(Sanjay Leela Bhansali, India 2002, 185 min., 35mm, Hindi with English subtitles)
This is the quintessential love story of Indian cinema, based on a celebrated 1917 novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and brought to the big screen many times, to huge popular acclaim. This is one of the most recent versions—a lavishly produced melodrama set in the early 1900s, with stellar performances by cinematic icons Shah Rukh Khan in the title role, Aishwarya Rai as his beautiful sweetheart Paro, and Madhuri Dixit as a prostitute who secretly adores the cursed young man. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a specialist in romantic storytelling, pushes the emotional ingredients of the story to their extremes in a riveting explosion of color, sumptuous choreography, and an unbridled lyricism reminiscent of Vincente Minnelli’s most memorable works. If your eyes don’t get wet, you must have a heart of stone.
35mm print from the George Eastman Museum collection.