My take on Rab ne...

Long after newsprint has forgotten about it...it's not a review

The new year's first week is on roll. Most of us urbanes are back at work. Thank God the year turned without much event. My friends and acquaintances are either making it a point to catch up with at least one screening of Ghajini. 

Being homebound for the last one year, at least I managed to catch up with a whole lot of movies I missed while at work. On TV, at cinemas...

About Ghajini (Hindi) have not been that keen, because I watched the original which had this surprise element unlike the promos of the Hindi version that killed all surprises. Plus, I am no fan of Tamil cinema or its actors, but I loved Surya's acting in the original adaptation of the English version. That the director decided to change the ending a little may have drawn some Tamil audience. It makes me curious, yet I have not jumped the gun to go and watch it.

Just after its release, I caught up with Rab ne bana di jodi on a Saturday morning.  For all the inevitable outdoing bit about Rab ne bana di jodi and the unthinkable, and even unpardonable filmy goof-up of a wife not recognising her husband in a different frame, I still liked a few things about Aditya Chopra's Punjabi romantic escapade. Am writing this after weeks of audience writing it off. You do not find much use in heading to Yash Chopra banners expecting anything realistic, although Chak De was a step apart. I did expect a make-over story a la Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. The serial began well, as a desi version of Ugly Betty. As it progressed, it ended up throwing brands at the viewer's face and killed itself with the make-over succumb.

Here are a few things about Rab ne... that I liked . For a director who made Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, characters in this seem more real.  I remember watching DDLJ as a college kid. I cringed at the just another masala film feel in spite of the effort at some authenticity. The film does have its stereotypes. But then, I had a reason to smile when he broke a stereotype or two too. He let the heroine take the lead and ride a bullet to get at her tormentor, leaving the hero awestruck.

A little later, it was about scorning the macho stereotype that is so overdone by Hindi cinema. The heroine hits back at the macho while shopping for clothes, looking hero saying women don't like men who are macho. Some realism there! And in a Yashraj film where I would not have raised my brows if there was a sensuous sari-clad heroine dancing away in snow! Wow! I am breathing fresh air in the middle of all the six-pack and eight-pack obsessed politicos of popular imagery.

The fact that a middle class Amritsar denizen working on a salary at a power firm has the magnanimity to love, that such love need not be mocked at, it makes sense. More so in an environment so ridden with brand-conscious icons who sway our masses with their money-making culture. 

That Surinder's heart beat for Taani as loudly as his own louder version of Raj! That the middle-class hero has somewhat found a resurgence in commercial cinema! I liked this film despite its flaws, for the same reasons that I liked Veer Zaara. Veer Zaara  tried its bit to talk of love sans borders, and sans the insane obsession with sexuality that oozes so much in some films. I liked it for the same reason as my getting floored by the more close-to-heart Khosla ka Ghosla.

 

That the house they lived in, was looking more real than in a studio…it was a studio - the audience knows it. 

The only other film that did justice to the middle-class hero this year was Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na. With no six pack abs, no gizmo flaunting hero and some brilliance in its narrative, it was a heart-warmer. What's wrong with being middle-class and why the madness to portray every hero in plush homes? Remember those Amol Palekar flicks! Remember Rajanigandha, Golmal, Chitchor....Remember the flavour these films had before the angry young man's advent!

The climax was a mess-up for an otherwise tolerable movie. But something made me sit up. The parting shot. It made the otherwise bland ending so cool! It's the time people are marching out of the hall. The credit-roll narrative made even those marching out stay back -- to watch the middle-class innocence of Surinder give an account of his Japan honeymoon through snaps.

Anushka is good for a new-comer. The spoiler was that song with the usual Yashraj madness -- colour-coordinated extras, this time children. Am not sure if Amritsar is visible from a hill. The film does make me want to go to Amritsar.