1. Maine Pyar Kiya (1989): Rich boy leaves home, wealth and comfort for a poor Girl. Salman Khan played the bratty lover-boy trying to earn a decent living with élan that catapulted him to instant fame. The film established a renewable rapport between Salman Khan and director Sooraj Barjatya.
2. Love (1991): Salman’s wettest weepie ever, it featured him as an abused child who falls in love with the charming Maggie (Revathy) only to lose her to death at the end. Sob.
3. Saajan (1991): Salman Khan lost the girl to another man. He played the rich playboy who finally loses Madhuri Dixit to Sanjay Dutt because Dutt writes poetry and is physically disabled. Go figure.
4. Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994): Love during the time of eating, gaming and flirting. Though Salman lost Madhuri to Sanjay Dutt in Saajan, he made sure he got her in this film even though a calamity stuck the happy family threatening to tear the lovers apart.
5. Khamoshi: The Musical (1996): It was Manisha Koirala’s film all the way. The script favoured her character as she tried to connect with her deaf-and-mute parents. Salman as Manisha’s silently supportive love-interest provided a sense of comfort and joy in the girl’s oppressive world.
6. Bandhan (1998): One of Salman’s rare film set in rural India. Here he played Ashwini Bhave’s faithful and loving kid-brother who follows her into her marriage and sasural as part of her dowry. Sweet and emotional.
7. Hum…Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999): Salman loses love again when Aishwarya Rai preferred to stay on within her arranged marriage rather than walk away with her lover. Salman’s emotional breakdown at the end with his screen-mom Helen (who’s also his father’s second wife in real life) was a hanky-drencher. Salman tried his best to convince the director Sanjay Bhansali to allow the script the freedom for Aishwarya to walk off with Salman instead of Ajay Devgn. Salman even took Sooraj Barjatya’s help to convince Bhansali. But nothing doing. Salman was never destined to get the girl.
8. Tere Naam (2003): Salman’s most emotional film to date he plays a reformed ruffian whose love for the unattainable and pure girl lands him in a mental institution. Many consider this Salman’s finest performance. But only if you’ve not seen Vikram in the original Tamil film Sethu.
9. Phir Milenge (2004): Why on earth actress-turned-director Revathy cast her Love co-star as an HIV positive is a mystery. A tragic case of miscasting.
10. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015): Salman Khan takes a lost little girl back to her parents in Pakistan. Salman and the child actor promise Harshaali Malhotra make audiences sob helplessly.
