Lamhe (Hindi: लम्हे, translation: Moments) is a 1991 Hindi film directed by Yash Chopra and starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi. The story was written by Honey Irani. The film was critically acclaimed, had exceptional music, and did brilliant business in UK. Unfortunately, it was not a box-office success in India. It is one of the few films that picked up the Filmfare Award for Best Movie despite its lacklustre business. It was inspired from the 1986 film Anokha Rishta starring Rajesh Khanna.

Lamhe was shot in two schedules in Rajasthan and London. Over the years the film has been hailed as a cult classic and is regarded as a modern masterpiece and possibly Yash Chopra's finest film. It is also one of the biggest Bollywood hits in the overseas market and video circuit. Sridevi won a lot of acclaim for her double-role as mother and daughter, winning the Filmfare Best Actress Award and other awards. The film finds a place in the Times Movie Guide's Top 100 Indian films.^{[citation needed]} It is in the Outlook magazine's list of All-Time Great Indian films.^[1] It has been cited as Yash Chopra's personal favourite of the films he has done.^[2]

This was one of the last films that the famous Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza scripted as a writer. He died a couple of months after the release of the film.

Plot[link]

The film is about Virendra Kapoor (Viren) (Anil Kapoor) who travels to Rajasthan with his governess, affectionately called Dai Jaa (Waheeda Rehman). He meets the beautiful Pallavi (Sridevi) and he instantly falls in love with her. However, she happens to be older than he is, though this does not bother Viren. During a property dispute and a court case, Pallavi's father suddenly dies of a heart attack. She is shattered and goes into isolation. At the wake, Viren goes to console her, when she sees him she runs towards and straight past Viren — towards Sidhharth, the man she loves. Viren is heartbroken but, to fulfill Pallavi's father's dying wish, he arranges the wedding between Sidhharth and Pallavi. Allowing Pallavi to live her life happily, Viren leaves for London.

One year into the marriage, Sidhharth and Pallavi are killed in an accident. It was revealed that she was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter. The girl is named Pooja and is kept in the care of Dai Jaa. Viren visits from time to time, for Pallavi's death anniversary, and buys gifts for the young Pooja. He never spends any time with her though, which makes her sad. A few years later Viren returns from London and meets the grown up Pooja for the first time. When he meets her he is shocked to see that she looks exactly like her mother. Eventually Viren brings her to London, and it is slowly revealed that Pooja has fallen in love with Viren. He has not forgotten about Pallavi though.

Viren has a friend Prem (Anupam Kher), who knows that Viren's heart still pines for dead Pallavi. Over the course of time, and much persuasion, slowly Viren hops back to reality engaging himself in work at London. There a girl, Anita, who works along with him falls for him. She knows about Viren's love for Pallavi and constantly tries to gain his attention for herself.

Pooja and Dai Jaa come to London for vacations, and there Anita discovers that Pooja looks the same as Pallavi. This upsets her as she is afraid that Viren will eventually fall for Pooja. Pooja develops feelings for Viren whom she lovingly calls "Kuwarji". Prem also likes Pooja and understands that Pooja loves Viren. Though he likes the match, he is skeptical since Viren is still living in the past.

There are scenes when Pooja and Anita come face to face over the topic of Viren. Eventually Anita insults Pooja as a kid infatuated by Viren and asks what relation Pooja is to Viren that she acts authoritatively over him. Pooja retorts back saying that if she is not related to Viren, Anita is not related to him in either. This frustrates Anita leading her to blast Viren over feelings for a younger woman.

Pooja finds a sketch (which Viren has made of her mother) and misunderstands that it is a sketch of her made by Viren. She confronts him and he blasts her saying he had loved her mom and not her. Pooja is heartbroken and decides to return to India. Viren decides to marry Anita since he feels she is right and has been waiting for him for a long time. Pooja cant bear this and decides to get married only on the condition that Viren marries Anita first.

The climax shows a heartbroken Pooja narrating a folk tale to audience in a village show. After the show, Viren approaches a confused and wary Pooja. Viren reveals that he eventually realized, after Pooja left London, that he loves her and not her mother anymore, who in fact had never had romantic feelings towards him. It turns out that neither of them had gotten married as they said they would, and they are now free to be together.

Cast[link]

• Anil Kapoor as Virendra Kapoor (Viren)
• Sridevi as Pallavi/Pooja
• Waheeda Rehman as Dai Jaa
• Anupam Kher as Prem
• Dippy Sagoo as Anita Malhotra
• Manohar Singh as KothiWale Thakur (Pallavi's father)
• Lalit Tiwari as Sudheshwar Narayan Tiwari
• Deepak Malhotra as Siddharth Bhatnagar
• Ila Arun as Gypsy
• Richa Pallod as Young Pooja
• Vikas Anand as Doctor

Reception[link]

Lamhe divided the audience on a class basis. It was hugely popular with metropolitan elites and the overseas market, which allowed it to break even, but it had a poor box-office response with the Indian mass market because of its supposed incest theme.^[3]

Music[link]

The music of Lamhe was composed by Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, known together as Shiv-Hari and lyrics were provided by Anand Bakshi. The song "Kabhi Main Kahoon" was made from melody used as background music in Yash Chopra's previous movie Chandni, also scored by Shiv-Hari. In the famous Parody Sequence, Waheeda Rehman danced to "Aaj Phir Jeene ki Tamanna Hai" — the superhit number from her own classic Guide.

The songs included on the official soundtrack are listed here:

Awards[link]

1992 Filmfare Awards

• Best Film - Yash Chopra
• Best Actress - Sridevi
• Best Comedian - Anupam Kher
• Best Story - Honey Irani
• Best Dialogue - Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza
• Nominated Best Director - Yash Chopra
• Nominated Best Actor - Anil Kapoor
• Nominated Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Waheeda Rehman

1992 National Film Awards

• Best Costume Design - Neeta Lulla

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lamhe at the Internet Movie Database

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