 2001, was Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, a decisive, delightful counterpoint to the splashy, over-produced movies of the Karan Johar and Sooraj Barjatya universe, in the way it unapologetically revealed dark family secrets. It remains, for me, one of Nair’s two best films, the other being The Namesake.

The bride, Vasundhara Das, struggling with the whole idea of her arranged marriage-and-reluctant groom, Pravin Dabas. The parents, Naseeruddin Shah and Lillete Dubey, busy putting up a show while navigating cash flow issues. And the climactic stroke, which has cousin-of-the-bride Shefali Shah pulling out the rug from underneath a predatory uncle, played by a terrific Rajat Kapoor, upending the ever-smiling, ever-happy Bollywood shaadis we had witnessed till then: with Sukhwinder Singh’s ‘Rabba Rabba’ ditty flowing over it all, Monsoon Wedding is one of my all-time favourites, which I can watch over and over again, and it is as rewarding each time.

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