New Delhi: Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023) did more than resurrect his brand of glossy family romance; it quietly restored Dharmendra’s earliest screen identity. Long before the ‘he-man’ label stuck, before the action star eclipsed the lover boy, Dharmendra was cinema’s gentle romantic: expressive, lyrical, unmistakably charming. Johar’s film brought that version back, not as a loud patriarch, but as a man who hums old melodies, recites shayari, and carries heartbreak with grace.
As Kanwal Lund, Dharmendra channelled the wistfulness he once brought to roles in the 1960s and ’70s, like Purnima (1965), Anupama (1966) and Devar (1966), where he played the sensitive, empathetic partner.
In Devar, he even chooses to walk away from his childhood sweetheart, instead of disrupting her life. It is almost similar to what Kanwal does in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, by letting go of Jamini when they met in the hills.
There is a visible shift when Jamini Chatterjee, played by Shabana Azmi, reappears in his life in the film. The man introduced to the audience in a plain white kurta and pashmina shawl begins turning up in blazers and brightly coloured mufflers.
His performance evokes memories of Life…In a Metro (2007), where he played Amol, an ageing man returning to India to spend his final years with an old, lost love. Sixteen years later, the charm remains intact.
The kiss that stole the show
In mainstream Hindi cinema, older characters often exist in orbit around the younger leads — parents, grandparents, problem-solvers. Johar’s film, instead, gives Kanwal and Jamini their own romance, their own geography, and their own pulse. Their Delhi is postcard-soft: Qutb Minar drenched in twilight, tree-lined paths of Lodhi Garden, the muted luxury of hotel lobbies. The film leans into the city’s reputation for unexpected, sometimes inconvenient, love stories.
One of the film’s boldest choices was also its simplest: allowing two senior actors to share an onscreen kiss without irony or embarrassment. Dharmendra had joked about it in an interview: “Meri ek hi kiss ne hila diya sabko (my one kiss shook everyone),” he had said, cracking up at how the audience reacted more to his single kiss with Azmi than to Ranveer Singh’s many with Alia Bhatt.
Also read: Farhan Akhtar’s 120 Bahadur rekindles India’s forgotten fauji theatre tradition
Masculinity and machismo
Despite his limited screen time, Kanwal becomes the emotional anchor of the film. He offers advice to his grandson, grieves over a life forged through compromise, and breaks down while cradling his son’s face. His final moments — pleading and filled with regret — linger long after the credits roll.
His Kanwal is not the macho ‘Jat’ of Dharmendra’s action era. He is a man haunted by choices, by the marriage he stayed in, by the courage he lacked. His quiet vulnerability becomes the emotional blueprint for Rocky, shaping the film’s arc on masculinity.
Through movies like Rocky Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and Life In a…Metro, Dharmendra reminded the audience of the tender romantic hero he always was — one whose legacy goes far beyond muscle and machismo.
(Edited by Stela Dey)