Lamhe: Difference between revisions

| image          = Lamhe poster.jpg

| starring      = [[Anil Kapoor]]<br />[[Sridevi]]<br />[[Waheeda Rehman]]<br />[[Anupam Kher]]

| music          = [[Shiv-Hari]]

| language      = Hindi

'''''Lamhe''''' (lit. ''Moments'') is a 1991 Indian [[romance film|romantic]] [[musical film|musical]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] film directed by [[Yash Chopra]] and written by [[Honey Irani]], with [[Rahi Masoom Raza]]. The film stars [[Anil Kapoor]] and [[Sridevi]] in the lead roles, along with [[Waheeda Rehman]] and [[Anupam Kher]] in pivotal supporting roles. In the film, Viren falls for Pallavi, but she marries Siddharth. The couple dies, leaving behind their daughter, who grows up to look just like her mother and falls in love with Viren. The film marks the second collaboration between Sridevi and Chopra.

Produced by Chopra under his production banner [[Yash Raj Films]], ''Lamhe'' was shot in two schedules in [[Rajasthan]] and [[London]]. Over the years, it has been hailed as a classic and Chopra's finest film. Although the film did moderate business domestically, it became a huge success overseas, bringing in a worldwide gross of {{INR}}20.5 crores on a {{INR}}6 crores budget; thus becoming the [[List of Bollywood films of 1991|10th highest grossing Indian film of 1991]]. It received numerous accolades and featured on ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]'s'' list of ''Bollywood's Best Films''. It has been cited as Yash Chopra's personal favourite of the movies he has made. This was one of the last films that Masoom Raza scripted. He died a couple of months after its release. On the occasion of the Centenary of Indian Cinema in 2013, ''Lamhe'' featured among the ''Top Ten Romantic Movies Of 100 Years''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yahoo|title=Top 10 romantic movies|url=http://in.movies.yahoo.com/photos/top-10-romantic-movies-slideshow/top-10-romantic-movies-photo-1328685356.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302194504/http://in.movies.yahoo.com/photos/top-10-romantic-movies-slideshow/top-10-romantic-movies-photo-1328685356.html|archive-date=2 March 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

A young Virendra Pratap Singh a.k.a. Viren ([[Anil Kapoor]]) visits [[Rajasthan]] for the first time where he is greeted by his former governess Durgadevi ([[Waheeda Rehman]]), affectionately called Dai Jaa. His late parents had migrated to [[London]] before he was born. Initially, Viren is put off by the hot weather and the customs of the region, but soon begins to respect the place and the people. During his visit to the place, he meets the beautiful Pallavi Thakur ([[Sridevi]]) and falls in love with her. Pallavi is the daughter of businessman Kothiwale Thakur ([[Manohar Singh]]) who had helped Viren's late father when his business was suffering. Viren and Pallavi become friends. However, upon noticing Viren's feelings for Pallavi, Dai Jaa indicates that Pallavi is older than him, which does not bother him.

After losing a court dispute involving his property, which was unbeknownst to anyone else, Pallavi's aghast father dies of a heart attack, but not before he lets Viren know about the development and hands over Pallavi's responsibility to him. Pallavi goes into depression. Viren comes to console her at her father's mourning ceremony, but is shocked to see her run towards Siddharth Kumar Bhatnagar (Deepak Malhotra), an airline pilot and the only man whom she loves. Viren is heartbroken, but reluctantly arranges Pallavi's wedding with Siddharth, with support from his childhood friend named Prem Anand ([[Anupam Kher]]) and Dai Jaa. After Pallavi and Siddharth's wedding, Viren sadly moves back to London along with Prem, while Siddharth lets Pallavi know about Viren's love for her, which he had experienced through his gestures at Pallavi's father's mourning ceremony.

A year later, tragedy strikes when Siddharth and the pregnant Pallavi are part of a major car accident, forcing Viren to return to [[India]] after being contacted by Dai Jaa. Siddharth is killed in the disastrous action, and Pallavi also succumbs to her gravest injuries at the hospital, much to the traumatization of Viren, who sorrowfully performs her last rites and returns to London with his heart filled with grief, after reluctantly placing Pallavi and Siddharth's newborn daughter named Pooja under the care of Dai Jaa. In London, Viren spends time with Prem and over the course of time, slowly gets back to reality and makes new friends, including a girlfriend named Anita (Dippy Sagoo), who begins to fall for him and tries to make him reciprocate her feelings but in vain. Viren visits India every year for Pallavi's death anniversary, and to deliver birthday gifts for the young Pooja. He never spends time with Pooja because she was born the same day Pallavi died and the pain and trauma of her death is still fresh in his mind.

20 years later, the now middle-aged Viren comes back to India for Pallavi's death anniversary and is shocked to see the now grown-up Pooja (also [[Sridevi]]) - a spitting image of her mother, which is unbeknownst to herself. Viren feels that destiny is playing a cruel game with him, but still invites Pooja and Dai Jaa to London, where Pooja develops a happy-go-lucky friendship with Prem. Pooja and Prem together implement childish and comical antics along with Dai Jaa - which includes singing medleys of old Hindi film songs - to motivate the upset Viren to enjoy life afresh and ultimately succeed in doing so. During their visit to London, Pooja and Dai Jaa also meet Anita, who realises that Pooja's resemblance to Pallavi must be a constant reminder of Pallavi to Viren. Meanwhile, Viren unintentionally begins to develop a very close relationship with Pooja - but Anita tells him that he should be ashamed of having feelings for a considerably younger woman, due to the fact that she resembles her late mother whom he loved. Prem understands how much Pooja is attached to Viren and has pined for him since childhood, but is skeptical as Viren is still living in the past in the memory of Pallavi.

Meanwhile, Anita also tells Pooja that Viren has brought her up is what she should appreciate, and that she should awaken to the fact that she has feelings for a man way too much older than her. Determined to prove Anita wrong, Pooja visits Viren's office in London to gift him the new sweater bought for him by her, when Viren reveals Pooja his decision of getting her married to either a prospective groom or the man whom she loves. At this point, Pooja musters up her courage and confesses her true love for Viren, who intensely slaps her on her face as a shocking response. In order to get away from Pooja's feelings for him, Viren reluctantly proposes to Anita, and the two decide to get married, much to Prem and Pooja's dismay. However, the distressed Pooja comes across Pallavi's pencil sketch made by Viren in his room, in which, Pallavi also has a vermillion on her forehead. She misunderstands it to be her own portrait and is amused to believe that Viren too has feelings for her. Therefore, Pooja dresses up in the traditional, Indian form in the portrait and questions Viren over "hiding" his feelings from her, before asking him to complete her comparison with her portrait by applying vermillion on her forehead.

 

Then, a furious Viren reveals to Pooja that he actually loved her mother resembling her, which was the reason he never spent time with her on her birthdays, and has gone into a state of sorrow since her sad demise. A humiliated Pooja expresses her wish to return to India before Dai Jaa. After Pooja and Dai Jaa's departure, a confused Viren asks Prem to return to his own people and leave him alone to sulk, but Prem angrily slaps him and advises him to confess his feelings for Pooja (which he has been denying till now), pointing out that Pallavi was the one who never loved him but Siddharth, while Pooja is Pallavi and Siddharth's daughter who always loved him more than anything else. Back in India, Dai Jaa persuades Pooja to get married, but she agrees on one condition that Viren must marry first for being older than her. When Dai Jaa calls to let Viren know about Pooja's condition, Viren mysteriously agrees to marry Anita. Upon learning this, an upset Pooja tells Dai Jaa that she never wants to get married, much to Dai Jaa's dismay. Meanwhile, Viren and Prem are wondering why Dai Jaa is delaying her visit to London for Viren and Anita's marriage. The two decide to give her a surprise by visiting her in India. Upon arriving, Dai Jaa informs Viren and Prem that Pooja has vowed not to marry. At her nightly sound-and-light show in Rajasthan, Viren confronts Pooja and reveals that he never wanted to marry Anita, since he had realised that he has developed feelings for Pooja due to her uniqueness, not because of her resemblance with Pallavi, and for the first time in life, Viren confesses his true love for Pooja and the two embrace as Prem and Dai Jaa happily walk into the scene. In the end, Viren and Pooja get married and move back to London as a happy couple.

* [[Sridevi]] as Pallavi & Pooja Bhatnagar; (as both mother and daughter)

* [[Anupam Kher]] as Prem Anand

* Dippy Sagoo as Anita Malhotra

* [[Manohar Singh]] as Kothiwale Thakur (Pallavi's father)

* [[Lalit Tiwari]] as Sudheshwar Narayan Tiwari

* Deepak Malhotra as Siddharth Kumar Bhatnagar

* [[Ila Arun]] as a folk dancer in the song "Chudiyan Khanak Gayi"

* [[Richa Pallod]] as Young Pooja