Like all millenials reading this, I too, was barely a teenager when Karan Johar‘s directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai came out in 1998, replete with glossy visuals, chartbusting music, designer clothes (also the COOL chain, which I think now was a paid actor) and college theatrics. I laughed when Anjalishouted ‘Rahul is a cheater’, I cried when Tina died and then kept on sobbing through the second half of the movie.I rooted forRahul and Anjali as much as I rooted for Rahul and Tina, and hoped that decades later, I too will find my happily ever after with a man like Rahul and ‘settle’ down, eventually becoming mother to his kids (Did I mention that I was barely 12?)

The cult classic, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kajol recently completed 25 years. In essence a simple love triangle, the movie tugs at the heartstrings of anyone who has experienced the euphoria of a first ‘adult’ love, or as Rahul says meeting that elusive someone, jisko dekh ke kuch kuch hota hai. (something happens) There is unbridled joy and there is heartbreak, coupled with a devastating death sequence and an army of kids, colors and Shimla in the second half. Couple this with a song for every occasion and a Manish Malhotra outfit for every scene, and we have a winner on our hands!
To jog your memory, (you might be a fan, but the movie is still 25 years old), the happy-go-lucky college dude Rahul and the tomboy Anjali are best friends in a straight out of a story book-ish college called ST. Xavier’s (what are the chances!) The two upto a point, share no romantic feelings for each other (and even if they do, they are deeply buried, at least for Rahul). Things change when the ‘Oxford University’ returned Tina, daughter of the college principal, schmoozes into Rahul’s heart, by donning a short skirt by the day, and a salwar kameez in a temple on Tuesdays. She is poised, polished, well-spoken, modern, yet sanskaari in the right doses (ladki aisi ho jise maa ke saamne le jaaya jaaye, says Rahul, meaning that the right girl is someone you can take home to your mum). As Rahul finds himself falling deeply in love with her (a tad too quickly we might add), Anjali suddenly realises that though Rahul sucks at football, she still loves him! However, by that time, Rahul and Tina have fallen too deeply in love, so Anjali decides to let them be and moves out of their life, until decades later, Rahul and the now dead Tina’s daughter, also called Anjali, decides to reunite her dad with his best friend.

Karan Johar, all of 21 then, has often admitted that his debut movie had a lot of structural issues. The fact that Tina left 8 letters for her new born baby is baffling, one to be read each year on her birthday, when clearly, kids are incapable of reading till they are 3-4 years old, and definitely not stark tales of love and heartbreak. Another fact that even loyal fans found unsettling was that it is just ‘assumed’ that Anjali is still single after 8-9 long years, and even though she is engaged, nothing about her life in those eight years has been shown. She is also magically ‘lady-like’ now, wearing only sarees, either as a result of simply ‘growing up’ or as a matter of proving a point after her heart is ruthlessly shattered to pieces – we will never know.
However, these cinematic liberties apart, the movie scores on emotion, something that Johar showed finesse from the word go. Whether it was the heartbreaking scene when Rahul confesses to Anjali that he loves Tina, or Rahul and Anjali’s awkward reunion at the summer camp in Shimla, Johar’s writing was both brilliant and moving. Of course, when you have actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji (full marks to Karan for spotting her talent in her otherwise chaotic debut Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat ) in the mix, it anyway makes for a power packed spectacle.
As I said earlier, for a 12-year-old, the movie was no less than a fairytale – painting an almost perfect picture of love (remember the Rani-SRK honey-laden married life montage?), instating the belief that your first true love is someone you will never forget and never move on from, just like Anjali, who pines for Rahul even after almost a decade, even though she is engaged to someone who is nuts about her.

Once the rose-tinted glasses wore off for me (and many others), we realised that Rahul was not a perfect man, not even by a mile. He was shallow enough to fall in love with the sultry Tina over the tomboy Anjali and years later, falls for Anjali because Tina is dead and Anjali is now probably more lady-like than her! He also, through the course of the movie, keeps saying, ‘hum ek baar jeete hai, ek baar marte hai, shaadi bhi 1 baar hoti and pyaar bhi 1 baar hota hai‘ – (we live once, we die once, get married once and fall in love once) and then falls in love and gets married within the next few weeks to his platonic best friend from college, who he has not been in touch with since years.
However, the other side of the coin that Karan probably subconsciously tried to show, was that Rahul was a deeply flawed character, but that is OKAY. After all, how many of us had our lives figured out when we were 20-21 and in college? We all had our share of ‘crushes’ which in retrospect (though you might not admit) were on the ‘cutest’ girls and boys in college, and not the one with the ‘purest’ of hearts. Of course, it was a little impractical that Tina and Rahul wed as soon as they finished college and had a child almost immediately, but like most 90s movies, this one too, placed ‘falling in love and getting married’ as the highest priority for both genders, with little to no personal ambition. (Read Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai etc) And also, having a pehle pyar (first love) left adhura (incomplete) is also OKAY. It is not the end of the world and you will eventually move on to greener pastures.
Yet, even with all its flaws, the movie is a classic and one that can perk you up on a dull day. Of course, you don’t have to take life-lessons from it and you, evidently don’t need a Rahul to go chasing the rainbows with. Instead, what you need is lots of self-love and the belief that love (along with other life milestones) will happen at the right place at the right time, and then you can truly croon ‘Koi Mil Gaya‘ (minus the body hugging sport tees please!)
You can watch Kuch Kuch Hota Hai on a leading OTT channel…
ETimes Decoded is our weekly column where we deconstruct movies, characters or plots to uncover a fresh, often undiscovered perspective.