A HEART WARMING DELIGHT

FILM: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
DIRECTOR: Aditya Chopra
CAST: Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak




In the classic comedy Chachi 420 Kamal Hasan played a double role. One in which he looked like his normal self and the other in which he had to look like an old chachi. No one in this world could actually say that the old woman was actually Kamal Hasan. The make up was just brilliant.
Here, the two looks of SRK are pretty different from each other, but not that one cannot recognise that these are the same people. Unfortunately though in this movie, we were made to believe that the heroine did not know in whole of the movie that the two are the same! The whole movie is built up on this really weak plot and this is the biggest minus of the movie.

If somehow we ignore this mistake and rather term it as an "artistic liberty", then this movie is one of the bests this year. Our female protagonist, Taani, played by debutant Anushka Sharma and Surinder Sahni(Khan) get married under bizarre circumstances! And there begins the story as Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!

The character of Surinder is supposed to be the USP of the movie. The reflection of the common man in the gallis of Amritsar. Full shirt, grey pants, best buy sasta sport shoe , champu hairstyle, fat glasses and the moustache! Honestly though Shahrukh has sported much much costlier and trendier things, he has not looked so sexy before. This has honestly made the common man a more sexier item than ever before.

So now the chemistry between the couple is increasing. Suri is sweet and disciplined and unexpressive but very very romantic at heart. Taani was bubbly, but is trying to kill her old self and is compelling her soul for a compromise with life. Suri senses that. He doesnt want compromise. He wants love (which he in the movie pronounces as lau!!)

Now Taani loves dancing and wants to take part in a dance competition. Suri, to see her dance becomes Raj(again, Raj) with the help of his hair stylist friend Vinay Pathak who plays Bobby and as always plays it brilliantly!! He transforms the champu hairstyle into a spiky one, the loose full shirt into a tight T shirt, the grey pant to sexy faded jeans and the fat glasses to matching goggles. The rather quiet Suri is suddenly transformed into a blabber mouth Jat, Raj.

The later part of the movie is based on the beautiful lines of self vs self which I may not like to reveal. But it is pure magic what follows. Though my initial comment about the minus point in the movie might make me sound that the attention to detail was poor, but no, Adi has done a good job with it. He has canvased Amritsar very beautifully throughout and has made the movie simple and charming.

Coming to performances now. This has to be one of the best performances by Khan. He has portrayed two characters with complete ease. His expressions and mannerisms while playing Suri were the biggest plus in this performance. I dont know whether Khan gets to meet common people at length and actually observe their mannerisms but the way he has done it is really hats off to him. Anushka has shown complete ease considering its her debut. Its obviously a better debut performance than what Deepika Padukone or Sonam Kapoor might have produced. Vinay Pathak is always a charm and plays Bobby very nicely.

One observation I made was that there was a lot of borrowed maal in this movie. Dialogues from OSO and KANK were lifted and at times extended. Like the "Phir Milenge" in KANK was converted to Hum Hai Raahi Pyaar Ke, Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte. Then the song Phir Milenge reminded everyone of Om Shanti Om (lets find out whether Yash Raj cut costs by taking udhar ka used costume from Red Chillies). All this was though to induce comedy in the movie and it was successful in doing so. And if you observe SRK from top to toe, you would observe that he wears the same Tag Heuer watch he wore in Don in one of the scenes.

Though I expect a mixed response for this movie, it still will create its own space in the hearts of the poeple and the box office. It will teach and melt your heart and make you believe that there is something extraordinary in every ordinary jodi!! The moral of the story is that you can get something by being someone else, but if you want everything, you have to be yourself, howsoever you are.