Ishq (1997 film)

Ranjit Rai and Harbans Lal Saxena are two wealthy business magnates who despise the poor. Thus, they decide their children, Ajay Rai and Madhu Saxena, will marry wealthy spouses. They try to break their children's friendship with Raja and Kajal, who are both poor. They fix up Ajay's marriage with Madhu and send Ajay to meet Madhu. As fate would have it, Ajay falls in love with Kajal instead and Raja and Madhu fall in love. This angers the two men, and they try to bribe Raja and Kajal into leaving Madhu and Ajay. When this doesn't work, they try to get Raja and Kajal killed. When the children realize what their fathers really did, they refuse to back down, their determination set in stone.

Eventually, the parents play a nasty trick. They make the four lovers believe that they have changed their ways and are ready for their children to marry the person they wish to. On the way to Raja and Madhu's engagement ceremony, the fathers have Kajal kidnapped. Raja saves her from being raped and comforts her. Meanwhile, without their knowledge, photos are taken of them. The fathers then show the photos of Raja comforting Kajal at the party. Taken out of context, the photos make it look like Raja and Kajal are being intimate with each other. Raja and Kajal are willing to prove their innocence, but the fathers keep them away. To make matters worse, Kajal's uncle falsely testifies to the fabricated illicit affair between the two. In fact, Kajal's uncle was paid to lie to Ajay and Madhu. Raja is willing to prove that he is not in the wrong but Madhu and Ajay both enraged and disgusted, refuse to listen to him and force him and Kajal to leave.

Ajay and Madhu break up with Kajal and Raja, and the fathers' plan to create a rift between Ajay and Raja, once the best of friends, succeeds. The situation worsens further when Ajay and Madhu think that Kajal is pregnant with Raja's child. They tell Raja and Kajal that they are getting married, which is what their fathers wanted all along. After hearing this, Kajal attempts to kill herself, but Raja stops her. Raja attacks Ajay and Madhu while they are in a car mobile. Raja pretends to show that he is about to rape Madhu, but Ajay saves and comforts her. The police beat Raja brutally and Kajal pleads the fathers to release him. The fathers agree, but on the condition that Kajal and Raja leave the country for good and that they would be killed if they ever did return. Kajal agrees and Raja is set free.

Ajay and Madhu's wedding is about to start when Ajay's uncle shows them pictures of Ajay comforting Madhu after Ajay seemingly had saved Madhu from Raja's supposed attack, taken out of context. This proves that Raja had attacked them to recreate the situation he and Kajal had been in, which in turn proved that Raja and Kajal are innocent and that the fathers were behind the initial attack on Kajal. Further proving Raja and Kajal's innocence, Kajal's uncle also confesses that he lied out of bribery. Angry and heartbroken, Ajay almost chokes his father to death but his conscience stops him. He then tries to kill himself but Madhu stops him. Ajay and Madhu rush to the shipyard and succeed to stop Raja and Kajal from leaving the country on the ship. They ask for forgiveness and the lovers get back together. The fathers arrive, having realized their grave mistake, and also ask for forgiveness. The lovers forgive them and they sing and dance to a song.

Main cast

• Aamir Khan as Raja
• Ajay Devgan as Ajay Rai
• Juhi Chawla as Madhu Saxena
• Kajol as Kajal Jindal

Supporting cast

• Johnny Lever as Lambodar Upadhyay (Ajay's uncle)
• Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Ranjit Rai (Ajay's father)
• Dalip Tahil as Harbans Lal Saxena (Madhu's father)
• Mohan Joshi as Madan Jindal (Kajal's uncle)
• Razzak Khan as Nawaab naadin Dhinna Changezi
• Shwetha Menon (dancer in song "Humko Tumse Pyar Hai")
• Ghanashyam Nayak as ACP Ghanshyam Gulati (Harbans Lal's partner)
• Achyut Potdar as Barrister Gokhale
• Deepak Shirke as Damliya
• Tiku Talsania as Bank manager Gaitonde
• Deven Verma as Behram
• Anant Mahadevan as Brijesh Lal Saxena (Harbans's Brother)
• Veeru Krishnan

The movie was a blockbuster. It earned ₹53.2 crore , against a budget of ₹10 crore . Its gross is equivalent to ₹368 crore adjusted for inflation in 2019.[1] It was the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997, behind Dil To Pagal Hai and Border.[2]

The music was composed by Anu Malik. The Ishq soundtrack album sold 3 million units, making it the year's sixth best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album.[3] The tune of the hit track '"Neend Churai Meri" was copied from the Linear song "Sending All My Love". It was subsequently remade as Maine Tujhko Dekha by Malik's nephew Amaal Malik for the 2017 film Golmaal Again.[4][5]

• Ishq at IMDb