An Overcooked Cuisine

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2008)

What happens when you over cook the best recipe? Result is a cuisine that you eat when you are hungry without relishing it. The most awaited, Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is just like that overcooked cuisine which the audience is expected to digest just because it has the magic ingredient, the Badshah of Hindi cinema Shahrukh Khan starring in it.
The plot is about the unrequited love of a geek, meek and a shy small town man married to a pretty girl in unexpected circumstances. How will he win his love and make the only woman he has ever loved, love him in return? This interesting plot premise, despite taking off well in the first 20 odd minutes is battered thanks to shoddy writing which lacks both conviction and logic.
The only well written and endearing character is of this geeky guy  Surinder played by SRK. The new actress Anushka Sharma comes across as beautiful, confident, and charming. She fits perfectly in the role of a Punjabi girl, giving a good performance for a newcomer. Raj, the cool, clean shaved and hip Jatt guy again played by SRK is a bad caricature of the romantic image of 'Rahul' and 'Raj' created by SRK and Yash Raj over the years. After the initial interest, this character too fails to make the storyline any interesting. So there you have it when in the script two out of the three central characters are ineffective, you know it's time to fasten the seat belt as this flight is in some trouble.
But this flight somehow doesn't crash. What saves it is SRK who gives it his all to make Surinder and Raj as endearing as possible. He is the sole reason keeping you on board. SRK tries hard and succeeds to engage you emotionally in some sporadic scenes, like the small and few chocolate pieces hidden on a big plain biscuit. Also, the success of a romantic comedy is determined by the number of magical moments the lead pair have on screen. In RNBDJ, unfortunately these moments are almost nonexistent. But right from the last few minutes to the end of the credits the film ends on a creative, humorous and feel good note which again spares it from the wrath of the audiences.
The film has only four main songs, Haule Haule and Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte being the highlights. Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte is a tribute to the great romantic heroes of the yester years and has five leading ladies of Bollywood dancing in five different segments. In segment one the duo of SRK and Kajol dancing together one again show us why they were and are still the best looking pair in Hindi Cinema. And In the same song in segment five, Rani Mukherjee looks totally out of place. Nevertheless this track is an extremely entertaining affair. The movie is shot well and has good production value which you expect from Yash Raj. The Amritsar setting looks very authentic.
So all in all 'Rab Ne' is a watchable but underwhelming affair. Aditya Chopra is below average in his duties as script writer, dialog writer and director. In fact, after Mohabbatein, he has plummeted to a new low. There is a lesson to be learnt for directors who lack a great script and expect SRK to deliver the goods for them each time no matter how puerile the plot. And SRK needs to watch DVDs of Swades and Chak De and remind himself of what he is capable of doing and in future choose roles of substance. Sadly, RNBDJ is not going to be a highlight or landmark in his golden career.