Dhadkan

Dhadkan (English: Heartbeat) is a 2000 Indian romantic drama film, directed by Dharmesh Darshan. It features Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Shilpa Shetty in the lead roles, while Mahima Chaudhry makes an extended guest appearance. The film deals with the love triangle. The film was a critical as well as commercial success and was the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year. Sunil Shetty won a Filmfare Best Villain Award for his performance.

Anjali Chauhan(Shilpa Shetty) is a young woman who hails from an extremely rich and influential family. Her father Mr. Chauhan (Kiran Kumar) is a renowned businessman. Anjali is in love with Dev(Sunil Shetty) who is very poor and often cannot even afford to clothe himself properly. Dev loves Anjali and wants to marry her.

When Anjali puts forward to her parents the proposal of marrying Dev, she is rebuked and gets an outright refusal. Because her father does not like Dev for his bad manners and arrogant outlook. Moreover, her parents have chosen for her a wealthy suitor from Delhi; and the boy is very religious minded. Not wanting to hurt her parents, Anjali finally gives in and marries Ram (Akshay Kumar) who her parents believe will be a perfect match for her.

Ram is a man of great ideals, who believes in giving a rightful place to his wife and respects her sensibilities. Despite this, he is unable to win Anjali's love at first and their marriage remains on the edge. However, after seeing the magnanimity of her husband’s heart in forgiving and accepting her, she realises she has fallen in love with him.

At their third wedding anniversary party, Dev returns who is now a business tycoon, and Anjali finds herself at a crossroads where she would stand-for her husband or with her former love. Anjali chooses to stand for her husband and has no wish to return to Dev,even though it pains her to know how hurt he is.

When she tells him this, Dev can not stand rejection for a second time and sets out to ruin Ram's life. This goes on for some time, causing turbulence and turmoil in Ram and Anjali's life.

In the end, when Anjali tells Dev she is pregnant with Ram's child and begs him to leave her alone, Dev realises his folly and decides to marry his current friend and business partner Sheetal Varma (Mahima Chaudhry) who is his new companion and secretly loved him for a long time.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Ram
• Shilpa Shetty as Anjali
• Suniel Shetty as Dev
• Mahima Chaudhry as Sheetal Varma
• Sharmila Tagore as Dev's mother (special appearance)
• Sushma Seth as Ram's stepmother
• Parmeet Sethi as Bob (Ram's half brother)
• Manjeet Kullar as Nikki (Ram's half sister)
• Kiran Kumar as Anjali's father
• Anjana Mumtaz as Anjali's mother
• Anupam Kher as Sheetal's father (special appearance)
• Kader Khan as Singer (special appearance in song "Dulhe Ka Sehra"

Music

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The music of the album has been composed by Nadeem–Shravan in the span of three years. Dulhe Ka Sehra sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was composed in 1997. The other songs were also recorded in 1997-98, with the exception of Tum Dil Ki Dhadkan Mein, which was recorded in 2000 at London. Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se and Tum Dil Ki Dhadkan Mein became legendary love tracks and Dulhe Ka Sehra a popular wedding song of the era. The other successful songs are Aksar Is Duniya Mein and Na Na Karte Pyaar. The album was listed at second position in the yearly music charts. It became a big hit among the masses. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, around 45,00,000 albums were sold.

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Reception

Taran Adarsh wrote of the film:

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Adarsh described Shilpa Shetty as the "life of the enterprise", adding that she "looks good, delivers her lines effectively and emotes with utmost conviction."He said Sunil Shetty performance is one of his best especially the scenes between Sunil and Shilpa are fabulous'."He also said "Akshay Kumar shows vast improvement as an actor. He is very controlled and handles this difficult role with sincerity."

Padmaraj Nair of Screen felt the film had a "nostalgic feel to it, what with the effect of watching social drama from the good ol' 60s." He added that the film was "fairly interesting in the first half, with its slick screenplay, But the director does seem to lose his grip towards the end, as the film climaxes rather tamely. It seems as if he developed cold feet as far as justifying the grey role of Sunil Shetty is concerned, and ends up portraying him on a positive note." He felt, performance-wise, Shetty "scores over the rest", while adding, "Shilpa gets the best role of her career and doesn't disappoint. Akshay Kumar, in the role of the cool-headed husband, is impressive." On other departments of the film, he concluded writing, "Nadeem-Shravan's music is the very lifeline of the film, and all the tracks are melodious and situational. Cinematography by WB Rao is outstanding."