Ishq (1997 film)


Ishq is an Indian 1997 Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Indra Kumar. It stars Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn, Juhi Chawla and Kajol. Dalip Tahil, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Johnny Lever and Mohan Joshi appear in supporting roles. The film was the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997, behind Dil To Pagal Hai and Border, with a worldwide gross of 505 million. It is the last film to feature Khan and Chawla together onscreen. The Kannada remake of the film, Snehana Preethina, was released in 2007.

Plot

Ranjit Rai and Harbans Lal Saxena are two wealthy business magnates who despise the poor. Thus, they decide their children, Ajay Rai and Madhu Saxena, will marry wealthy spouses. They try to break their children's friendship with Raja and Kajal, who are both poor. They fix up Ajay's marriage with Madhu and send Ajay to meet Madhu. As fate would have it, Ajay falls in love with Kajal instead and Raja and Madhu fall in love. This angers the two men, and they try to bribe Raja and Kajal into leaving Madhu and Ajay. When this doesn't work, they try to get Raja and Kajal killed. When the children realize what their fathers really did, they refuse to back down, their determination set in stone.
Eventually, the parents play a nasty trick. They make the four lovers believe that they have changed their ways and are ready for their children to marry the person they wish to. On the way to Raja and Madhu's engagement ceremony, the fathers have Kajal kidnapped. Raja saves her from being raped and comforts her. Meanwhile, without their knowledge, photos are taken of them. The fathers then show the photos of Raja comforting Kajal at the party. Taken out of context, the photos make it look like Raja and Kajal are being intimate with each other. Raja and Kajal are willing to prove their innocence, but the fathers keep them away. To make matters worse, Kajal's uncle falsely testifies to the fabricated illicit affair between the two. In fact, Kajal's uncle was paid to lie to Ajay and Madhu.
Ajay and Madhu break up with Kajal and Raja, and the fathers' plan to create a rift between Ajay and Raja, once the best of friends, succeeds. The situation worsens further when Ajay and Madhu think that Kajal is pregnant with Raja's child. They tell Raja and Kajal that they are getting married, which is what their fathers wanted all along. After hearing this, Kajal attempts to kill herself, but Raja stops her. Raja attacks Ajay and Madhu while they are in a car mobile. Raja pretends to show that he is about to rape Madhu, but Ajay saves and comforts her. The police beat Raja brutally and Kajal pleads the fathers to release him. The fathers agree, but on the condition that Kajal and Raja leave the country for good and that they would be killed if they ever did return. Kajal agrees and Raja is set free.
Ajay and Madhu's wedding is about to start when Ajay's uncle shows them pictures of Ajay comforting Madhu after Ajay seemingly had saved Madhu from Rajas supposed attack, taken out of context. This proves that Raja had attacked them to recreate the situation he and Kajal had been in, which in turn proved that Raja and Kajal are innocent and that the fathers were behind the initial attack on Kajal. Further proving Raja and Kajal's innocence, Kajal's uncle also confesses that he lied out of bribery. Angry and heartbroken, Ajay almost chokes his father to death but his conscience stops him. He then tries to kill himself but Madhu stops him. Ajay and Madhu rush to the shipyard and succeed to stop Raja and Kajal from leaving the country on the ship. They ask for forgiveness and the lovers get back together. The fathers arrive, having realized their grave mistake, and also ask for forgiveness. The lovers forgive them and they sing and dance to a song.

Cast

Development

Director Indra Kumar had initially planned to make Ishq in 1991 with Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt as two of the four leads, but due to their personal problems at the time, they opted out of the film. Later, Boney Kapoor asked Kumar to make the film with Sanjay Kapoor and Vivek Mushran playing the roles of Ajay and Raja, respectively. However, Kumar had no happiness to cast the two, and he then made the film Raja with Sanjay Kapoor, which released in 1995. He again came with the idea of making Ishq in 1996 and selected Ajay Devgn, Aamir Khan, Kajol and Juhi Chawla to play the leads.

Casting

and Madhuri Dixit were offered the roles of Kajol and Juhi Chawla, respectively, but the former declined to work opposite Devgan and the latter had date issues. Along with this, Amitabh Bachchan was signed to play the role of a man who after completing an intermission tries to unite the four lovers, but due to some problems with Kumar, he left the film, and Kumar later removed that character from the film. Ishq was Kumar's first movie to not star Madhuri Dixit as a female lead and second movie with Aamir Khan after 1990's Dil. The film also marked the first collaboration between Kumar and Devgn.

Filming

During the shooting of the film, Aamir Khan threw a prank on Juhi Chawla, after which she got irritated.

Box office

The movie was a blockbuster. It earned, against a budget of. Its gross is equivalent to adjusted for inflation in 2019. It was the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997, behind Dil To Pagal Hai and Border.

Music

The music was composed by Anu Malik. The Ishq soundtrack album sold 3million units, making it the year's sixth best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album. The tune of the hit track '"Neend Churai Meri" was copied from the Linear song "Sending All My Love". It was subsequently remade as Maine Tujhko Dekha by Malik's nephew Amaal Malik for the 2017 film Golmaal Again.

Awards

CeremonyCategoryRecipient/NomineesResult
43rd Filmfare AwardsBest VillainSadashiv Amrapurkarrowspan="3"
1st Zee Cine AwardsBest ActorAamir Khan-
1st Zee Cine AwardsBest ActressJuhi Chawla-