Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Great Film overall

Fantastic!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I don't review movies but seeing so high ratings for this movie made me to review it. Icant understand why this movie is rated so high on IMDB. The basic concept of this movie is flawed. Maddy sees Reena and falls in love with her. Reena is going to be married to Rajiv, who lives in USA and is about to come to India in 5 days. Maddy impersonates as Rajiv and makes Reena fall in love with her. When Rajiv comes to India they get to know the truth. Also Rajiv and Maddy happen to be college time enemies. Maddy starts to harrass both Rajiv and Reena and their families as well and he is fully supported be his father and his goon friends. On the day of their marriage Reena realises that she really lovea Maddy and tells Rajiv. Rajiv then patches up Reena with Maddy. I mean what was it. Is the director trying to promote harrassment in the name of love? What effect will this movie have on youth? Certainly this flick should be avoided. The only saving grace is its music which consists of some melodious songs.

I remember watching this movie with my parents ages back, in fact a year after it was released. While it never became a box office hit, it certainly ascended to cult status and i can probably understand why. I've only recently gone back to watching these movies now, as a form of exam procrastination (an art which I am readily perfecting).Before I get into the positives of this movie however, id like to elucidate upon what i thought was a very alarming moral issue within. The movie in a nutshell basically condones stalking and general thuggery to 'get women'. In fact, that is basically what Maddy, the movie's protagonist character, does in order to woo the girl he falls in love with after seeing her dance in the rain from a call booth (an aside - i always find it interesting to watch movies pre-smart-phone and pre mobile accessible technology because it harks back to a time where society was not poisoned with the ills and obsessions that have been created by social media - but i digress).Maddy spends at least twenty minutes of the film engaging in what would otherwise be known as unlawful stalking behaviour in most common law countries. He takes pictures of the love interest of the movie, Reena (played ably by dia mirza), somehow solicits her number from an otherwise dumb and slightly ridiculous friend, goes to such lengths that he enlists his buddies to cut the telephone line at Reena's own home; and to top it all off, impersonates the man that is supposed to marry his love interest for 'five days' in order to 'have her.' He even hints that he might have 'raped' her if wanted in the closing stages of the film. It is highly unlikely that anyone would NOT consider all or even some of this kind of behaviour morally questionable and stalkerish, and it represents a moral undertone which i frankly dislike. Considering India's much publicised problems with rape, sexual harassment and treatment of women, such a moral undertone condones such behaviour more than anything else (granted, the film was released much before such events in India have entered a global limelight, but this does not mean those problems were not present back then either). Maddy's 'win' at the end of the movie only emphasises that problem.Nonetheless, despite this questionable undercurrent, the movie in itself is excellent, and it is why it has bought me back to watch it and created a cult following along with it. What strikes me from the movie is the manner in which Menon, the director, treats the screenplay, which is in my opinion flawless. The movies lengthy time is barely noticeable because menon is able to intelligently weave together the initial Maddy- sam conflict throughout the film, ensuring that their conflict is always in the background but not taking up more than required screen time to effectively convey it. Further, the comedic scenes are excellent; R.Madhavan possesses a distinct comedic touch and is ably supported by another outstanding character in the film, Vicky, who's one liners had me sniggering and guffawing quite often. Menon is able to frame each comedic scene and tie to those human, good qualities that Maddy does possess - his unrelenting will, his care for his friends and family and a boyish inflection in his personality. Despite the fact that he stalks Reena, Menon's direction enables the audience to ignore the ridiculousness and instead almost root for Maddy as he, his friends and dad cook up various plans in order to woo the lady. For the most part, the scenes in which Maddy is trying to get to know Reena or is devising plans to have 'the perfect night out' are the best, because Menon paces them well, edits the scenes to elicit the humor (one particular scene, as Maddy is driving a 1970's fiat, he proclaims that 'everything is planned out and nothing can go wrong when I have planned something'; which immediately cuts to Maddy coughing and cursing an overheated car as he unsuccessfully tries to fix the radiator in the bonnet, drew several laughs). Further, Menon conveys Maddy's inner conflict of keeping his facade as 'rajiv from America' and telling Reena the truth in effective ways; he often juxtaposes Maddy's conflict in scenes where he is expressing his feelings to Reena, keeping the audience interested but also worried for the eventuality that will happen if Maddy does not tell the truth. But the greatest success for Menon is how he is able to connect Mumbai to the character of Maddy; mumbai's grime and problems is reflected by Maddy's irresponsible, immature, vulgar, alcoholic side; but on the other hand, mumbai's humor, its points of beauty and its charm is also reflected by Maddy. It is interesting when Reena admonishes Maddy on their first day together, stating that 'im a simple woman, an Indian woman...leave your American-ness alone', effectively implying to Maddy that it is his inner mumbaiwalla charm which she wants, and which she eventually falls in love with. It is this which makes the film such a cult classic because it speaks to the inner Indian in the moviegoer heart, the charm and visceral beauty within each and the will to achieve their ends.The songs in the movie are also great and are a treat to listen to, meaning that the segues which can often be jarring are not so bad.In all, this movie is great. It has excellent re-watch value. However, one must ignore not only the ridiculousness of the plot but also the questionable morals which plague the movie to fully appreciate its quality, and for that reason it deserves a 7/10.

RHTDM was best movie according to me. But i didn't know how it became flop. It was awesome movie with nice story line. Role of diya mirza and madhvan was extra ordinary. I had watched this movie approx 50-60times. One of the best movie of madhvan. And the song was great. There was mixture of all type of song. "Sach keh raha hai deewana" and "Dilko tmse pyar hua" was awesome. The movie was slightly slow or boring in first part. But after that the movie was great. When first time i watched the movie. I was very sad because i didn't watched the movie in theater. By the way all movie of madhvan are good. Tanu weds Manu was also a great movie, with great story line, and awesome songs.

Although it wasn't a big movie when it came out and wasn't a successful one either. But, I got to see this movie in theater and I loved it throughout. It has emotional/comic romantic story and movie starts from college campus when our hero is about graduate and most of the story takes place after he passes out of college.I was amazed by madhavan's acting skills (and comic timing too) and diya's beauty. Perfect chemistry between the two and comic moments here and there in the movie keeps you engrossed throughout. Music and all the songs are superb and A-classAnother great revelation was Saif's character. He was in new avatar (as he was written off by then) and could easily be said to be his one of the finest comeback movie (though there is dil chahta hai) and now he is one of the biggest star in bollywood, he should be thankful to this role.I must have seen this move 100s time by now, it is so refreshing. When this movie came out, I was 18 then and was totally smitten by it.I love it. :)