Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Aamir Khan ... well, they're good. They're really good. But I forgot until this week how much fun it is to watch a Shahrukh film.
The summaries I've seen of RNBDJ are all pretty inaccurate, so I will give one here.
Surinder Sahni is a plain, unassuming working man who is not exactly young anymore. What's more, he's very shy and awkward--but he knows, and everyone who knows him knows, that he has a great heart. When Suri goes to visit one of his old professors, it just happens to be the day of the professor's daughter's wedding. Bang! He meets Taani and instantly falls in love, in spite of the fact that Taani is spoilt, hyperactive, and very much in love with her husband-to-be. You can always tell this girl right off, because she's wearing a yellow sari.
What next? Tragedy, of course. The groom and his entire family are killed in a bus accident on the way to the wedding, and Taani's father has a heart attack from the stress of having to tell her. On his deathbed, he begs Suri to marry his beloved daughter, so that he can rest easy knowing she will be well cared for. Suri and Taani reluctantly agree and are married immediately after the funeral.
The first thing Suri does after taking Taani home is vacate his bedroom for her, opting to sleep in the attic. He goes to work, where rumors of his marriage abound (drat those nosy neighbors spying on the beautiful girl who came back to Amritsar on the train with Suri). All of Suri's co-workers invite themselves over for a party to celebrate his marriage and meet his wife, but Taani is shut up in the bedroom and will neither speak nor come out. Towards the end of the party, Taani finally appears, with a shaky but hospitable smile. When all the guests are gone, Taani apologizes to Suri, telling him that she will try to be a good wife and bury her old self completely, but that she will never love anyone again.
Suri, ever generous, tells Taani the truest form of love he has ever received was her keeping his dignity in front of his friends, and that he would never expect more. But this is an outright LIE!!!! Well, he doesn't mean to lie, it's just that he realizes then that he does want her to love him. So ...
He enlists the help of his weird best friend, Bobby, who is a hairdresser, and gets a complete makeover--a disguise to try out while he goes and spies on Taani at her dance class. Suri and Bobby figure it's an act of God that Taani and Raj (Suri's alter-ego) get drawn as partners. Raj, unlike Suri, is a playful, effusive clown who has neither glasses nor mustache, and dresses like a metro stud.
Why would Suri do this? Because he wants to know if Taani would be happy if she got away from the one person who represents the tragedy of her former life. So who will Taani choose: plain, boring, everyday Surinder; or macho man Raj? To find out, watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, available anywhere Bollywood movies are sold (and also on Netflix Instantview. Yay Netflix!)
It's probably true when people say that Shahrukh does nothing more in this movie than replay his old 1990s roles. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dilwaale Dulhania Le Jayenge. I say bring it on, Shahrukh! No-one else fails so loveably to look and act hot and macho. And he sure can dance. There's a reason this dude is in everything, and it only has a little to do with looks.
American movies and American actors can take their big budgets and sparkly special effects somewhere else. I have an appointment with Chak De India!
The summaries I've seen of RNBDJ are all pretty inaccurate, so I will give one here.
Surinder Sahni is a plain, unassuming working man who is not exactly young anymore. What's more, he's very shy and awkward--but he knows, and everyone who knows him knows, that he has a great heart. When Suri goes to visit one of his old professors, it just happens to be the day of the professor's daughter's wedding. Bang! He meets Taani and instantly falls in love, in spite of the fact that Taani is spoilt, hyperactive, and very much in love with her husband-to-be. You can always tell this girl right off, because she's wearing a yellow sari.
What next? Tragedy, of course. The groom and his entire family are killed in a bus accident on the way to the wedding, and Taani's father has a heart attack from the stress of having to tell her. On his deathbed, he begs Suri to marry his beloved daughter, so that he can rest easy knowing she will be well cared for. Suri and Taani reluctantly agree and are married immediately after the funeral.
The first thing Suri does after taking Taani home is vacate his bedroom for her, opting to sleep in the attic. He goes to work, where rumors of his marriage abound (drat those nosy neighbors spying on the beautiful girl who came back to Amritsar on the train with Suri). All of Suri's co-workers invite themselves over for a party to celebrate his marriage and meet his wife, but Taani is shut up in the bedroom and will neither speak nor come out. Towards the end of the party, Taani finally appears, with a shaky but hospitable smile. When all the guests are gone, Taani apologizes to Suri, telling him that she will try to be a good wife and bury her old self completely, but that she will never love anyone again.
Suri, ever generous, tells Taani the truest form of love he has ever received was her keeping his dignity in front of his friends, and that he would never expect more. But this is an outright LIE!!!! Well, he doesn't mean to lie, it's just that he realizes then that he does want her to love him. So ...
He enlists the help of his weird best friend, Bobby, who is a hairdresser, and gets a complete makeover--a disguise to try out while he goes and spies on Taani at her dance class. Suri and Bobby figure it's an act of God that Taani and Raj (Suri's alter-ego) get drawn as partners. Raj, unlike Suri, is a playful, effusive clown who has neither glasses nor mustache, and dresses like a metro stud.
Why would Suri do this? Because he wants to know if Taani would be happy if she got away from the one person who represents the tragedy of her former life. So who will Taani choose: plain, boring, everyday Surinder; or macho man Raj? To find out, watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, available anywhere Bollywood movies are sold (and also on Netflix Instantview. Yay Netflix!)
It's probably true when people say that Shahrukh does nothing more in this movie than replay his old 1990s roles. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dilwaale Dulhania Le Jayenge. I say bring it on, Shahrukh! No-one else fails so loveably to look and act hot and macho. And he sure can dance. There's a reason this dude is in everything, and it only has a little to do with looks.
American movies and American actors can take their big budgets and sparkly special effects somewhere else. I have an appointment with Chak De India!
HAHAha, I love this post. Actually though, I think Kal Ho Naa Ho was Shahrukh's first big recycles. I wish I could capture what makes Shahrukh so amazing, but that in itself is a mystery to me. How does he pull off cheezy and yet break the charisma meter at the same time?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think he originally dressed as Raj so Taani would see his new look and get swept off her feet by how not-boring her husband was. But then, it was an act of God that she didn't recognize him at all.