Opening credits roll, and the audience is treated with beautiful location shots of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab where the majority of the film’s story takes place. Shortly after, the voice of "Surinder Sawhney" a.k.a “Suri” (Shah Rukh Khan) begins to narrate the story of the day he fell in love and explains the circumstances that lead up to his marriage.
Shah Rukh Khan plays a middle class man, who works at a power company called “Punjab Power”. The big surprise here is that his character, Surinder, is not at all your typical run-of-the-mill Yash Raj hero. Not only is Suri not some upper class man, whose family is in the import/export business (whatever that even means), he is also not stylish, with not one Armani suit to brag about. In fact the majority of his clothes are comprised of khaki pants, long sleeved business shirts, and a pair of black and white Reebok shoes. He sports a full head of greasy black hair parted on one side, and pair of glasses that are as thick as his mustache.
The story begins almost immediately where we find our non-glamorous hero attending the wedding of his college professor’s daughter “Taani” (Anushka Sharma). Surinder sees the beautiful bride-to-be and falls in love with her instantly. The two have a quick introduction by Taani’s dad, and before you know it due to some tragic circumstances, Taani loses her father and her soon-to-be groom and is married to Surinder. The first forty-five minutes or so of the movie are attention grabbing. There is conflict, comedy and endearing moments shared between the new husband and wife. The story starts to lose its fizz close to intermission when our simpleton Surinder decides to give himself a total makeover and disguise himself as an auto mechanic owner named “Raj” in order to build a relationship between him and Taani, who he feels is distant and could never love him as Suri. Next thing you know the movie-goer is watching a re-hash of several different films fused together with the end result being a loose adaptation of Mrs. Doubtfire meets Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
What worked: Definitely Suri’s character, cheers for the introduction of a new type of hero. I did however feel that the writing for Suri was inconsistent. Although he was always portrayed as being sweet and loveable, sometimes I would find myself questioning Suri’s motives. Was he doing this charade to please his wife? Was he doing it to please himself? And why did it go on for as long as it did? There were several times in the second half of the film where one would want to say, “Enough is enough . . . tell her now,” but that never seemed to happen. A lot of the scenarios between Suri vs. Raj seemed a bit contradicting.
Newcomer Anushka Sharma, was able to hold her own against the King Khan and played the part well. I would have liked to see a bit more depth from her character, but unfortunately her part wasn’t written that way. Vinay Pathak’s role of Suri’s over the top best friend “Bobby Khosla” was a delight, and his character helped break up the monotony of emotional monologues given to us by Surinder. The soundtrack of the film grows on you, with two of my favorites being Haule Haule and the title track Tujhe Mein Rab.
Dialogues were funny at times, but what perplexed me is why most of the emotional and expressive lines that ever came out of Suri’s mouth were usually delivered to his best friend Bobby. Now what’s the deal with that?
What didn’t work: The over the top song sequences (excluding Haule Haule and Dance Pe Chance). Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, as creative as the lyrics were, had no purpose in the movie, other than to boost star power. It bordered stepping on the heels of Deewangi from Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and I’m starting to wonder if saturating Bollywood stars into song sequences will now be the new trend. I was very disappointed with the way Tujhe Mein Rab was portrayed. In this day and age, we no longer need to see hammy scenes on sets of churches and temples with street children dancing, random travelers showering rose petals on the road, and makeshift billboards of heroines’ faces (that part just KILLED me). The backdrop of the whole dance competition was ok, until the end, where poor choreography mixed with downright hilarity took over what was suppose to be the high climax of the film. I also wonder how many times Yash Raj will try to pawn off comedy scenes using the 2004 Dhoom title track, and the sumo wrestling scene. . . Don’t EVEN get me started!
Overall Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is average at best, the screenplay tried too hard to over-simplify what was a truly complicated situation. It has its enjoyable moments where you will laugh, cry and swoon, but overall there is nothing special enough to leave a lasting impression. Shah Rukh Khan fans flock to the theaters, everyone else take your time to watch it, or wait till it comes out on DVD.
To see or not to see folks . . . I'll let you know at the next premiere.
Final Rating: * * *
