Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma
Direction: Aditya Chopra. Music: Salim – Sulaiman
Have you ever had ENO? Even if you haven’t, you would’ve seen its advert featuring a rumbling tummy wherein red and yellow fumes are gurgling and then comes Eno, on drinking which, the rumbling pacifies to a peaceful silvery white colour. “Eno kaam kare, jhatpat or fatafat or whatever”. Well, with my screwed bheja fry (refer to earlier post) that’s exactly what I’m feeling after watching “Rab ne…”
Shahrukh Khan movies are typically extravagant. He is the master of Over the top bollywood masala and revels in it. His signature style of stammering, clenching his teeth together, pouting his lips and muttering filmy lines with steroidal passion is seriously, too much to take for me. But when the world is going crazy with killings, hate and despair, he and more particularly “Rab Ne…” manages to make you smile, laugh and help you celebrate life.
Spoiler: “Surinder Sahni aka Suri (SK), an introvert, by a certain twist of fate, gets married to Taani (Anushka Sharma) a girl who is the exact opposite – extrovert, bubbly and full of zing. Why? How? Refer to the title. He adores the girl who is everything that he is not but she cannot love him and makes this known to him though fulfilling her duties as a perfect wife. Now getting into some Shahrukhism, – ‘Rab dard deta hai, to dawa bhi dega’. A dance school arrives in Amritsar to teach dance and feature a competition. Taani loves to dance and thus joins the school. Suri wants to surprise her so changes his look, courtesy Bobby (Vinay Pathak), Suri’s best friend and gets to the Dance class to see his wife dance. Again by the same twist of weird coincidences on which Hindi Cinema survives, Raj (SK again) and Taani are paired together. Why? How? Forgotten the title again?”
It is Shahrukh who manages to make this thin and unbelievably loony premise appear watchable, rather even enjoyable. His character of Suri bears the trademark style of millions of supposedly common people across the country who sport sneakers on a trouser and full sleeved shirt. His mannerisms remind me of a number of my understated yet endearing friends who pass through their lives on a chetak sincerely doing their jobs and take their decked up prized wives to movies every weekend. Suri will certainly strike a chord with a lot of them. On the other hand, Raj, his alter ego is what all of these men would like to be – amusing, ride a sports bike, and have loads of loud crazy… fun. You at times, want to judge Suri who quite normally shows pangs of jealousy when Taani seems to fancy Raj instead of him. As I said, the premise, though stupid, is nice to watch.
Taani is another surprise. Pretty as a Pomeranian, she seems to be tailor made for this role. Long flowing hair neatly tied back, typical Punjabi salwar kurtas and a smile to die for – she is the epitome of an ideal wife for the millions of chetak driving lovely individuals (wouldn’t call them common people) that are called Indians. The motorbike episode is a nice surprise to her character. And the fact that she falls for Raj over Suri is another attempt at keeping her as real as possible.
Surprisingly, this time round, Vinay Pathak who is usually a spare wheel (fits perfectly everywhere, I mean in every role) seems to be a misfit. His character Bobby is loud and unnecessarily dramatic. Vinay Pathak’s forte is subtle minimalist humor (something like ) and here he’s playing this flamboyant hair stylist with a wardrobe louder than a rock concert. Strictly mediocre. I guess even Vinay Pathak has limitations.
The music, as is always the case with Aditya Chopra movies, is fresh and contagious. The peppy Harmonium piece of Haule Haule runs through the entire move at varied tempo and rhythm complementing the mood brilliantly which is typical of Aditya Chopra again; remember the banjo piece in DDLJ or the violin in Mohabbatein. Salim-Sulaiman have combined nice melodies on tablas and dholaks with modern sounds which sound interesting. The songs are sweet but I’m not so sure about hearing them over and over again.
“Rab Ne…” would fall in the bracket of an entertainer which has got more things going for it than against. Actually, isn’t our life these days too dark with terror, recession and bad news all over? In such a time, a sweet love story of a very common human being with lots of ‘feel good’ factor is just what the doctor ordered. I believe, love is highly contagious and not at all harmful, so there’s no wrong if you have to excuse the practicalities (read – don’t go asking How? Why?) to enjoy huge sugar coated servings of it. Intellectuals who are still wondering same guy, two looks and wife doesn’t realize?, please stay away.
I agree with ur views on Vinay Pathak..he went a little ovr the top…Ranvir Shorey shud have played his part..
Anushka luks beautiful..my mom cudnt stop singing praises of her..for a debutante,shes acted well..
RNBDJ is a common man’s story..so it will appeal to most ppl..
YRF is in for serious trouble..it has been consistently delivering box office debacles like JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM, THODA PYAR THODA MAGIC, LAAGA CHUNRI MEIN DAAG..only CHAK DE did well..
well thanks for the nice review. I love it.
it is a nothing but bullshit… if you want to use a city as a base for plot… use its esence as a main stay…
Film has few poor research points which were otherwise a integral part of the film.
Sharukh Khan was shown was an employee in Punjab Power…. In Punjab the State Electricity board is yet not unbundled, as it is in Mumbai… so there is no question of private power company.
The scene where Sharukh (Raj) expresses his love for Anooshka (Tanni) by showing her lights saying I love you… Brother Amritsar is a plain city… and hills are at least 125 KM away… there is no place in the city to have such a view…
Thirdly, they had shown the golgapa fight… Amritsar is not known for golgapas for god sake.. it is known for eating Kulche.. fish.. pakore…
There are many scenes which shows goof ups..
Please donot take Punjabis for granted… research harder buddy…
@Swats: Yeah Ranvir Shorey would’ve fit I guess, and Anushka is certainly very sweet. Hope she doesn’t get lost like that Swades girl.
Actually, I’m not a fan of YRF, and neither of SK. YRF is typically all gloss and no substance. But just enjoyed this movie, maybe bçoz of the performances or the freshness.
@Anonymous: Glad u liked it 🙂
@Anilesh: Wow dude, what observations. I’ve never been there so wouldn’t know. Keep it up 🙂
Now, that’s more like a review…given that the film was, to put it politely, a tad puerile (and as one of the comments point out, a bit ill researched), it still leaves you with a smile. While watching it, I felt, I could be a critic and pan the 2 hour plus melodrama, or I could be a part of Suri’s life for those moments and have fun, wondering how Rab would tie things up (for surely he does so, atleast in films). All in all, I’m thankful, that I opted for the latter. There’s only so much you can gain with sarcasm…
As you mentioned, it was watchable types. Once the dance sequences started, it became a bit repetitive. As for SRK’s acting as Suri, I think Vinay Pathak was brilliant in Dasvidaniyan. What say?
@Hatvikh: Yeah, but aren’t we tolerating such inconsistencies in the name of ‘cinematic liberties’, for instance, David Dhawan repeatedly wants us to believe that Maldives is Goa… And with regard to the storyline, well that’s exactly when you tell your brains to shutup. he he. Glad you had fun. I sure did.
@Urv: Yes, I guess the dance parts were a bit ok. Maybe better foot tapping music would’ve done the trick there. Btw, how did you like SRK’s feminine butt moves?
And definitely, Vinay Pathak in Dasvidaniyan was in his element. Even remember Bheja Fry. I think this is his forte – a confused jerk. And if you’re comparing that character Amar Kaul with SRK’s Suri, well… dunno, I’d be undecided. Coz. maybe the movies are very different.
"His signature style of stammering, clenching his teeth together, pouting his lips and muttering filmy lines with steroidal passion is seriously, too much to take for me."
Agree with u:-D!!!!!!
But I did like his "Kabhie Haa, Kabhie Naa" & "Chak De".
Hmmm….from wht I read it seems to be an entertainer despite its bloopers.
Will risk it, me thinks:-D
@Reflections: Surprise, surprise… A Woman agreeing to what I say about SRK??? Maybe, the womenfolk of the world still have hope 🙂
Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa was in his last birth I guess. And yes, Chak De was good, so was Swades… As far as risking it, you know, I always say An SRK movie is like a marraige, you gotta do it…. atleast once.
🙂 I laughed while watching a hindi movie after quite a while..I agree with you that it is an entertainer, indeed. About the wife not being able to recognise her husband, my partner reminded me of Spiderman and Batman and I kinda stayed away 🙂
@Priya: Yeah, I agree – it was good clean fun. And there could be a million arguments as to how the wife couldn’t recognise the husband but actually, they were more like neighbours. I mean, staying in different rooms, no intimacy, they weren’t really husband wife.:)
Thts bcoz I'm a Salman Khan fan:-D…. yeah, yeah I knw he is no saint but it was a college crush & I'm still faithful:-D…infact even wrote a soppy post on him looooooong back;-P.
Finally saw the movie last week…
I likey!!!!!
A bit over the top ofcourse but then all SRK movies are…liked his surinder character more than the raj one.
I liked vinay pathak too…I thot his character was supposed to be so loud, so surface senti types.
And for “Intellectuals who are still wondering same guy, two looks and wife doesn’t realize?,”
Thats bcoz Tanni hardly looks at Surinder….she sort of just skims the surface here, right??? So hardly surprising is it???
@Reflections: Yay, so you’re not so intellectual after all 😛
Come on it was not that bad,
I liked it….
Well it is a movie…
If you think the story was bull shit and un realistic the i wonder what you will have to say about Ghajani which is a copy of a Tamil version with the same name which is acopy of a English movie called memento.
RNDJ was supposed to be a low budget entertainer and well i went to the hall had some laughs and well lets face it …. it is a hit.