My Bollywood Indulgence: Movie Review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

This movie was watched on March 25, 2013.

An interesting thing happened a week ago. I was browsing through Netflix and decided to take a hiatus from my watching standard American movies and instead journeyed to the obscure "Bollywood" corner of Netflix. Clicking through the list of foreign films,  I quickly scanned the titles and synopsis looking for a light movie to watch until I could fall asleep. As luck would have it, I stumbled onto what has now become one of my favorite movies of all time, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.   

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a movie that stars famed Bollywood actor, Shah Rukh Khan. Khan plays a geeky man named, Surinder Sahni who lives a mundane life working for a power company in Mumbai. By a luck of fate, he gets invited to the wedding of one of his old professors. At the wedding the mans meets the daughter who is named Taani. 

Taani who is played by Anushka Sharma is full of life and outgoing opposed to the awkward Surinder who watches her dance from the shadows as the pre-wedding party proceeds. Suddenly, all heck breaks lose ***SPOILER*** and the audience and bride to be finds out that the groom is not coming because he has been killed along with his family in a bus accident. The professor suffers from a heart attack and on his death bed ask Surinder to marry Taani so that he will know that his daughter is ok without him and both party's agree. From here, the movie gets realllly good.

Surinder and Tanni get married and of course Taani is heartbroken and Surinder is smitten with his new bride but, doesn't want to force her into loving him being he is such a gentle soul. In a twist of events, Surinder conjures up "Raj," a hip if not awkward alter-ego who he believes will impress Tanni and help her to heal her broken heart. Instantly, Raj becomes the third party in this loveless marriage and through him the action of the movie is transformed into a comedic rendition of a love affair gone wrong.

The thing I love about this movie is that it didn't go the way I was accustomed to in other films where somebody takes on an alter-ego and tricks their husband or wife. I initially thought Taani would be upset at Surinder for tricking her. However, she saw this as the ultimate showing of love. This twist had me sitting up going whaaaat?!? really?!? Which is definitely a good thing since most movies sort of stick to a preconceived script.

In addition to this, Khan was phenomenal as both Surinder and Raj. If I compared the two characters I couldn't even recognize that the two men were played by the same actor until I looked up the movie. However, in retrospect it was weird that the cosmetic elements (i.e., blonde highlights) that the makeup team used to turn Surinder into Raj could be so easily hidden by the character in the actual movie when he went home to his wife as Surinder. This was one point that urked me but, the acting more than made up for it.

 Sharma was also amazing. I've seen her act in another Bollywood film entitled, Band Baaja Baarat and her role in this film differed with her being more emotional in her acting for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. As Taani, Sharma embodied a woman who had experience lost thoroughly. Nonetheless, the director's choice to give her a love of dancing seemed premature in her current state of being in mourning for her ex.

Overall, I give this movie 5 stars. I'd definitely recommend this film to anybody who wants a feel good, goofy film to watch.