One of my favorite Bollywood movies of all time... it's my Dirty Dancing: a deliciously melodramatic (even for Bollywood) movie that I should be ashamed of loving as much as I do... but am not.
Basic premise: Karan, from the country side, leaves his pretty young daughter Suman at the house of his old friend Kishen, who Karan hasn't seen in ages and lives in the city, while he goes away for a job. Suman and Prem, Kishen's son just back from America, fall in love. Kishen, under the influence of his evil business partner, condemns the match. Karan comes back for Suman, is horribly insulted by Kishen's condemnation and tears the young lovers apart, taking Suman back to the country. Prem follows against his father's wishes, but Karan can't forgive the pain Kishen caused him and won't give Prem his blessings. Prem then works in a mine for a month and lives in a hovel to prove his love. Just as Karan agrees to the match, all the city folks charge in. A more than ten person fight ensues (brilliant!) that ends with Suman and the evil business partner's son dangling over a cliff.
Oh. And there's a benevolent pigeon looking out for the two young lovers.
Maine Pyar Kiya is the movie that rocketed Salman Khan to stardom and he runs around as Prem being all angsty and attractive the whole time (this is before he bulked up and started greasing his hair back). It's also a great example of the "Angry Young Love" that popped up in the late eights as a response to Amitabh Bachchan's Angry Young Man. It's a little lighter drama-wise than Aamir Khan's Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak which is the Angry Young Love movie.
As much as I love this movie, it is not for a first timer. Sometimes Bollywood melodrama and music is a little much for someone not used to it, and this movie is a melodrama/music extravaganza.
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