Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Director: Aditya Chopra
Producer: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra
Music: Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni
THE FILM
If at all one has to hail a superb climax for a film, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi would be the forerunner by a long distance. In fact, it’s the very climax of the film which makes it such an endearing watch that one is tempted to watch it all over again.
The point where Anushka starts realizing that Raj and Suri are the same person, the film’s graph reaches a high point. While Suri is dancing in the way Raj was doing in all the rehearsals, the expressions on Anushka’s face have to be seen to be believed as she looks all perplexed and bewildered while her body is dancing mechanically to the tune of ‘Dancing Jodi’.
This is the point where Aditya Chopra demonstrates a great hold of the proceedings as the sense of surprise and guilt is mixed well with some excellent support from the music and choreography departments.
So why has the climax been described at the very beginning of this review? The reason is simple. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi could never have been the film that it eventually turned out to be if not for it’s brilliant climax.
This is one heartwarming sequence that forces you to go back and revisit this dramatic romantic tale which indeed was different. No wonder, the film turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters of Shah Rukh’s career when released late last year.
Of course, an excellent climax by no means undermines a very good start that the film’s narrative takes.
Right from the moment Shah Rukh and Anushka get married out of the blue to the time Anushka declares that she could never love Shah Rukh to the time Shah Rukh starts making adjustments in his life – it is one emotional journey that results in moist eyes for majority of viewers.
In fact your heart goes out to the man as he starts falling in love with the girl ‘haule haule’.
Raj is a clear alter ago of Suri as he does everything that Suri could never imagine doing. He breaks rules, flirts around, is all goofy – and all of this is to gain access to the love which he couldn’t find in his own house from his own wife.
Presentation of this dilemma could have been shown in multiple ways. Either it may have turned out to be an out and out comedy with a Golmaal kind of a narrative or it could have gone an intellectual way with the metaphor being on your face or it could have become an out and out art house cinema.
However, Aditya Chopra applies a different route altogether and comes up with a dramatic love story that has quite a few heartwarming moments interspersed into the narrative.
Of course, cinematic liberties are quite a few, but then all of that is attributed to ‘rab’ since it is conveniently declared that it is HE who decides what should happen and what shouldn’t!
The movie does fizzle a little towards the pre-climax because by that time the audience starts craving for some action on screen but there is none of that that takes place.
The Sumo wrestling sequence is truly forced and leads to yawns instead of smiles. But as said earlier, it’s the entire segment of the film towards the very end that brings back spark into the proceedings. And the spark is such that it just fires up the screen and illuminates it strongly enough to leave a lasting impression.
