Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - The Review

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is no DDLJ. It’s not even an Om Shanti Om. But does content make any difference in a film that features SRK? Aditya Chopra is back at the helm as a director (if you don't believe in the rumors of him having ghost directed Dhoom and some other films coming from the Yashraj stable). A lot was expected out of him as this was a long hiatus after which he was returning as a director. He disappoints and not because he is bad as a director in Rab Ne. Screenplay was considered a strongpoint of Adi’s films and this is where Rab Ne flounders big time.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’s story idea does have a soul. It is about the extraordinary achieved by the ordinary for love but the way it is portrayed is too amateurish. By the end of it, you tend to feel that some of these Bollywood directors have started taking the audience for granted. If OSO was stupidity at its peak, Rab Ne dethrones it and sits atop that chart. Having said that I will not say that all is bad with the film. The flashes of Aditya Chopra-SRK combination’s brilliance does show up intermittently. But it is too less to satiate the hunger of a cinemagoer who waited for 8 years to see the pair recreate magic. They might say that Rab Ne has an entertainment value to look forward to. Of course Mr. Chopra, we sure like to be entertained but not get fooled!

Is it possible that you shave off your moustache and your family stops to recognize you?

Is it possible that the reticent YOU suddenly gel your hair, wear snazzy clothes and put on an overtly extrovert exterior overnight to appease your lady love?

Show us how it is possible. Come on, you didn’t even give an interview for your film and the character that draws from you on the shyness quotient and moustache, if not on anything else! At least that would have sent a signal that a transformation is indeed possible. It is unfathomable to imagine how you could even think of such a silly portrayal. Did you have a dearth of actors? Couldn’t someone else have played the role of Raj and so that we enjoyed the refreshing change of watching SRK as the commoner Surinder Sahni in your epic saga that stretched endlessly? Why the SRK fixation? The day is not far when you guys would have SRK clones doing every trivial role in the film.

Does that mean that Aditya Chopra, the man who gave us DDLJ has failed completely? The answer is NO! The film’s first and the last 25 minutes are the saving grace. And that is solely because he created the character called Surinder Sahni and got SRK to play it. Aditya Chopra is not a funny man and Rab Ne is how funny he could get is what SRK told in an interview. There are indeed some moments that will bring a smile on your face. That gives a little hope that Aditya Chopra magic is not over yet!

The music is strictly okay. No experimentation by the music director duo of Salim-Sulaiman. They seem to be the next Vishal-Shekhar in the making and I say this because their Fashion scored on the music front. The whole dance item in the climax which forms the background for the entire 3 hour affair is a dud. It looks totally off color and repetitive. But yes, the way the story unfolds before the eyes of the heroine during the climax dance sequence is good. It reminds you of the Adi Chopra magic that I talked of earlier.

SRK is top class as Surinder Sahni, the average middle class man who doesn’t wear designer clothes or mouth filmy dialogues to win the love of his life. But enter Raj - naam to suna hoga, the “seen that 100 times” over-the-top character from so many of Yash Raj Films and boredom sets in. You yawn and wonder when the 20 year old boy Raj would transform into a 43 year old man on celluloid. You really can’t stop time by replacing 30 year old heroines by a fresh crop of 20 year olds. Can you? And by the way, the new girl Anoushka is pretty good. She looks cute and sweet and acts fine too for her first film. I hope she doesn’t end up the way some other fresh faces from YRF banner did (read Tulip Joshi, Preity Jhangiani, Shamita Shetty and Kim Sharma). Vinay Pathak is top rate. There is no one else in the movie that I can remember of.

One of the most enjoyable moments of the whole movie is the end credit. Please do not leave the theatre when THE END sign flashes. It is at this time that Suri ji shares some picture postcards of his honeymoon in Japan. It is indeed these five minutes that save the day for Rab Ne team in some ways besides Surinder Sahni's character because you exit the theatre with a smile rather than tearing the hair on your head.

When the film ended the audience started to move out of the theatre not knowing what was in store in the end credits. Then all of a sudden SRK’s voice over started describing Suri Ji's honeymoon photographs. The whole theatre stood still. Such is the magic of the man. He can hold your attention even after the film has ended. He is called a Badshah for some good reason after all. Sadly, even though SRK does liven up proceedings in parts, his film does not.

My rating is 2 out of 5 for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.