Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam is a jewel of a film in many ways. Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit turn in a couple of really fine performances. Salman Khan, in spite of having a good chemistry with both Dixit and the other Khan, fails to excite me much, however. He was competent, but I felt that his musical numbers were an unwelcome intrusion into what is otherwise a very mature, realistic look at a married relationship. As in real relationships, it is often the little misunderstandings that fester until they threaten to destroy lives.
In this case, the husband Gopal (Shahrukh), although devotedly in love with his new bride Rhada (Madhuri) is self-centered and short-tempered, and misinterprets the fond affection she feels for her childhood friend Suraj (Salman) as romantic love. In their turn, Suraj and Rhada are too immature and blind to realize how their relationship is tormenting Gopal. Gopal, instead of being honest with Rhada and expressing his frustrations, remains silent until it is nearly too late to save the marriage.
I think this is one of the best performances of Shahrukh Khan's career. Not generally known for restrained performances, he shows here that in the hands of a competent director he is a wonderful actor with a huge range; he goes from subtle to frantic to silly without ever losing the honesty of the character. His performance as Gopal is mature and finely nuanced with a depth of layers not generally common to Hindi films. Madhuri is wonderful, as always.
The two Khans always share a good screen chemistry, in spite of Salman's stilted acting talents, and they share one really well-acted scene together when Gopal, nearly mad with frustration, presses a gun into Suraj's hand and invites Suraj to shoot him, shouting "Don't you know I die each day because of you?"
It's a shame that this film didn't get more attention, but admittedly it has some problems. The sets are often shabby and cheap looking, the story doesn't always flow well, and as mentioned before, Salman's dance numbers are overblown and out of place. On the plus side, however, is the hauntingly beautiful title song, beautifully picturised with Sharukh and Madhuri. But on the whole, the film doesn't quite measure up to the callibre of Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit's performances.
