The evolution of king of romance called Shahrukh Khan
By Enkayaar, Glamsham Editorial
Conventionally handsome guys do not become true romantics, and the idea of romance has been built on the premise that it is not the handsome face that counts, what counts is the intensity to love, express it through actions and the demeanor. The mantle of King of Romance that has now become the sine quo non for Shahrukh Khan has graduated through this process of intense love on the screen and he has been fortunate enough to have been given such opportunity to dabble in genre of romanticism in as different ways as could be possible. On the occasion of his birthday, here is a journey through the different phases of his acting oeuvre which have been the catalyst in giving him the title of King of Romance.
DEEWANA: Right from his very first film in which he made his debut he did not have gumption to fall in love with a widow aka Divya Bharati and to fight against the system to express his love for her. This could perhaps have been one of the reasons for initiation of his phenomenal fan following among the ladies, as for him the social status of a lady was not important what was important was that he had fallen in love with her.
BAAZIGAR: A lover who used his charm to entrap the lady love as he wanted revenge for the family and to seek revenge he used love as the tool to entrap the girl from the family which had been the cause of bad days for the family. BAAZIGAR formed the basis for a platform for emergence of one of the hottest on-screen pairs Shahrukh Khan and Kajol.
DARR: An obsessive lover who goes to manic levels for his lady love, it was for the first time that such a lover boy was unleashed on the screen and it caught the imagination of the country. Shah Rukh Khan himself has said that the role that he enacted in DARR was a watershed role in the history of Indian cinema in an interview to BBC.
KABHI HAAN KABHI NAA: A romantic should never give up the hope till he finds his love and who knows when the road block has come a new way could rise on the side walk, and this is why it is one of the most delectable performances of SRK.
DILWAALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE: Sepia toned romance with overtones of conventional nuances of love, DDLJ was the film that made literally catapulted him as King of Romance, here was a lover who did not have an iota of doubt that once he has fallen in love with a girl he can go across seven seas to get married to her. Today on the eve of Karva Chauth it also is instructive to underline that it was through DDLJ that Shah Rukh Khan initiated the tradition of men fasting for the women they loved, married or not they have been, and since then the idea has really caught on in the country.
RAAM JAANE: Streaks of an obsessive lover that he showed in DARR was taken to a new level through RAAM JAANE where he played the role of a street boy madly in love and leaving no plugs unpulled to see to it that he gets the girl. It was a typical road side Romeo performance and Shah Rukh Khan excelled in it.
PARDES: A lover who silently loves the girl, but is not able to express it as he is under the moral obligation of the family for having given him a shelter and brought him up, ultimately rebels and fights it out for his love with the guardian whom he hero worships.
DIL TO PAGAL HAI: Shah Rukh Khan as a lover boy who felt he was in love with Karisma Kapoor came to realize that he indeed loved Madhuri Dixit and did not have the gumption to tell it clearly to Karisma Kapoor that he indeed loved Madhuri Dixit.
KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI: First love is never forgotten, even though it might not have been expressed, and if opportunity provides, one should try to latch on it, and this is what perhaps made KKHH a cult movie.
MOHABBATEIN: Here was a lover boy, who came back to settle scores with his would be father-in-law who did not allow her daughter to get married to him, and as a revenge on his would be f-in-l, the role played by Big B, he changed his notion and paradigms associated with love.
KABHI KHUSHI KABHI GHAM: A favorite son of his father, he did not think twice to leave the family for his lady love, as the father did not approve of his choice as she belonged to a different social class. This was a conventional story, but Shah Rukh Khan's role added the flavor that he made the father realize that the sons have the choice to seek their own partners.
KAL HO NA HO: A sacrificial lover boy with a twist. As the character played by him was aware that he did not have age on his side, suffering as he was from chronic ailment, he told the girl that when he took rebirth, he would not allow anybody else to fall in love with her, and the lady in question Preity Zinta endorsed the idea.
PAHELI: SRK is turning a ghost to fulfill his incomplete love owing to an untimely death, based on a popular folklore was also a new genre that he experimented in the realm of romance.
OM SHANTI OM: It also had the flavor of romance and so did have MAIN HOON NA but in both the films it was latent and not as manifest as it was in the above films that cemented the position of Shah Rukh Khan as a King of Romance.
RAB NE BANA DI JODI: A simpleton can go to any lengths to facilitate his wife meet her dreams and aspirations, it underlined the hope for small town people that love can always happen after marriage, as it happens in our country, and one should pull all stops to make it a success.
JAB TAK HAI JAAN: With JTHJ Shahrukh would try to reclaim his mantle of being the King of Romance and give a message to the young guns and wannabees that the manner in which he conveys and epitomizes romance is a forte that nobody can claim for the time being.
Now that he is celebrating his birthday today, one only hopes that he would now dabble in adult romance, as this is a genre that still needs experimentation on the silver screen.
