New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- Twenty five years ago, Keshav asked me to watch Dil Chahta Hai. It is a recommendation that sticks out vividly even today because that buddy who grew up abroad didn't watch Hindi movies - to the extent that he believed that Adam Sandler was a bigger deal than Shah Rukh Khan. (Imagine.) Yet here Keshav was, prescribing a Bollywood film to fill a bunked day of college. "That's just it," he said, selling it with the pitch that mattered to him most. "It's almost like an English film."

It was. It felt fresh and stylish and easy, in a way we weren't used to. For those in our twenties when the film came out, Dil Chahta Hai remains a trigger. The thump of that bass-line. Three friends heading to Goa. An abruptly ended phone...