Starring : Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is Yash Raj Film’s highest ever grosser, so I was a little surprised when I got shown into the smallest theater of the complex. Adding to that the fact that I hadn’t heard that many good things about the movie, I didn’t expect to have a good time.

But – to my surprise – I really enjoyed myself with RNBDJ. It’s possible that I walked out liking RNBDJ because I’d set out with such low expectations anyway, but if you’re hoping for a typical Bollywood offering with very decent acting, then this movie will be highly satisfying.

The premise of the story is pretty simple – nerd and favorite student Surinder Sahni (Suri, played by Shah Rukh Khan) falls for his professor’s daughter, Taani (Anushka Sharma), on the day of her wedding. When news arrives that her fiance and family have been killed in a bus crash, Taani’s father collapses. His dying wish is that she should not be alone in the world, and asks her to marry Surinder. Even though Taani agrees, she later explains to Suri that she can’t love him, and theirs is a silent and rather awkward life. Taani eventually joins a dance class, and Suri pretends to be the klutzy Raj in order to dance with and get close to her. The rest of the movie revolves around the dynamics of the Taani-Raj-Suri relationship.

RNBDJ has all the elements of a classic Bollywood romantic comedy: Shah Rukh Khan’s impeccable timing, an element of expectation in the shape of newcomer Anushka Sharma, and various song and dance routines. It was the first of these that probably brought the movie together, for me. I’m afraid I’ve never really bought into the SRK hype, but I had to appreciate his excellent comic routines. As the neat, orderly Suri who becomes a bundle of nerves in front of his secret sweetheart Taani, he is both believable and easy to empathize with. A small but telling bit of hilarity is a scene where Taani surprises him and he jumps up with his USB cable still attached to his laptop, spending five minutes trying to untangle himself.

Anushka Sharma makes a great debut as the vivacious Taani; it’s hard to compete against the star power of SRK but I thought Sharma made a very spirited attempt to hold her own. The scene where she grabs Raj’s bike to enact some well-deserved revenge on a girl in her dancing class had the entire audience rooting for her.

The soundtrack by Salim-Sulaiman probably won’t become a classic in years to come, but the tunes are very catchy and, more importantly, fit the contexts perfectly. Particularly enjoyable is Haule Haule, with Sukhwinder Singh’s mellow voice carrying through a very sweet number. Phir Milenge’s dance sequence is a crowd pleaser that includes stars like Kajol and Preity Zinta, and Dance Pe Chance achieves a nifty balance between having to forward plot and provide entertainment.

But there are, of course, reasons why RNBDJ was slammed by critics. Almost from the first moment Raj is introduced, it seems like the rather lame Suri-Raj transformation was intended only for weak-eyed geriatrics. And at 3 hours, a plot this thin begins to wear thin no matter how entertaining SRK is. There are only so many ways this story can pan out, and RNBDJ avoids them all by making an extra effort to be unbelievable. In short, audiences can expect the usual suspension of belief that most Bollywood offerings require.

This isn’t that big a problem with an audience used to far greater feats of willful blindness when it comes to plot holes. What really bugged me was the way Taani’s character is treated. Call me a feminist, but RNBDJ seems to almost encourage the role of the passive female in the marriage relationship. First, Taani is emotionally blackmailed by her father into marrying a man she hardly knows. Then she’s forced to play the dutiful wife while suppressing her grief at the death of both her father and fiance. In the meantime, it’s SRK who gets loads of screen time to angst – at least two separate drawn-out scenes, which were mostly unnecessary and far too long. Of course, this is SRK we’re talking about here, and if he didn’t hog the screen he wouldn’t be the actor we know and love. You could even argue that Taani gets some fun out of her dance classes, which Suri (as Raj) livens up for her. But I still left feeling unsatisfied with her patchily-defined character.

Whatever the criticisms, however, there’s no doubt that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a crowd pleaser, and for good reasons. Don’t watch it expecting anything too intelligent or plausible, and you’ll be more than satisfied.

3 / 5

Photo Courtesy: IndiaTarget, rediff

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