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The
year - 1998. All the eyes of bollywood set on a young
director's maiden venture. All the hopes pinned on his
magnum opus. Coming from the incurably romantic Yash
Chopra's school of direction, everybody was eager to
see if this new entrant's movie would rewrite history
as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) did. Having
not only assisted Aditya Chopra with DDLJ but
also playing a bit role as Shah Rukh's friend, Karan
Johar convinced both the lead stars of DDLJ,
Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) and Kajol to breathe life into
his friendship 'n' love saga - Kuch Kuch Hota Hain
(KKHH). KKHH not only rewrote box-office history but
also went on to become one of the highest grossers of
Hindi film industry.
 The
year - 2001. All the films released after the highly
successful Lagaan and Gadar, started falling
like ninepins. The industry again looks upto Karan's
second mammoth offering with a never before and probably
never again star cast bringing in six superstars of
the industry together on screen. As expected, Kabhi
Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G) brought in leaps and bounds
of khushi. Though people complained that K3G could have
been much better if Karan had channeled an iota of his
perfection on the glitz of the movie to the script of
the movie, such gham filled complaints were lost
in the razzmatazz of khushi generated by K3G.
KKHH
was more a love story and K3G a family oriented movie.
Though both the movies have a lot of common technicians
and actors, there are a lot of other similarities between
the two like -
- Both
the movies run into flashbacks within 15 minutes of
their beginning.
- Both
the flashbacks start with a song. 'Hai hai re hai,
yeh ladka...' in KKHH and the title song in K3G.
- Kajol
parts from the main characters in the flashbacks in
both the movies. In KKHH she parts from SRK and in
K3G, she along with SRK parts from Amitabh Bachchan
and Jaya Bachchan.
- All
the characters narrating/reading/listening to the
flashback burst into tears at the end of the flashback.
Baby Sana Saeed in KKHH and Hrithik Roshan, Achla
Sachdev, Sushma Seth in K3G.
-
The character of Rani Mukherjee is primarily limited
to flashbacks in both the movies. Though she makes
some ghostly appearances in the second half of KKHH
she shines in two songs in the flashback of K3G.
- The
entire second half in both the movies is about a single
character, with some assistance from other characters,
trying to unite the main characters that have parted
ways in the first half. Baby Sana Saeed, assisted
by Farida Jalaal in KKHH and Hrithik Roshan assisted
by Kareena Kapoor in K3G.
- This
single character, in trying to unite the parted chracters
goes to the place of the parted character(s) lying
to the other parted main character(s). In KKHH, Sana
Saeed heads to a summer camp in Simla managed by Kajol,
lying to SRK that she wants to learn 'singing and
dancing'. Hirthik, cooks up an MBA story to Amitabh
and Jaya in K3G to find place in the residence of
SRK and Kajol in London.
- SRK
lights a pyre in both the movies. Rani Mukherjee's
pyre in KKHH and that of Achla Sachdev's (his grand
mom) in K3G.
- The
rendition of 'Om Jai Jagdish hare…' song.
Rani Mukherjee recites this arthi chanting in KKHH
and Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor do the reciting
in K3G. At the end of this song SRK is found with
open-mouth in both the movies, awed by the 'bharateeya
traditions' of London bred Rani in KKHH and Kareena's
transformation from a skimpy skirt clad chic to chudidaar
clad nymph.
- The
presence of Muslim characters and their association
with Kajol. Himani Shivpuri, played the role of Rifatbi,
Kajol's caretaker at hostel in KKHH and Farida Jalaal
and Simone Singh were the muslim neighbors of Kajol
in K3G.
- Presence
of a desh-bhakti song. If Mahatma Gandhi's 'Raghupati
raghava rajaram' was set to a modern tune in KKHH,
Bamkim Chandra's 'Vandemataram' was tuned to
a high voltage beat in K3G. Not only that, Karan has
also included Indian National Anthem 'Jana gana
mana' in K3G. Now, that's an overdose of desh-bhakti
probably aimed at NRIs.
- The
Punjabi kid (Parzun Dastur) repeats his famous and
hilarious KKHH act of counting stars in K3G too.
- Lastly,
apart from the starting letter of both the movies
being 'K' (Karan Johar has a similar sentiment like
Rakesh Roshan and probably Hrithik Roshan 'coz his
genuine hits so far are Kaho Naa Pyar Hain and K3G
and both begin with 'K'), SRK's and Kajol's characters
in K3G are named the same as in KKHH - Rahul and Anjali.
KKHH
and K3G share one more commonality - their success saga
at the box-office. Both the movies are inarguably one
of the top grossers in their year of release. In spite
of so many similarities, both KKHH and K3G showcase
the wonderful directorial talents of Karan Johar
and his command over handling sensitive family/love
stories.
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