filmbriefs
Actor

Shah Rukh Khan

5
briefs
13:00
average
65 min
in total
On film.briefs5
13:00

Sometimes Happiness Sometimes Sadness

Karan Johar · 2001

Sometimes Happiness Sometimes Sadness (2001) is a Hindi-language family drama directed by Karan Johar, following the Raichand family across Delhi, London, and Cairo. When adopted son Rahul marries outside his class, his father Yash disowns him, triggering a decade-long estrangement. His younger brother Rohan engineers a reunion, culminating in public apology and dual weddings. Anchored by performances from Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Kajol, the film uses music, costume, and ritual to explore inheritance, visibility, and the slow labour of belonging.

13:00

Chak De! India

Shimit Amin · 2007

Chak De! India (2007) follows disgraced hockey captain Kabir Khan as he coaches India’s women’s national team to World Cup victory. Directed by Shimit Amin and written by Jaideep Sahni, it departs from Bollywood convention with no romantic subplot, no lip-synced songs, and an ensemble cast of sixteen actresses trained in hockey over six months. Its strength lies in procedural realism, distributed character focus, and a feminist structure that treats athletic labour as serious, collective work. Though Khan’s personal arc remains underdeveloped, the film’s rigour, restraint, and respect for process make it a rare mainstream Hindi film anchored in effort rather than elevation.

13:00

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Aditya Chopra · 1995

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) is a 245-minute Hindi romantic drama directed by Aditya Chopra, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol as NRIs whose courtship centres on winning parental consent rather than eloping. Shot across Switzerland, London and Punjab, it uses song, gesture and sustained tone to affirm family values without rejecting individual desire. Its enduring theatrical run — still screening daily in Mumbai since 1995 — reflects its design as ritual, not narrative.

13:00

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Karan Johar · 1998

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) is Karan Johar’s directorial debut: a Hindi-language romantic drama starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Salman Khan. Structured across two timeframes, it follows a widower and his daughter as she reunites him with his college best friend. Shot in India, Mauritius, and Scotland, it blends aspirational visuals with classical storytelling—letters, songs, and delayed confessions—to explore inheritance, grief, and second chances. Its emotional logic is unwavering, its craft precise, and its cultural impact enduring.

13:00

Swades

Ashutosh Gowariker · 2004

A NASA engineer returns to rural India to find his childhood nanny and stays to build a micro-hydroelectric plant. Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Swades (2004) is a deliberate, physically grounded Hindi drama that treats infrastructure, education, and caste not as themes but as daily practices — demanding patience, precision, and collective labour over rhetoric or revelation.