Anybody who knows me knows I eat, live and breathe movies. I enjoy an abstract French film as much as a grand Chinese picture. I dig dramatic sci-fi films as much as I adore romantic comedies that make you weep and smile at the same time. But when it comes Indian cinema there’s a different magic. It’s like speaking your mother tongue. It comforts you.
Once a year, when Shah Rukh Khan movie releases, I am all dreamy eyed. I love the man, have loved him since his TV (Circus) days. The so called ‘purist’ cinema lovers might sneer at me for saying this but I think Shah Rukh is talented and smart. He can do offbeat cinema (remember Anjaam, Maya Memsaab and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa) and he carries off being the quintessential ‘Rahul’ who dances in Swiss valleys with a chiffon clad woman. Smartly enough, he’s realised that the way to the heart of the masses is through these dreamy ‘Yashrij’ish romances.
Of course, now that he’s been labelled the ‘King Khan’, he’s moved away from the typical romances and explored different genres of cinema. I believe that two of his best performances have been ‘Swades’ and ‘Chak De India’. In Swades he played the NRI who comes back to India and rediscovers his love for the ’Motherland’ and in Chak De he plays a fallen Hockey player who coaches an all girls team to play at the World Cup.
These off beat roles of his made me love the actor so much that with the promos of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, I nearly jumped out of my seat with excitement. I couldn’t wait to watch Shah Rukh play this simple man with a moustache, when we all know how far from this character the real SRK is. The tagline for the Aditya Chopra movie promised us an extraordinary love story and as a girl who grew up watching Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, I believed it would be. In fact, for a long time I haven’t felt the magic at the movies.
As I settled into Rab Ne… I waited for the magic to strike me but… nothing. The story talks about how love can be beyond appearances and there’s this guy who just loves his wife. But, something’s missing! Something about the story is unconvincing.
You might say most Yashraj films are illogical and unrealistic but that’s ignored because there’s a certain dreamy haze that surrounds the movie. Rab Ne… tries to have a dreamy haze and yet attempts to give slight ‘realistic’ references. I drooled over the simple man Suri’s true love for his wife and the confused Jat ‘Raj’. He’s over the top, he hams and yet you like him. But eventually you start yawning. The story moves at an excruciatingly slow pace and you end up wondering where the love is. It almost ends up being a Balaji serial type of a love story.
So yes, every couple has an extraordinary love story, and this one had an extraordinarily boring one! Somebody please bring the magic back in films… until then, I’m settling for the Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge DVD.
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