WHERE LOVE BLOSSOMS
about the season for mustard blossoms before planning a shoot here,” says Darshan Aulakh, line producer, who has arranged for the shooting of many Hindi films in Punjab. It may not always be for an entire song, as in DDLJ, but there are glimpses of the yellow flowers in many of the films that followed - Singh Is Kinng, Dil Bole Hadippa, Veer Zaara, Mausam…
A DATE WITH DDLJ
In a piece published on Outlook Traveller’s website, writer Mariellen Ward mentions one of the highlights of her first visit to Punjab: “... I was finally able to realise a long-held dream: draping a white dupatta over my shoulders, I ran through a mustard field in imitation of Kajol in the movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.
Ironically, Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam – the DDLJ song set in the mustard field – was not shot in Punjab, but in Haryana’s Gurgaon, as film critic and author Anupama Chopra writes in her book Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: A Modern Classic. The kind of yellow expanse director Aditya Chopra had in mind was not to be found in Punjab. “That scene is the quintessential mitti ki khushboo kind of scene that was at the heart of the film,” recalls Anupama. “The film was all about what defined Hindustani – the NRI boy is more Hindustani at heart than the fiance from Punjab. And that scene stood for a return to roots.” The scene became iconic, because the film did, says Chintamani. But for that very reason, over the years, while Punjab has remained a popular locale, some filmmakers have tried to create their own imagery in the state.
BEYOND MUSTARD LOVE
For filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, it is the wheat fields that work. It is there, as a backdrop in Jab We Met – as Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor sit chatting on an old tractor. It is also there in Jab Harry Met Sejal, as Shah Rukh Khan returns with his lady love to a home he had left years ago. “The image that I get in my mind when I think of Punjab is of wheat fields,” says
Ali. “I find more mustard fields in Rajasthan and Haryana now. And it is realistic representation. People do meet to talk in the fields in villages.”
For Anupama, an interesting – and bold – example of a Punjab-field romance is that of Mahie Gill (as Paro) going off into the fields to make love in Dev. D. “It’s been more than 23 years since the release of DDLJ. For the younger audience, the yellow fields may not symbolise romance,” says Chintamani. “For them it might just mean that it is some place in north India.”
Not for the generation that still, while rewatching the film, holds its breath till Simran’s father releases his hold on her hand, allowing her to run to her Raj. For such people the mustard field will always be the best date venue ever. Try posing in a field of yellow mustard and putting up the photo on social media. The comments are sure to include a reference to finding love!