A potential blockbuster concept spoilt by a half-baked screenplay!

Rating: 5/10 (23 December 2008)

When King Khan and Aditya Chopra come together, you can be sure about a formulaic high budget feel-good movie that will market itself into a blockbuster. While picturesque locales, expensive sets and tears are usually a must, Rab ne though makes a departure from the first two and delivers the typical family drama that pushed the envelope a bit further. Despite all the benign intentions behind the script, the movie misses the mark.
Middle aged Surinder ‘Suri’ Sahni, a square, starring King Khan in an avuncular avatar falls in love with a young and vivacious Taani, the débutante Anushka Sharma. Twists of fate lead them into sudden matrimony. Taani chooses to kill her bubbly self to become a dutiful housewife to her boring cubicle worker hubby. Deep in her mind though, she still craves for filmy romance rendering herself impervious to Suri’s unspoken love for her.
‘Dancing Jodi’, a contest comes to town and Taani enrolls herself. Eager to see her happy and bubbly, Suri the square turns into Raj the dude, with a little help from buddy Bobby (Vinay Pathak) to get closer to her. Though a flirtatious brat, Taani seems to like Raj better and the twine plan to elope. But Yash Raj style drama and the concept of seeing ‘Rab’ in the loved one lead the story and the dance contest into a happy ending! The success factor for this flick was to be the middle-class portrayal the multitude could relate to. Per se, SRK does well and so does the fresh and sweet Bangalorean Anushka. So is Vinay Pathak. Despite it all, you can sense a lack of ease of expression in the narrative. The transition from Suri to Raj is unbelievably quick for comfort. A scene with lesson from Bobby to Suri may have helped. Though lengthy, it misses critical points.
It’s too funny that Taani fails to recognize her own husband! Agreed, they never spent much time together nor did they consummate their marriage, but the fact that she doesn’t even show surprise at the similarity between the two faces is absurd. If this were shown in a movie that is a silly comedy or is used purely in a dramatic sense, I may have accepted it; but surely not in a movie that is supposed to be an endearing love story.
And what was that song with multiple actors all about? Simply passé! Also, Suri’s stance while he receives the end reminded me of the mentally ill character of Rohit in Koi Mil Gaya! Well, there is no reason for Suri to stand like his typical self; he just won the love of his life and should actually look delighted! Among the positives, the song ‘Tujh me rab dikhta hai’ is sweet and continues to play on in your mind much after the movie is over! True, audiences have enjoyed SRK’s contrived stories, especially the likes of OSO. But, while these are the custom made ‘masala’ flicks and thus gain a license to fool you, Rab Ne was supposed to be a plausible drama involving an average middle class man in an arranged marriage. Inconsistencies, clichés and what seems to be a hurriedly written and dated screenplay make this new flick from the DDLJ makers, disappointing!