DDLJ@30: The Train Scene That Changed Hindi Cinema

New Delhi ~ Kajol's Simran running towards a moving train to hold the outstretched hand of Shah Rukh Khan's Raj in“Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” captures one of Hindi cinema's most loved happily-ever-after moments in freeze frame. And it has enamoured filmmakers so much that they keep recreating it movie after movie.

Trains are the connecting leitmotif for Raj and Simran in the Aditya Chopra-directed film - celebrating 30 years of its release this month - as their love story begins on one and ends on a happy note on another when the lovers unite after Simran's conservative father, Baldev Singh finally approves her with the famous lines, 'Ja Simran ja, jee le apni zindagi.'

The scene is so coded in the memory of a generation of Hindi cinema lovers that even Shah Rukh Khan couldn't resist spoofing it in one of his later hits.

In 2013's“Chennai Express“, his character of Rahul promptly stretches his palms towards Deepika Padukone's Minnamma, who is running away from home and trying to catch the moving train.

The film's director, Rohit Shetty, is a self-confessed fan of“DDLJ”, which is why he decided to incorporate the scene in the movie at the very beginning.

“This was done in a good taste. We didn't remember anyone saying we have made fun of it,” writer Sajid of the Sajid-Farhad duo told PTI in an earlier interview.

“'DDLJ' is a masterpiece of Hindi cinema. We had a situation in our film which had Shah Rukh already in the train and Deepika running to catch it, he helps her. Rohit created it beautifully,” he said.

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