Genre: Romance
Director: Aditya Chopra
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Storyline: A very ordinary-looking common man brings home a pretty wife and hopes to make her fall in love with him
Bottomline: Return of the ‘Raj,’ the Mohabbat-Man
At the surface level, the story of Rab Ne seems to be screaming for a different genre of filmmaking – a creepy, psychotic thriller exploring the dynamics of arranged marriage, infidelity, cinema and escape.
Seriously, how else would you treat a film about an introverted, ordinary-looking, boring man who develops a split personality on learning that his wife would never love him and then, conspires to make her cheat on his boring real self by messing with her head and complicating her already vulnerable state!
But this isn’t an art-house Anurag Kashyap-experiment to end with political incorrectness.
It’s as mainstream as it gets as Aditya Chopra sugarcoats this dark subtext, treating it like any other superhero story.
Considering that the ‘Raj’ type in Hindi cinema is a superhero of sorts in the sense that he always wears a flashy costume and can make any girl fall in love with him, Aditya treats this character type like Sam Raimi would treat Spider-Man and also borrows a trick or two from Hollywood’s romantic comedies – the makeover segment or the dance competition ploy to weave the plot around.
Superhero ‘Raj’ slips into costume and out, complains how it gets uncomfortable around the crotch, to win over his Mary Jane with not much saving-the-world business to keep him busy. But while Spidey does it for a bigger reason than just MJ, Raj’s sole motivation is to stalk his wife and play out his fantasy as somebody else. His obsession with his alter-ego reaches new heights when he wants his wife to cheat on the real him – the goofy Surinder Saini who starts off well.
Every few scenes, at every stage of complication, the voice of reason and romance in the form of the larger-than-life Vinay Pathak asks Surinder why doesn’t he tell his wife the truth. But Suri Paaji just wants to mess with wifey’s head.
If that aspect of the film does not irritate you, you can be assured that you will be thoroughly entertained watching Shah Rukh Khan’s dual role as a superstar and actor. While a superstar plays the same type over and over again, an actor tries to break the mould and reinvents himself.
Rab Ne is that rare film where an icon gets to feed both the actor and the star in him and Shah Rukh Khan revels in both these roles, breathing life into the longest of monologues, to the point of making you shed a tear for the character, which at least on paper, fits the description of a psychopath.
To Aditya Chopra’s credit, Rab Ne is a fairly engaging tribute to cinema and its function over the years with some finely written and choreographed songs (music Salim-Sulaiman) that provide the perfect platform for debutante Anushka Sharma to dance her way into the big league.
Ravi K Chandran’s obvious attempts to fill up the frames with yellow and earthy tones do not go unnoticed and that’s never a good thing. Extras strut in and out of frames with cued in precision even in the scenes that call for realism. Three-film old Chopra Junior needs to mak more films before he’s completely out-dated especially since today’s young filmmakers pay much more attention to background detail.
Rab Ne is an adventurous experiment, a happy albeit superficial compromise between art-house and commercial cinema, a product that’s best described by the leading man’s moustache and glasses. Clearly fake and wannabe art-house but as long as there’s the familiar Raj around to entertain you with his flirting, singing and dancing routine, you really don’t want to complain.
MADRAS INK. 
Super Mokkai Movie. Last 45 minutes was absolute sheer pure torture.Sudhish, I expected a much more honest verdict from you. 😀
Isn’t RNBDJ’s sub-plot so so so similar to Anniyan??? Where Vikram’s character changes from Ambi to Anniyan…granted that it was not just for his love and also for social goodness…(like all Shankar’s movies)..
How come you did not review saroja or jayamkondaan? Are they not in your league or did i just miss it ?
Very late but since I have some time to reply, here goes:
Saroja – loved the first half and the second got a little claustrophobic and redundant for me but the humour kept the narrative going.
Jayam Kondaan – was a complete surprise. I did like it quite a bit though I thought it needed tighter editing.
Sudhish,
I think the movie is unbelievably stupid. How can a girl be so naive?? No part of the movie is depicting realism because of this extremely weak link that the story relies on. And that fellow (SRK character) is not “suffering” from any kind of split personality like Vikram in Anniyan. He is consciously aware of the nonsense he’s doing. Overall it was completely ridiculous.
//But Suri Paaji just wants to mess with wifey’s head.//
Ya, that’s right but isn’t that the plot – key element that pulls the story?
i felt Sharukh has brilliantly reinvented Paheli again. Though at times story lags, dialogues and screenplay do need a mention. But I was imagining what would be the reaction of the audience if they both are different persons and not the same. i feel Indian cinema though talks about the infidelity still ends the story only on expected lines under the safe hands of feudalism.
p.s: love your reviews sir.
Yes, yes… that is the plot but my criticism is limited to the motive/motivation… of his desire to mess with her head. I guess the film didn’t want to address fidelity because it’s just about a girl’s preference – common man as opposed to the singing dancing filmi hero.
p.s: thank you! 🙂
which part of the world are u kalpana?? he hardly reviews tamil padams… coz he is a pappadam when comes to tamil movies..only cared about desi hindi movies and holly”wood” movies..
ille pa arun… hardly get an opportunity to review Tamil films. i do watch tamil padams and you can find a few reviews in the archives.