Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

<p>Shy, introverted, and kind-hearted Surinder “Suri” Sahni ( ) is an office worker for He quietly falls in love with the daughter of his former professor Shirish ( ), the beautiful and vivacious Tania “Taani” Gupta ( ), whom he first meets during the preparations for her wedding. Upon their first meeting, however, Taani jokingly berates and blames Suri for setting an impossible set of standards for her father that she was never able to meet as a child. A short while later, the entire wedding party learns that Taani’s fiancé and his family were killed in a traffic accident, causing her father to suffer a heart attack. Fearing that Taani will be alone in the world, the professor on his deathbed asks Suri to marry her. Suri concedes; Taani tearfully agrees only for her father’s sake. After a hasty wedding, Suri takes Taani to his ancestral home in . While his good nature leads Suri to treat her with exceptional care and patience, he is too frightened to profess his love for her. Later on, Surinder’s office colleagues and his best friend Bobby invite themselves to his house for a party after learning of his marriage from the neighbors. Surinder feels awkward, but is later surprised when Taani shows up. However, Taani tells him that while she will try to be a good wife, she can never love him due to having no love left within her. Suri, though, continues to indulge her every desire. This includes frequent visits to the cinema to see which appeal to Taani’s fantasies about romance and her passion for dancing. She soon asks for Suri’s permission, which he grants, to take an expensive dance class with the company to escape her mundane life at home. During one visit to the cinema, Suri feels inadequate in comparison to the strong, masculine images that Taani admires and later asks his childhood friend Balwinder “Bobby” Khosla ( ), a hair-salon owner, for advice on how to win her love. Bobby is eager to help and suggests a complete makeover (shaving off his mustache, changing his hairstyle, outfitting him in casual Western-style clothing including aviator-style sunglasses with oversized pastel lenses). Suri is thus transformed into the swaggering, loud, rude, and fun-loving “Raj Kapoor”, named by Suri after the hero in a film Taani admires. He joins the dance class and by chance — or, as he believes, by divine intervention — becomes Taani’s partner in the competition. Despite Raj’s initial crudeness — a result of Suri’s inexperience with women and his attempt to emulate the “cool” images from movies — he and Taani become friends as they work together on their dance routine. Suri feels encouraged when Taani does not on “Raj’s” wrist during the festival of (for to do so would indicate that she thought of him only as a brother). Thus, after a period of time, Raj declares his love for her. Suri’s ruse poses a dilemma for both of them. Taani enters into a period of internal conflict, desperately wanting to escape from her despair-filled life through finding a new person to love. Despite wanting to escape what she believes is a loveless marriage, Taani feels compelled to stay with Suri due to the promise that she made to her father. Suri also faces an extraordinary paradox: Taani’s sheer misery as his wife in contrast to her delight with his fabricated , Raj. He thus attempts to win Taani’s love as Suri, Suri gets two tickets from his office to a Japan themed festival, where he wrestles a Japanese sumo wrestler in an attempt to win two tickets to Japan to showcase his love for Taani. During the match Suri gets injured badly but manages to win thus winning the two tickets. Taani gets angry at Suri for his recklessness, which only alienates her further. She eventually runs away to find Raj in order to tell him the predicament she is in, hoping he will help her. He offers to elope with her, which she agrees to tearfully. They set the date for their elopement to the next night, the night of the competition. On the day of the competition, Suri takes Taani to the in order to garner God’s blessings for her competition that night—and internally, also for her life with Raj. While there Taani has an in which she believes God has shown her a sign that tells that her marriage to Suri is divinely inspired. For the first time she reflects on her husband and becomes aware of the strength and integrity of Suri’s character. Taani thus tells Raj that she cannot run away with him. She leaves him in what appears to be a state of shock with tears in his eyes. When the time comes for their performance Taani is stunned to see Suri, instead of Raj to join her on stage. At that moment, Taani puts two and two together and through a series of flashbacks discovers that Suri is Raj. Backstage, she confronts Suri and when he confesses his love for her, she tearfully admits that she returns his feelings. The two win the competition and head off on a honeymoon to Japan. tells a story from the point of view of an ordinary person and, most importantly, conveys a message that being ‘ordinary’ is cool. The filmmakers were confident that it would be able to strike a chord with millions because the film has ordinary people as its target audience: “As middle-class people, so many of us have a routine life. We wake up in the morning, get dressed, go to the office, come back, sometimes for a change we buy things to take home, watch TV, eat dinner and go to sleep. And then we repeat this day after day, week after week. talks about one such man who lives a routine life. It is a simple film at heart.” In February 2008, announced that he would be helming another film titled which would once again star his lucky mascot, Shah Rukh Khan. Initial speculations put as the lead actress while the movie was to be inspired by the 1964 Hollywood classic but Sonam eventually dismissed reports about her being a part of the movie The female lead was to be a newcomer who would be chosen following a massive talent hunt for a young, demure woman with quintessential Punjabi features. In May 2008, Yash Raj announced the casting of the 20-year-old model as the leading lady opposite Khan. commented: “We were looking first for someone who could truly embody the spirit of small-town . We know we have found her in Anushka. While she has no previous acting experience, we have seen that unique spark in her that makes us confident that she will be a standout even opposite Shah Rukh.” Sharma was chosen over hundreds of girls for this role and was kept hidden from the media during the filming. When asked about that, Khan said: “The idea was not to keep her a secret; we wanted her work to speak for her. When new actors come into films, it is important for people to see their work and then question them. It becomes easier after the film releases.” was cast to play an important role in the film, making it his first commercial outing. Filming began in May 2008; Yash Chopra was present at the shoot. A portion was shot with Khan at the in , Punjab. Khan had to lose the six-pack abs he developed for the song ” ” from (2007) since he was playing the role of a very normal, regular person. The soundtrack of was composed by . The lyrics of all the songs have been given by . This marks the second collaboration of the composer duo with Shah Rukh Khan after (2007). The album was mixed by at YRF Studios in and was mastered by at in , , . The song “Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte” pays homage to Bollywood actors , , , and and actresses , , , and . The performance of the song includes appearances by , , , and . Serbian pop singer remade the song “Dance Pe Chance” as “Insomnia” in 2010. Bulgarian pop singer also made a copy of the same song as “Nedei”. The soundtrack of was released on 14 November 2008. It is the first Bollywood soundtrack to reach the top 10 album sales for the . According to the Indian trade website , with around 19,00,000 units sold, this film’s soundtrack album was the year’s second highest-selling. was released across 30 countries worldwide on 12 December 2008 on over 1,200 screens, including approximately 300 prints for the overseas market, making it the first time a Bollywood film was released on such a wide scale. Before release, the film witnessed a large volume of advance bookings. Aditya Chopra, who is known for maintaining secrecy over his films and not showing them to anyone until the day of release, made an exception and held a special screening on 23 November 2008 at Yash Raj Studios. The screening was attended by Khan and his family, , Yash Chopra, and debutante Sharma. There was a huge debate in the industry whether Aditya Chopra’s decision to go ahead with the release of the film in the wake of the terror strikes in Mumbai was the right one. With the trauma of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai city on 26, 27, and 28 November still fresh, there was divided opinion on the release schedule. While some felt that Chopra should go ahead with the release because the public, tired and depressed after watching news of the attacks and the aftermath on television screens, would be waiting for a true entertainer to divert its mind, others thought he should postpone the film release as the audiences, not just in Mumbai but all over the country, were still not in a mood to visit theatres. The first poster of was released in October in theatres and multiplexes across India, with full-page advertisements in national dailies. The first theatrical promo was released on 14 November, with Karan Johar’s . Initially very little was known about the movie, and there were many theories floating around on the Internet about the story. The first music promo of the song ” ” was released on 2 November 2008, across all leading television channels to coincide with Khan’s 43rd birthday. The song promo had received praise from the public. Joginder Tuteja of gave the DVD of 3.5 out of 5 stars stating that it is a good choice if you “want to watch a clean family movie at home.” The DVD includes the documentaries, and (” “, ” “, ” “), as well as a number of deleted scenes and interviews. The film, was released on a year after its theatrical release. Upon release, the film received positive reviews. Robert Abele of the calls an “agreeably amusing comedy/romance/musical” noting that, “the magnetic Khan is a skilled enough comic actor with his physical transformation—like a -ish recessive turning into a extrovert—that believing Taani wouldn’t notice isn’t difficult.” Rachel Saltz of describes it as “soft, sweet and slow, in the words of one of its songs. It deftly blends comedy, the ruling tone of the new Bollywood, with melodrama, the ruling tone of the old.” Manish Gajjar of the gave the film 4 out of 5 stars noting that, “Shah Rukh Khan makes you laugh and cry as the nerdy-looking, clumsy, bespectacled Surinder and all hip and happening Raj. A true professional in his own right, Khan breezes through his dialogues during the emotional and comic scenes.” of argues that it is “smarter and more self-aware of its rom-com contrivances than most Hollywood movies” and notes that while “the movie’s cleverness eventually devolves into a simplistic Harlequin-Romance-for-males wish-fulfillment about beauty and the geek, it’s a very well-acted variation on a Hollywood staple.” Critic and author of stated that the film, “has been dismissed in some quarters as self-conscious and artificial, a coyly self-referential reworking of outdated movie tropes a la ‘ , but it works for me in a way that most contemporary Hollywood romcoms don’t.” The film also received some negative reviews. of was critical, giving it 2 out of 5 stars and stating that “Aditya Chopra’s return to direction after 8 years is marked by a flawed script, which in turn spawns a disappointing film. Where’s the smart dialogue and the spirited characters that defined his debut film, ? There’s no trace of either in this film…the problem then, at the root of , is that much like those artificial sets in the film, the emotions too are contrived.” Derek Elley of argues that the film has “a huge, hollow center that sinks the project early on…A paper-thin script drags itself to the finish line amid tiresome mugging by Khan, a huge credibility gap (she never recognises him without his spectacles and moustache?), and a blah score with only one showstopper (featuring 5 famous actresses).” A number of critics have further noted the similarities between this movie and films. Khalid Mohamed, of the , gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars stating that Surinder “is a soul brother to the mousy -cum- ” who “makes you laugh and sob alternately.” Mayank Shekhar from gave the film three out of five stars and argues that “[The] same person, oppositely twinned, is usually the stuff of superhero films; the kinds of Clark Kent-Superman, – etc. You feel entirely lost in this fantasy flick because for the most part, it’s built around something so intimate and real. It’d be much easier to travel to foreign countries around far-fetched situations with fake heroes.” In addition, Sudish Kamath of stated that while could have been an interesting art film exploring the dynamics of an , the director instead “treats this character type like would treat Spider-Man…Superhero ‘Raj’ slips into costume and out, complaining about how it gets uncomfortable around the crotch, to win over his 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 Sahni who starts off well.” collected (US$5.0 million) in its opening week. By its fourth week, it had earned (US$10 million), making it Shah Rukh Khan’s fifth consecutive blockbuster in 3 years and Aditya Chopra’s third blockbuster as a director. The film grossed $8.43 million in the overseas market of which $2.09 million was contributed by the United States and $2.24 million from the UK, and was declared as a blockbuster overseas. At the end of its theatrical run, it grossed (US$19 million) worldwide, thus becoming ‘ and Khan’s highest-grossing film at the time of its release. It was the second-highest-grossing film domestically and the highest-grossing in the overseas market that year.</p>