Did Yash Chopra create sympathy for SRK in Darr?

642126 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#1
Just watched it on TV. Enjoyed every bit of it. SRK of those days...so amazing!
But I think towards the end Yash Chopra did create sympathy for the villain. SRK does not beat or try to rape Juhi even when he has her with him after stabbing Sunny Deol. He waits outside all the time when Juhi locks herself up. In final fight with him and Sunny, he stops retaliating the moment he hears Juhi ask Sunny to kill him. He gives such an alarmed look then! Keeps getting beaten up. Before breathing his last he asks Juhi to forgive him.

The best songs of the film feature SRK. In end also the Tu hai meri Kiran plays slowly when SRK dies.

While I feel SRK gave his best in the film, I can't help but feel Yash Chopra deliberately handled final sequences on the boat to sort of justify Rahul. I feel he even added angle of psychological problem due to dead mother to make audience feel for Rahul.

Sunny Deol's and everybody else's character is rather flat compared to cleverly crafted Rahul.

Maybe Sunny was right in bashing Yash Chopra in his interviews later. I think even Juhi is just an item in this film and it's all about Rahul Mehra.

Not taking away anything from Shahrukh. But do you think other characters were properly fleshed out by Chopra in Darr?

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karan-007 thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#2
The story was about Rahul & Srk did justice with the role
ChotaBheem thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#3
may be.Actually hero of the movie was Sunny deol.He shared large portion of film including songs but SRK's acting was so unique(in those days) that he overshadowed Sunny.
642126 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#4

Originally posted by: Chachachoudhury

may be.Actually hero of the movie was Sunny deol.He shared large portion of film including songs but SRK's acting was so unique(in those days) that he overshadowed Sunny.


The best songs belong to SRK. And I remember that only those songs were hits. Tu mere saamne, Tu hai meri Kiran. Sunny not only looks old but is even made to sound old by having heavier voices like Hariharan sing for him.

Sunny is supposed to be hero and actually a very supportive boyfriend and husband. But Chopra seemed to have focused entirely on crafting Rahul. SRK's acting was indeed fantastic. But towards finale Chopra seems rather too kind to his villain which gives Rahul ample scope to win sympathy.
nikitagmc thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#5
I think the 'talking to dead mother angle' was important, it was not meant to create sympathy but rather to demonstrate as well as provide some sort of background about Rahul's psychological condition.. to explain that this guy is not a creepy kamina lusty stalker but a mental patient and hence much more dangerous as nothing would be able to stop him.

That people ended up sympathising with him is a different issue, lol.

Can't speak about the rest of your points as I don't remember the movie in that much detail about his expressions during fight etc.
642126 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#6
Nikita
I just watched it, noticed the finale. Hence commented. The devil is in the details.😆

I understand that mental angle was given to make him more dangerous. But that and the way Chopra tackled him in end, together make a viewer's heart somewhat go out to Rahul. It's like "bechaara!", though it should not be so given how he terrorises Juhi and how many people he has killed in his obsession.


643898 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#7
This is the reason why Aamir rejected Darr. He knew that YC gave different narrations to him and Sunny
ExcuseMePlz thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#8
Probably for Yash Chopra that character was only a obsessive lover not the lusty and rapist kind of character.He gave a reason why Rahul was behaving that way.It gave clarification to the viewers.

I read somewhere that Sunny said he read a different script and the end product was something else.If its not true then the whole character sketch was in the script and Sunny should have understood whats the story is all about.But if its true then probably when every other bigger stars refused to act as Rahul then Yash Chopra's love for the character increased more and he wanted to show how brilliant the negative character was to all those people who rejected to play that character.So slowly he added much more to that character.And Shahrukh's acting added much more depth to it.

Or Yash Chopra might have wanted to show it from Rahul's point of view.Just like Bazigar,even though Shilpa's character was killed and she did nothing wrong to anyone still at the end we completely forget Shilpa's character and feel sad for the killer who killed an innocent person.I didn't cry when Shilpa's character died but I cried when Shahrukh's character died.

But for me, I didn't feel bad or sympathize for Rahul the way I did in Bazigar even if I slightly sympathized when he stabbed Sunny's character I lost all sympathy.In my opinion it was Shahrukh's brilliant acting in it which gathered accolades not that character.The character was negative and he deserved dying,that I felt after watching it.That means Yash Chopra didn't try to create sympathy for that character.
642126 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#9
SRK never looks with totally lusty eyes at Juhi. He is almost teary eyed when he gazes at her. Then all those dialogues about "mere zakhm" and spouting Ghalib poetry. No way does he feel like a lusty villainous stalker.😆
His innocent face, big eyes, long eyelashes, his dimpled smile...just do not let him look like a villain.😳

But that said, he comes across as more of an a**hole in Anjaam. I feel nothing for Vijay in Anjaam. So I think difference in filmmaker's handling and vision is evident.

@Deathstroke

To be honest Aamir did not have it in him back then to pull off Darr. I take Sunny's interviews seriously. But not Aamir's on Darr.
CeaselessBanter thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#10
No, I don't think so. The mental illness thing was a very valid thing and it is not an excuse to create sympathy. Rahul Mehra was obsessed with Kiran to the obviousness of everything. But he did not kill anyone right ?
Contrast that with Baazigar. In Baazigar, Ajay/Vicky kills the Shilpa Shetty character who is naive and loves him very much, ruthlessly by throwing her off the roof when she trusts him so much to elope, then kills two more people to keep the secret. He still manages to come across as very sympathetic because the revenge story was very well explained as to why IMO. Even the inspector is upset when he dies. When Priya (Kajol) cries in the end when Ajay dies, the man who killed her dad and more importantly her innocent sister, the song that ironically plays is

O Teri Pyar Pe Qurbaan
Meri Dil Meri Jaan
Tujhe Lag Jaaye Meri Umaar

it felt and still feels jarring to me. Priya's love for Ajay is unsettling to me, but what Ajay did was understandable. Not right, but understandable even the killing of the Shipla Shetty character.

Wasn't Sunny Paaji given a choice between Rahul and Juhi's husband ? He wanted to play the smart, dashing officer who rescues the damsel in distress while SRK being a newbie took a great risk to play Rahul. He is just being bitter. SRK created a sympathetic anti-hero character in both Baazigar and Darr. Today 'ki-ki-ki-kiran' is rather iconic and so is SRK while Sunny Paaji stuck in the family compound playing RL version of a filmi SB family. Risks do pay off.

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