Entertaining but...

Rating: 6/10 (10 October 2009)

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is great as a leave-your-brains-at-home entertainer, but as a film it is not that great, although it does try to convey a message. I had a certain feeling at some points that it was just made for the sake of making. First, it is terribly unrealistic in whatever it deals with. The entire idea of Surinder, an ordinary square trying to go through a dramatic physical change to make his wife fall in love with him, is ancient. The transformation itself suffers from a ridiculously poor execution - it is completely unbelievable. A man who's been someone for his entire life cannot become another person within two hours and behave in the way Suri starts behaving. The fact that he leads a double life throughout the film with his own wife through both Suri and Raj and that she herself does not even suspect it is the same person is laughable. Although I don't say a thing like this is totally impossible, the story was at times slow paced and at times was filled with the usual Hindi film clichés.
Having said that, we don't watch films to see reality, but rather to escape it. The main element reminds me of Raj Kapoor's classic 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram', in which the only difference in the woman's appearance was the presence or the absence of the disfigured side of her face. So if Raj Kapoor could make that, I believe we cannot blame Aditya Chopra. Rab Ne is technically well made, and it has a fantastic soundtrack, all the songs being extremely enjoyable. The film's comedy is wonderful and there are many great moments and hilarious scenes. The cast is very good. Shahrukh Khan is brilliant in the refreshing role of Suri, and he is his funny and witty self as Raj, a side of his we are very familiar with. Anushka Sharma gives a surprisingly fantastic debut performance, and she is credible throughout the film. Vinay Pathak is amazing as Bobby and provides great support. Anyway, RNBDJ is not a great film and has its share of flaws but it is a good entertainer. I generally enjoyed the film and I do recommend it to those who are yet to watch it, though frankly I'm not planning to watch it again any time soon.