Chapter 10: Favorite Scenes of Dil Chahta Hai

“Tumhari har tasveer apne andar na jaane kya kya chhupaaye hai.“

It is our favorite scenes of a film that serve as its identity and memory in our minds. If I could, I would choose the entire film in my list of favorite scenes from Dil Chahta Hai, but for now, I will choose two of my most favorite scenes from the film. The first scene that always comes to me when I think about Dil Chahta Hai is the one when Tara comes unannounced to Sid’s house to see his paintings. Sid cancels all his plans for the day to show her his beautiful pieces of art. She walks around the room and carefully observes all of them. She is left impressed by his stunning artwork. She sees a common theme in all his paintings that made her learn something new about Sid’s personality which she did not know when they had first met. She tells him that he meets a lot of people in life but, in reality, nobody knows him. There is a world of dreams within him which he does not share with anyone. Sid is a bit nonplussed and wonders how Tara deduced this. She then explains to him his paintings—the door is locked, no one can enter it; the box is shut, no one can steal anything; the eyes are closed, no one can read the feelings behind those eyelids. “Tumhari har tasveer apne andar na jaane kya kya chhupaaye hai, shayad tumhari tarah,” she tells him. Every painting of his tries to hide something; perhaps, the way he does in his life. Sid is simply stunned because no one ever read him like this before. She peeped inside the deepest part of his soul. She asks him about his best amongst all his paintings; he says he has made one yet. Because he will soon make his masterpiece on her as he has fallen in love with her at that very moment. This amazing scene has such a profound impact on me that I try to look at art, people, and life just as Tara psychoanalyzes Sid here by finding patterns and subtext in his paintings. For me, it is one of the most brilliant scenes not just in this film but in the entire history of Hindi cinema.

My second favorite scene in the film again happens between Tara and Sid and happens when she finds out that he loves her. Sid is talking to his mother, where he tells her that he has feelings for Tara, who again comes unannounced to his house and overhears the conversation. Tara concurs with Sid’s mother and advises Sid to stop wasting his life on her. She rushes back to her house and Sid follows her there. She is angry at Sid and asks him that she never gave any idea that she is in love with him or wants to be in a relationship with him. She brings up the age gap between them and tells him that this is the problem with the people of his generation who believe that everything is fine. Sid asks her to sit down and then he explains his viewpoint. He apologizes that he hurt her and his mother; he apologizes that she had to hear all this because of him; but, it is also true that he loves her and he will not apologize for that. “I am not sorry for that,” he tells her. He never wanted Tara to even know about his feelings. All he wants is to see her happy in life. It is wonderful to yet again see Sid’s maturity in handling a difficult situation. He is apologetic for the pain he caused her but he is brutally honest about his feelings for which he will not apologize. At this moment, Sid teaches us to acknowledge feelings and not mask them behind the veneer of shame and lies.

Special Mention: I absolutely love the scene between Deepa and Sid at the beach in Goa which I have written about in the chapter on Deepa.