Movie Review - Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

By Sounak Roy, 31/12/2008

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, going to be the second highest grosser of 2008 (post Ghajini) , is a classic example of a family movie. It reinstates the faith in the institution of marriage. Aditya Chopra has finally laid to rest the monkey of "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge". He has come up with a simple yet beautiful romanic tale of a mismatched couple who get suddenly married due to unforeseen circumstances. Its extremely brave of him to have come up with a movie with only 4 (or 3 since Raj and Suri are the same person) primary characters after having made such a lavish movie like Mohabbatein last time.

The movie starts with the marriage of the two primary characters “Surinder Sahani” (Shah Rukh Khan) and “Taani” (Anushka Sharma). Surinder is a typical small town 9 to 5 office-goer who works in Punjab Power whereas Taani is a gen-next vivacious young girl who has been forced into marrying Surinder due to the accidental death of her fiancé. Surinder falls deeply in love with Taani but before he could express it, Taani clearly states that she would never be able to love Surinder.

This is where the story takes a turn when Surinder decides to undergo a makeover with the aid of his childhood friend Bobby. Taani decides to participate in a dance competition titled “Dancing Jodi” to keep herself occupied. Surinder, compelled by his love for his wife, arrives at the dancing class disguised as a cool hip guy (courtesy the makeover) named “Raj Kapoor” and gets selected as Taani’s dance partner.

Raj represents everything that Suri can never be. He is light-hearted, cool and frank to the extent of being vulgar. Here, the story takes a leap of faith wherein Taani can’t recognize in the disguise of Raj – which is agreeable when one considers the minimal interaction Taani has with Suri. After the initial repulsions, Raj succeeds in wooing Taani (typical SRK style) and they decide to run away. Suri, being the humble person that he is, realises that his wife must be terribly unhappy with their marriage to have agreed to run away with another person. He decides to let her go.

But after having committed to Raj, Taani realises that it was Surinder who was there for her in her hours of need, it was he who had always loved her unconditionally without expecting anything in return. So she eventually withdraws from the eloping proposal (thank god she does). But in the dance competition finale, when Taani is expecting Raj, Suri appears and performs the moves which she and Raj had rehearsed. It is then that Taani realises that it was Suri who had metamorphosed himself into Raj to win her over.The storyline may appear thin but its the simplicity of the story that touches your heart.

Coming to the performances, Shah Rukh, as usual, stands out as the bespectacled simpleton “Suri” and also as the over the top “Raj”. I guess he can play these “Raj/Rahul” type characters in his dreams now. Over the years, his dialogue delivery has become more and more polished. In this movie as well, he stuns you in 4-5 scenes – i) Taani tells Suri that she would never be able to love him and Suri responds by saying “Ye pyaar kya hota hai Taani ji, aaj tak itni good luck hui nahi ki kisi ladies se pyaar ho jaye, aapne aaj mere doston ke samne meri jo izzat rakhli, mere liye to wohi pyaar hai ji, mujhe isse zyada pyaar ki nahi aadat hai nahi zaroorat”, ii) Raj realises Suri’s dilemma after having won over Taani (the scene just before intermission), iii) Raj flirts with Taani but doesn’t concede doing so and says “Flirting to tab hoti ji agar main kehta ki aapke jaisi beautiful ladki maine aaj tak nahi dekhi, aur kal jap aap sine mein latpat dance kar rahi thi aur aap ki choti left right left right ho rahi thi, mera to band hi baj gaya tha”, iv) The scene where Raj suggests Taani to elope with him, v) The scene where Taani gets angry over Suri for taking on the Sumo – in this scene SRK has only two lines, but his facial expression while taking the flak from his wife is absolutely superb , and finally vi) The grand finale dance performance – SRK may not be a naturally fabulous dancer like Hrithik or Harman, but he more than makes up for it with his attitude and expressions – don’t think any other actor could have carried off that dance performance, clad in those formal trousers and snickers, the way SRK has. These scenes really show the finesse that SRK has acquired as an actor.

Anushka Sharma, the new girl is very refreshing. She has a million dollar smile and her chemistry with SRK is crackling. Loved it in the “Dance Pe Chance” and “Dhoom3” sequences. She can emote well and her expressions are really fresh as Shah Rukh has mentioned in his interviews. Especially loved her dialogue delivery when she says “Maine kaunsi gaali di” and then reinforces “C,D,F bhi aati hai – sunaun ?” Also, I loved the scene where she says “Woh kya hai na, mujhe purani Taani ko maarke ek nayi Taani ban na hai”. Her dancing is too good and very well manifested by her beautiful figure. Vinay Pathak was the perfect choice for the character of Bobby, he has played to the gallery to the hilt where required. Loved the background music “Achhha, achha”. His best scene in the movie is the one where he makes Suri realize where he is going wrong by saying “To fir ek aur fark hai yaar, Raj jo hai, who to apna pyaar dil faad ke dikhata aur Suri apne pyaar to tiffin box mein bandh karke rakhta hai”.

The film has numerous light but magic moments – SRK Anushka first conversation on the terrace, Golgappa competition, Dance finale. All in all, it’s a great film which one can watch with his/her family (which is very rare nowadays) – honest to the core and true to the subject of the movie.

Box Office Performance
Week 1 – 44.50 crores (First Week Record – broken Singh is Kinng record of 43.77 crores inspite of a slow start)
Week 2 – 23.50 crores