- Darr: A Violent Love Story
“Darr” means fear in Hindi, and this 1993 movie is appropriately billed as a “Violent Love Story.”
A beautiful young woman, Kiran, has recently graduated from college is engaged to marry a Naval officer, Sunil. As she and Sunil prepare for their wedding, Kiran has a series of disturbing telephone and personal encounters with a stranger whose face she never sees. He tells her that he loves her and expresses hostility toward her fiancé.
We are now introduced to Rahul, who has secretly loved Kiran during all their time at college together. He is first shown walking along a ledge at the top of a tall building while plucking petals from a rose and saying “she loves me, she loves me not” (or rather the Hindi equivalent), stepping closer to the end of the ledge with each petal. He is obviously prepared to walk right off the building if it turns out “she loves me not.” Rahul has continuous slideshows of huge photos of Kiran projected on all the walls of his bedroom and enjoys long telephone conversations with his mother, who just happens to have died when he was a little boy. His father 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.
In public, Rahul is a charming and handsome young man who hides his insanity and manages to ingratiate himself with Sunil and other members of Kiran's family, although Kiran herself never meets him. The steps he takes to secure his love for himself have ever more frightening results for Kiran and Sunil.
Darr contains examples of:
- 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.
- Ax-Crazy: Rahul is not stable and not very good at hiding it.
- Chekhov's Skill: Sunil's demonstrated skill with naval warfare really comes in handy once things start to unravel.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Rahul's obsession with Kiran and his attempts to kill Sunil is what drives the film.
- Evil Laugh: Rahul, of course. Interestingly, he has pretty much the same laugh in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge but in that movie plays a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, so the laugh becomes somewhat annoying rather than sinister.
- Freudian Excuse: The death of Rahul's mother broke him and led to his fixation on Kiran. He goes full Freudian at the film's climax, when he orders Kiran to wear his mother's sari for their wedding.
- Goal in Life: Rahul has one in spades.
- Hollywood Healing: People in the movie do major things after receiving major injuries.
- If I Can't Have You…: Rahul is determined to make Kiran his and his only.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Rahul pulls this on Sunil after the latter figures out he's the real stalker.
- Lighter and Softer: Shah Rukh went on to portray another creepy stalker in Anjaam, which was released a year later with none of the sympathetic traits of his character in this movie.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Some guys make the mistake of harassing Kiran in front of both Sunil and Rahul. Sunil brawls with them while remaining fairly in control, but Rahul goes absolutely ballistic and nearly beats one of the men to death.
- Oh, Crap!: An EPIC moment of this happens for Kiran when Rahul finally delivers the infamous "I love you K-k-k-Kiran" line face to face.
- Room Full of Crazy: Rahul has several pictures of Kiran projected onto his walls 24/7. Later, he also turns Sunil and Kiran's new home into this.
- Stalker Shrine: Rahul's bedroom has many pictures of Kiran scattered on the walls.
- Stalker with a Crush: The whole premise of the film. The narrator even describes this as such:"When love crosses limits, it becomes devotion. And when devotion goes astray, it becomes an obsession. This story too is about the obsession of love. It has the truth that was present in the love of Layla and Majnun. It has the intensity that was present in the hearts of Romeo and Juliet. It has the emotions like in the songs of Heer and Ranjha. But it also has one more element... something which has not been featured in any love story so far: Fear."
- Verbal Tic: Shah Rukh Khan's famous stutter was put to good use and his "K-k-k-Kiran" became a Character Catchphrase among the audience.
- Voice of the Legion: Rahul sometimes has a bad case of this.
- Yandere: Rahul is a love-fueled, crazed stalker who fawns over Kiran and will do anything to get her love (even resorting to kidnapping and attempted murder), though she is initially unaware of this.
- You Have to Believe Me!: With the exception of a few minor Idiot Ball moments, this is averted. Kiran's terror of her anonymous stalker is taken completely seriously by her family, her husband, and the police.
