Dil Kya Kare

About the film

Dil Kya Kare (English: What Should The Heart Do?) is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language family drama film, directed by Prakash Jha and produced by Veeru Devgan and Veena Devgan. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Kajol, Mahima Chaudhry and Chandrachur Singh.

Plot

Anand lives happily with his wife Kavita and daughter Neha, whom the couple adopted after Kavita suffered a miscarriage and ensuing infertility. Kavita is good friends with Som Datt, whose love for her has remained unrequited since their college days.

Kavita becomes worried when she learns of a strange woman who has been visiting Neha regularly at school. Kavita soon confronts the woman, who introduces herself as "Nandita" and requests to spend more time with Neha. Kavita invites her into her home as a guest, but deeply buried secrets surface when Nandita and Anand come face-to-face. It is revealed that they are Neha's biological parents.

Years before, Anand and Nandita were strangers traveling on a train when thugs hijacked the train and attacked Nandita. Anand saved Nandita's life and the two ended up spending the night together, resulting in Anand cheating on his wife, Kavita, to whom he was married at the time. Anand and Nandita never exchanged words, aside from sleeping together and once the train stops at a station, Nandita gets off, without waking up Anand, never having come to know even his name or his whereabouts and likewise for Anand about Nandita. Unknown to Anand, Nandita becomes pregnant with his child, but since she is unmarried and does not know the father, Nandita's father forces her to give up the baby for adoption. In a twist of fate, Anand and Kavita lost their unborn baby in an accident, and end up going to the orphanage to adopt a baby, who is only 7 days old, which unknown to anyone, is Anand and Nandita's baby, Neha. They raise her for years until Nandita tracks them down, unaware this is the same house of the man she slept with years earlier. When Anand finds Nandita in his home, who Kavita invited to spend time with Neha, both are startled at seeing each other and become afraid Kavita will find out about his infidelity.

Reception

Indolink.com ranked the film the best film of 1999, writing " We have got to hand it to the marvelous performances and complex characters for keeping our interest in Dil Kya Kare. They help give the film the base it needs for credibility. If only Jha had made it a darker and less glamourous [sic] product, it would have had phenomenal success with the classes. The masses are certainly going to have a tough time watching, understanding and appreciating this inappropriately packaged flick. Of course, for those of you who like a bit of novelty and acting tour de forces, Dil Kya Kare is better than a thousand Taals and Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehate Hains combined.

Conversely, Sharmila Taliculam of Rediff wrote, "Throughout the film, one gets the feeling that Jha’s heart wasn’t in this film. It could have been a good film, if it had been treated properly. But all we can say is that it remains a disappointment." Anupama Chopra of India Today wrote, "Jha can't match the emotional finesse of Masoom. His performers are competent - Chaudhary, big on lipstick and histrionics is as excellent as Kajol - but his writing is flawed. And DKK remains, a well-crafted but half-baked soap opera."

Dil Kya Kare grossed $285,000 in the US and £204,547 in UK. In the second weekend the film grossed $54,000.

Key details