(“Love Stories,” 2001, Hindi, 216 minutes) Produced by Yash
Chopra Directed by Aditya Chopra Story, screenplay and
dialogues: Aditya Chopra; Lyrics: Anand Bakshi; Music: Jatin –
Lalit; Cinematography: Manmohan Singh  The House of Chopra is
understandably keen to repeat the phenomenal success of 1997’s
DIL TO PAGAL HAI, but despite aggressively pushing most of the
same buttons – thin, elemental plot awash in romanticism and set
in a yuppie never-never land, mega stars, lavish sets and
production numbers, and a catchy score – none of its recent
efforts (cf. KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM) is up to the exuberant
pointlessness of the earlier film. MOHABBATEIN is ostensibly a
parable of the eternal conflict between Love and Duty, set in an
elite boarding school for junior-college age boys (“college,” in
the Indian system, though the subtitles regularly refer to the
institution as a “University”). The headmaster (and one of the
few visible employees) is the ultra-strict Mr. Narayan Shankar
(Amitabh Bachchan), and his cod