Darr

Darr: A Violent Love Story

“Darr” means fear in Hindi, and this 1993 movie is appropriately billed as a “Violent Love Story.”

A lovely young woman, Kiran, who recently graduated from college is engaged to marry a Naval officer, Sunil. As she and Sunil prepare for their wedding, she has a series of frightening telephone and personal encounters with a stranger whose face she never sees. He tells her that he loves her and expresses hostility toward her fiance.

We are now introduced to Rahul, this person who has secretly loved Kiran during all their time at college together. As we first meet him, he is walking along a ledge at the top of a tall building. He is plucking petals from a rose and saying “she loves me, she loves me not” (or rather the Hindi equivalent) and stepping closer to the end of the ledge with each petal he plucks. He obviously is prepared to walk right off the building if it turns out “she loves me not.” We learn that he has continuous slide shows of huge photos of Kiran projected on all the walls of his bedroom and that he enjoys long telephone conversations with his mother who just happens to have died when he was a little bitty boy. His dad is Sunil's commanding officer in the Navy. Although unaware of Rahul's fixation on Kiran, he is a tad bit concerned about the sanity of his son.

Rahul is a charming and handsome young man who often hides his insanity and manages to ingratiate himself with Sunil and other members of Kiran's family, although Kiran herself never meets him. He naturally is constantly plotting to “save” Kiran from the clutches of Sunil, because she must never belong to anyone but himself. He is, however, unable to prevent the happy but apprehensive couple from getting married and setting off to honeymoon in Switzerland. He naturally finds a way to follow them there and the result is not pretty.

Tropes used in Darr include:

Action Hero: Sunil established as such early in the movie as he singlehandedly rescues a kidnapped child from a cruise ship. His body count was 11 in just a few short minutes. He wore a black bandana on his head ninja style. It was hilarious.
Ensemble Darkhorse: For the first time in Indian history the audience cheered for the Villain instead of the hero
Evil Laugh: Rahul, of course. Interestingly he has pretty much the same laugh in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge but in that movie he plays a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, so the laugh becomes somewhat annoying rather than sinister.
Goal in Life: Rahul has one in spades.
Hollywood Healing: people in the movie do major things after receiving major injuries.

Stalker with a Crush: The whole premise of the film.
Verbal Tic: Shah Rukh Khan's famous stutter was put to good use and his Kkkkiran became a Catch Phrase among the audience
Voice of the Legion: Rahul sometimes has a bad case of this.