Darr

Director/Producer: Director: Yash Chopra; Producer: Bharat S. Shah
Line Producer/Executive Producer/ Associate Producer: Production Executive: Rajesh Bhatia
Star(s): Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher
Songs/Dance/Action: Several songs of the film were filmed in Switzerland in typical Yash Chopra style.
Indian/ International Crew: Indian
Language: Hindi

Film Location Analysis

By Shikha Jhingan

There are several sequences in the film that were shot in Switzerland, a trend that Yash Chopra started with Chandni and Lamhe. While in the latter part of the film, the narrative itself shifts to Switzerland, in the opening sequence, Europe is used to scale up the production values of the film, locating its stars in spaces associated with a ‘touristic’ imagination. The film opens with ‘Shimla,’ but what we see is Kiran sitting at a beautiful spot with rolling grass next to a stream and an idyllic backdrop of mountains dotted with quaint log huts in the Lauterbrunnen valley of Switzerland. Kiran is reading a love letter from her boyfriend. Suddenly, it begins to rain, and Kiran rushes to a nearby log hut. As she starts to unbutton her wet dress, the camera shows a shadowy figure peeping at her. In a reverse shot, we see Kiran from the point of view of the voyeur.

Next, we see Kiran with her college mates when an acousmatic voice accompanied by a guitar riff intrudes with ‘I love you, Kiran.' Her friends are convinced that it is her boyfriend, Sunil, who has made this dramatic appearance and is playing a prank on her. The song "Jadoo teri nazar, khushboo tera badan" shows Kiran trying to locate the person who is singing while he keeps slipping away. The editing and the camera are mobilised to mask the identity of the singer, both for the spectator and Kiran. The sequence shows Kiran running in a park packed with flower-laden flora amidst neatly carved footpaths. 

In the next sequence, again shot in Switzerland, we see Kiran with her friends on a train supposedly going back to Bombay. The camera is deployed cleverly to show the Swiss countryside, capturing its brilliant views, juxtaposed with panoramic views of green meadows and the train crisscrossing the valley. These images of the Swiss Rail mimic the picture postcard images of Swiss Railway that have been used to attract tourists. The title Darr/Fear appears as we fade to black, while the voiceover explains how love can turn into an obsession and create fear. We return to the idyllic sites as the credits roll. This sequence thus introduces us to the schizophrenic setting where fear is inserted to rupture the spectator’s touristic imagination.

In Bombay, Sunil surprises Kiran by showing her an apartment where he wants both of them to live after their marriage. ‘Chota sa ghar’ becomes a playful duet song where they both imagine their romantic conjugal life in various parts of the apartment: the living room, the kitchen, the bath tub, and the bedroom. The song talks about the home being an intimate private space, with ‘Darwaza band kar do/ Shut the door from inside’ as a refrain that is repeated in the mukhda. An interesting moment in the song is when Kiran’s move to shut the door from inside seamlessly leads us to the Alpine views of Switzerland. The song extends the imagination of an intimate space between the couple to include picturesque sites of Switzerland as we see the couple running across grassy meadows dotted with wild flowers. The song also shows Kiran (Juhi Chawla) in a yellow coloured Chiffon saree, reliving Sridevi look and dance moves in Chandni in a similar location.  

In the last segment of the film, the newlywed couple reaches Switzerland for their honeymoon. Most of these scenes were filmed in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. The song ‘Likha hai yeh’ begins by locating Kiran in the green meadows as the camera zooms out and moves across the landscape to search for Sunil. We see the two running towards each other, with the camera showing us both perspectives and, in the process, locating us amid the pastoral landscape. The camera starts zooming in as the two come closer to each other. Kiran is framed in a low-angle shot against a cloud-capped blue sky. In the next segment of the song, the camera zooms out from the valley to the interiors of a luxurious bathroom, where the newlyweds are seen in a bathtub. This visual map also includes a helicopter ride across the valley and snow-capped mountains, a bike ride through a Swiss town, and a boat ride in the lake.

The consumption of Europe through a touristic lens is reinforced in another sequence when we see Sunil with a video camera. He pretends to take shots of Kiran while pointing his camera at the Swiss or Caucasian women standing in their swimwear at a local swimming pool. This leads to a light banter between the couple, followed by an indoor sequence where Kiran tries to entice Sunil with a strip tease dance. This sequence is a clever recreation of ‘Mai Kya Karun Ram mujhe buddha mil gaya,’ which was performed by Vyjayanthi Mala to tease Raj Kapoor in Sangam (1964). Unlike the Moulin Rouge print catalogue used in Sangam, here it is the erotic charge of the television image that becomes the trigger point for Kiran's masquerade performance.

Kiran and Sunil are relaxed after hearing the news of the alleged stalker’s suicide. But all this changes when Rahul arrives to disrupt their idyllic holiday in Switzerland. The first sign of the intrusion is an anonymous phone call. The next sequence takes us to Interlaken, where the couple go on an excursion. As their carriage passes through a crowded street, we see Rahul standing in the foreground. The song ‘Tu mere samne’ returns us to a mood charged with obsession and a sense of the uncanny. The camera’s gaze is transformed through the splitting of the frame, with the couple in the background and Rahul in the foreground.

The song projecting Rahul’s imagination, ‘Tu Mere Samne," begins at Jungfraujoch. as we see him running towards the camera. Rahul’s obsessive love for Kiran is captured in the song showcasing the snow-clad mountains of Switzerland. The jerky movements, Rahul's facial expressions, the dramatic instrumental sections, the lyrics, and the double tracking of Udit Narains’ voice create drama in the song, apprehending the violent climax. Kiran’s depiction in the song brings into relief Rahul’s imagination of a woman who succumbs to his obsessive pursuit. Kiran is seen in different costumes, from a Hindu celestial body to a semi-clad westernised woman, signifying Rahul’s controlling gaze on the woman he wants to possess at any cost. The song shows the characters in various locations, including lake Lucerne and meadows with views of alpine mountains in the Bern area. 

The violent confrontation takes place in a forest, where Sunil plays the same harmonica tune that Rahul used to play as an acousmatic sound to scare Kiran. Sunil is grievously injured by Rahul, who makes his way to the boat where Kiran is waiting for her husband. The climax on the boat with the thunder storm was inspired by a similar sequence in Cape Fear, where Robert De Niro, as a psychopath, terrorises the Bowden family. In this extended sequence, Rahul talks to himself, speaks to his dead mother on the phone line, and tries to convince Kiran that she was meant to be 'his.' Finally, Sunil returns and kills Rahul. The threat of violence and dread created by an unruly force gets reinforced by the storm, the canted frames of the boat, and the three human figures. The sequence in Switzerland ends with a frontal shot of Rahul’s body framed from the point of view of Kiran and Sunil. Rahul’s eyes look back at the couple as well as the spectators.

Additional Information and Links

Bollywood Songs That Prove Switzerland Is the Most Romantic Place - Tripoto

When love conquered all… | Bollywood - Hindustan Times

Tourism

Bollywood in Switzerland, the Country that Yash Chopra Loved, After India - Bollywood Presents