People!
I just saw Kuch Kuch Hota Hai on good old Doordarshan, with of course, plenty of kuch kuch… ads from Dabur to Vicco and Cherry Blossom ads, which completely transported me to the 1980s. (Yes, I’m watching DD after a long time!)
Seriously, Doordarshan is really caught in some kind of a time-warp.
Yeah, seriously, the same old Vicco Vajradanti, the same old Charlie Chaplain imitation by Rajesh Puri (I think, don’t remember his name, it was that long ago when someone with that kind of a name was a TV star)…
Every ten minutes, there was 20 minutes of ads for the first two hours…
Yet, yet…
This movie still had me glued to the telly.
It’s not my favourite movie, it’s not in my Top 5 if you guys have noticed.
I have a thousand spoof ideas for the movie, I laughed my ass off in a lot of scenes, especially when they were trying to be cute with the brat, who, to me, came across a psycho kid. Nor I couldn’t digest the whole premise of the eight letters that Rani, the letters that were to be given to her daughter every birthday.
Plus, Rahul’s sudden and almost instant love for Anjali on seeing her in a saree or instant love for Tina seeing her in a mini-skirt only drives home the impression that Rahul is just a simple man with basic instincts…
Oh, yeah, there’s the conveniently and easily explainable phrase and phenomenon behind most love stories… Love at first sight! Ha!
In the town Suderman lives, unfortunately, it’s called lust! Damn!
Yet, yet…
This movie is surely something… Kuch hai isme!
Which I was what I wanted to figure out today.
And, guess what… it still beats me.
Which is why I want to call it the magic of Karan Johar.
Just consider this:
Shah Rukh Khan is Shah Rukh Khan, in almost every movie, maybe excluding Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa… so nothing new there.
Rani and Kajol, charming as ever… I totally loooove them. As my friend Abhishek was telling me last night there there’s no one today who can compete with a Madhubala or Dimple or Madhuri, the Aati Kya Khandala song appeared on TV almost suddenly as to remind us, we have Rani Mukherjee.
In Kuch Kuch, Rani is pure magic too, yet, it is Kajol who steals the scenes from her.
Awrite, so the combined star charisma of SRK, Rani and Kajol is one reason why the movie works, but was that all?
No.
The Karan Johar touch to the drama between the three central characters and I hate to admit it, the psycho kid, actually contributes to the success of the film.
There are the stereotypes from Archie comics, a hajaar other Bollywood stereotypes – the SRK gimmicks, the Farida Jalal sugar sweet Mom stereotypes, the Salman Khan happy-go-lucky-lover stereotype(though I didn’t mind it at all)…
There are fake sets, designer clothes, unreal characters, situations that aren’t plausible… How psycho kid Anjali finds out about the summer camp is so conveniently simple that it sucks… Or how the whole family of Daadi and Shah Rukh settle down at the summer camp for that matter…
Yet, yet…
There are scenes that bring a tear to your eye, as much as you hate to believe it. There are scenes that make you feel good… And I think the latter is because of the former. The greater the struggle the greater the glory, the sweet-sour logic from Vanilla Sky… The sweet is never as sweet without the sour, remember…
We Indians are suckers for sentiment… how else can you explain the success of little kids not doing homework to sit and watch soap operas… its just simple soap opera sentiment that Karan Johar blends with star charisma to keep you glued… Plus Lata Mangeshkar’s Aaa-Aaaa-Aaaaaaa strains have so fascinatingly settled deep down into our subconscious that they signal the right neurons that control the tear gland on cue… All we need to see is our favourite actors with glycerine in their eyes and abracadabra… kabhi khushi kabhi gham, kuch na kuch hota hai…
Maybe there’s something about Dawninheaven’s theory of how we all relate to hurt more… At some level, everybody’s probably been an Anjali – seen your best friend fall in love with somebody else in front of your eyes…
The unrequited love syndrome.
The main reason for success of love stories in India. A majority of Indians do not get to live with their first love or the love of their lives. In the movies at least, we get to live that fantasy of seeing love succeed.
Plus, there’s another fantasy many of us have… of meeting your first love or old friend of the opposite sex after many, many years and falling in love with that person…
In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the combination of these two fantasies (unrequited love and childhood first love… both coming true) cleverly tied together by Karan Johar holds the key to why we all like the movie, at some level.
In spite of its dumb-enough-to-make-you-puke quotient.
PS: People, next week they’re playing Dil to Pagal Hai and tomorrow or rather today on DD, there’s Mohabbattien, a film I absolutely LOOOOVED for its lines… I didn’t dig the story too much but I love the face-off’s Amitabh and SRK have… they make the movie totally worth it… of course, apart from the fifty odd cleavage shots you get to see in the movie! 😛
MADRAS INK. 
Hi…Suderman!I too saw KKHH and boy you were right abt the neurons working in the rite time and place!I too will be watching Mohabbatein today!And…Dtph next Saturday.Good ol’ dd has decided to provide me some entertainment …AFTER LONG!Waitin eagerly to see ur comments on Mohabbatein and DTPH!
Sud…wht do u think abt SRK’s comment…”Pyaar ek hi baar hota hain” and him contradicting himself in Action???ISn’t that really absurd?And I wonder how psycho kid Anjali read her letters or understood for that matter(!) dear loving mamma’s letters at ages 1,2,3 etc……..
Sud…Do you like Anbae Sivam.Tell me abt the books you like.What books u enjoyed as a kid?Mail me abt these please.Or better…write me a letter.I haunt my post box evvyday.
Maama, I can’t believe you don’t like K2H2 so much. I am not saying it’s a classic but the movie passes muster. I think the movie works because of the same reason DDLJ or Dil To Pagal Hai worked: The audience long for the lead pair to unite. It does not happen till the very end. Cliched, yeah, but it also works.
And I take this opportunity to say a big hi to another “Anbe Sivam” fan.
Yup, love KKHH but not as much as DDLJ. That movie rocks so much. Was watching it last Friday till around 1:30. Totally entertaining, even though I was watching it for like the 31st time! Dil To Pagal Hai was awesome too but DDLJ is on top of the heap for me.
I like the point you made about ppl not getting a change to lead their lives with their first love or their true love. This is the main reason for most these movies succeeding. This is true more for our culture where finding your own partner is still a taboo.
But I find that such love moves make big bucks even in the Hollywood. They might not make money in the box office but the thrive on the DVD and video sales. The failure of these movies in the US box office is mainly because the moviegoers are in the age group of 13 to 21.
Anbe Sivam – man that was one awesome movie. But it had one big mistake, for the madavan’s character to donate blood with in 24 hrs of getting high on both drugs and alcohol.
Hey Sandhya!
hats off to the dd faithful!
i dunno how u guys manage to do it…
Kuch Kuch started at 9.30, got over at 1.45!
anywayz, like i said, the movie did have me glued to the telly in spite of that!
bout anbe sivam, u n karthik seem to have generated a discussion here… watch my next post!
karthik!
I dint say i dint like kuch kuch… i said there was so much for me to hate in the movie, yet, i liked it! and the whole blog was to explain why i like it despite its stereotypes!
vinod… i agree… kkhh no match for ddlj… cuz ddlj dint have as many stereotypes… was more plausible… thats why ive included ddlj in my top 5 hindi fav.
karthek,
read my next post!
Im not gonna post anything on Anbe Sivam, I’ll just stick to a comment for now.
Anbe Sivam is a pretty decent film and almost a classic, methinks!
I was mightly disappointed after seeing the movie cuz I knew that movie had it in it to become a classic but wat totally screwed it up is the 50 minute long flashback sequence that just puts the brakes on the road trip that had so brilliantly taken off… not that flashback had anything interesting to say either… it was the same old parental opposition coming between two lovers… true there were a coupla beautiful scenes in that segment too but methinks it should have been reduced to a crisp 15 or 20 minutes with maybe one song so that the audience doesnt forget the road trip and the escapades…
the trip of a communist and a product of capitalism making strange-bedfellows was the intended idea (again not original, borrowed from Hollywood but let that be forgotten and forgiven)… it had just begun to work… instead of focussing on the debate, it’s a pity that kamal got too indulgent in spending an hour on the flashback…
anbe sivam had a rocking setting for a climax, it brought a tear to my eye… madhavan did a career best too… which is why Im saying its a classic.. but just about almost!
Just to add to the comment on Anbe Sivam – Man, I loved that movie and Kamal’s character(not to mention the title song!). The way he walks off forlornly with the dog following him in the last scene seemed so Chaplinesque! 🙂 Ravi
it does not have to be glycerine in the actors’ eyes even.. the ad where the boy(growing, ofcourse its complan ad) takes her mom for a bicycle ride and moms eyes widen with a proud smile..That brought tears to me..becomin a sucker for these senti ads!!
Hi,
Thats a wonderful write-up.
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http://meandmydreemz.blogspot.com/