'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' @30: An iconic train sequence that Hindi cinema keeps revisiting

New Delhi: Kajol's Simran running towards a moving train to hold the outstretched hand of Shah Rukh Khan's Raj in "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" captures one of Hindi's cinema's most loved happily-ever-after moments in freeze frame. And it has enamoured filmmakers so much that they keep recreating it movie after movie.

Trains are the connecting leitmotif for Raj and Simran in the Aditya Chopra-directed film -- celebrating 30 years of its release this month -- as their love story begins on one and ends on a happy note on another when the lovers unite after Simran's conservative father Baldev Singh finally approves her with the famous lines ‘Ja Simran ja, jee le apni zindagi’.

The scene is so coded in the memory of a generation of Hindi cinema lovers that even Shah Rukh Khan couldn't resist himself from spoofing it in one of his later hits.

In 2013's Chennai Express, his character of Rahul promptly stretches his palms towards Deepika Padukone's Minnamma, who is running away from home and trying to catch the moving train.

The film's director Rohit Shetty is a self-confessed fan of DDLJ, which is why he decided to incorporate the scene in the movie at the very beginning.

“This was done in a good taste. We didn’t remember anyone saying we have made fun of it," writer Sajid of the Sajid-Farhad duo told PTI in an earlier interview.

"'DDLJ' is a masterpiece of Hindi cinema. We had a situation in our film which had Shah Rukh already in the train and Deepika running to catch it, he helps her. Rohit created it beautifully,” he said.

In the last 30 year, many films have tried using the same train sequence to drive their story.

From Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met (2007), director Ashwni Dhir’s Son Of Sardaar (2012) to Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013) and Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhaan (2020).

“Jab We Met” has not one but two train sequences. The first meeting between Shahid's Aditya and Kareena Kapoor Khan's Geet happens on a train and thus begins a journey that leads them to unexpected friendship, heartbreak, reunion and reciprocation.

In another pivotal scene, Shahid’s character helps Kareena hop onto a moving train. In doing so, he helps her overcome her fear about missing a train or leaving behind something or someone in life.

Years later, "Son of Sardaar" paid a playful tribute to this iconic moment, but with a comic spin. Early in the film, Ajay Devgn reaches out to help Sonakshi Sinha board a train — only to tumble off it himself, a moment that could have been a romantic rescue but turns into a hilarious mishap.

In “Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani”, it was Ranbir Kapoor, who helps Deepika Padukone get onto the train, marking their beginning of a friendship that ends with the two living 'happily ever after'.

And then there was "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan", featuring Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar, which flipped the scene to suit its own narrative of a same-sex love story.

The movie offered a progressive reinterpretation of the sequence within a same-sex love story. In fact, the movie starts and ends with train sequences.

It begins with Jitendra Kumar's character Aman helping Ayushmann's Kartik board the train. And in the climax, Jitendra's character tries to hop onto a moving train while his lover, played by Ayushmann Khurrana, extends his hand to help him get on board- a scene that ends not just in rescue, but in a heartfelt kiss.

"The train sequence was the iconic visual from 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'. And that is the reason why I started 'Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan' with the exact same train sequence and ended with the same. And I wanted to capture the essence of love, no matter whether it is a heteronormative love or homosexual love or any kind of love.

"And there was no better visual than that extended hand... The same was with Kartik and Aman," the film's director Hitesh Kewalya told PTI.

In "Half Girlfriend", the moment was given a romantic twist — Arjun Kapoor reaches out to his leading lady, Shraddha Kapoor, who helps him board the train.

During the shoot in 2016, Arjun shared a photo from the scene on social media, calling it, “Our very own DDLJ moment.” Another film that paid a homage to “DDLJ” was filmmaker Shashank Khaitan's 2014 romantic-comedy "Humpty Sharma Ki Dhulania”, starring Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. The film featured many scenes that seemed to be from the 'DDLJ' textbook.