Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
| Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi | |
|---|---|
| File:Rab ne.jpg Theatrical Poster | |
| Directed by | Aditya Chopra |
| Written by | Aditya Chopra |
| Produced by | Yash Raj Films |
| Starring | Shahrukh Khan Anushka Sharma Vinay Pathak |
| Music by | Salim-Sulaiman |
| Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
Release date | December 12, 2008 |
Running time | 167 min.[1] |
| Country |  India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | INR 22 Crores |
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Hindi: - रब ने बना दी जोड़ी, Template:Lang-ur, translation: A Match Made in Heaven)[2] is a 2008 Indian romantic comedy directed by Aditya Chopra and produced by Yash Raj Films. Shahrukh Khan stars in the film as mild-mannered office worker Surinder "Suri" Sahni whose love for beautiful, vivacious Tania "Taani Partner" Gupta (Anushka Sharma) transforms him into dancing sensation "Raj." It was released worldwide on December 12, 2008.[3]
Plot
Shy, introverted, and kind-hearted Surinder "Suri" Sahni (Shahrukh Khan) is an office worker for Punjab Power. He quietly falls in love with the daughter of his former professor, beautiful and vivacious Tania "Taani" Gupta (Anushka Sharma), whom he first sees during the preparations for her wedding. Upon their first meeting however, Taani jokingly berates and blames him for setting an impossible set of standards (reiterated by her father) that she was never able to meet as a child. A short while later, Tanni's father suffers a heart attack when the entire wedding party learns that her fiance and his family were killed in a traffic accident. Fearing that Tanni will be alone in the world, the professor asks Suri to marry her. Suri concedes; Taani tearfully agrees only to please her father.
After a hasty wedding, Suri takes Taani to his ancestral home in Amritsar. While his good nature leads Suri to treat her with exceptional care and patience, he is too frightened to profess his love for her. 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 still continues to indulge her every desire. This includes frequent visits to the cinema to see song and dance films 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 with the company Dancing Jodi 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 (Vinay Pathak), a hair-saloon owner, for advice on how to win her love. Bobby is eager to help and suggests a complete makeover (removing his moustache, changing his hairstyle, and giving him a new set of clothing including a pair of sunglasses). Suri is thus transformed into the swaggering, loud, rude, and fun-loving Raj. 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 Surinder'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 tie a rakhi (holy thread) on "Raj's" wrist during the festival of Raksha Bandhan (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. Yet despite wanting to escape her 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 alter ego "Raj." He thus attempts to win Taani's love as Suri, an act 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 Golden Temple 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 epiphany 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, rather than Raj, join her on stage. It is at that moment that Taani grows to love Suri (rather than Raj) as she discovers his passionate love for her.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Shahrukh Khan | Surinder "Suri" Sahni/Raj | |
| Anushka Sharma | Tania "Taani" Gupta | |
| Vinay Pathak | Balwinder "Bobby" Khosla | |
| M. K. Raina | Taani's father | |
| Shonali Nagrani | ||
| Vivan Bhatena | ||
| Richa Pallod | ||
| Manmeet Singh | Raju (real owner of Raju Motors in the movie) |
Cameo appearances in the song- "Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte"[4][5][6]
Release
Box-office
On its opening day, the film earned 7.5 crore net all over India.[7] The second day earnings were estimated at 10 crores. [8] According to first week collection records, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi broke opening weekend records for Yash Raj Films, collected 60 crore worldwide and surpassed Dhoom 2 in its first week gross.[9]By its fourth week, the film had earned 81 crores in India alone and $2 million in both the United States and the United Kingdom.[10] It is the second highest Bollywood grosser of 2008 after Ghajini.[11]
Critical reception
Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times calls the film an "agreeably amusing comedy/romance/musical" noting that, "the magnetic Khan is a skilled enough comic actor with his physical transformation — like a Peter Sellers-ish recessive turning into a Jerry Lewis extrovert — that believing Taani wouldn't notice isn't difficult".[12] Rachel Saltz of The New York Times described the film 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."[13] Manish Gajjar of the BBC gave the film four out of five stars noting that, "Shah Rukh Khan makes you laugh and cry as the nerdy-looking, clumsy, bespectacled Surinder and the all hip and happening Raj. A true professional in his in his own right, Khan breezes through his dialogues full during the emotional and comic scenes."[14] Frank Lovece of Film Journal International argues that the film is "smarter and more self-aware of its rom-com contrivances than most Hollywood movies" and notes that while "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."[15] Critic and author Maitland McDonagh of MissFlickChick.com 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 Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, but it works for me in a way that most contemporary Hollywood romcoms don't." [16]
A number of critics have further noted the similarities between this movie and superhero films. Khalid Mohamed, of the Hindustan Times, gave the film three and half out of five stars stating that Suri, "is a soul brother to the mousy Clark-Kent-cum-Superman" who "makes you laugh and sob alternately."[17] Mayank Shekhar from Mumbai Mirror gave the film three out of five stars and argues that: "Same person, oppositely twinned, is usually the stuff of super-hero films; the kinds of Clark Kent-Superman, Peter Parker-Spiderman etc. You feel entirely lost in this fantasy flick, because for 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." [18] In addition, Sudish Kamath of The Hindu states that while Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi could have been an interesting art film exploring the dynamics of an arranged marriage, the director instead, "treats this character type like Sam Raimi would treat Spider-Man [...] 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."[19]
Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN is critical of the film, giving it two out of five stars and stating that, "Aditya Chopra's return to direction after eight 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, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge? There's no trace of either in this film [...] the problem then, at the root of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, is that much like those artificial sets in the film, the emotions too are contrived." [20] Nikhat Kazmi from The Times of India also notes that Surinder Sahni is, "a character you still haven't seen in Shah Rukh's arsenal before. And that's why he strikes a chord. But that's about all this much-awaited film can boast about. Quite a let-down, specially since it marked the return of director Aditya Chopra after a long hiatus from the hurly burly of movie-lore [...] It's these two major absurdities -- the moustache-as-disguise and the miraculous divine revelation at the end -- that turn this film into a drama that's completely out-of-sync with contemporary Bollywood."[21] Derek Elley of Variety argues that the film has "a huge, hollow center that sinks the project early on [...] Paper-thin script drags itself to the finish line amid tiresome mugging by Khan, a huge credibility gap (she never recognizes him without his glasses and mustache?) and a blah score with only one showstopper (featuring five famous actresses)." [22]
Soundtrack
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
The soundtrack of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was composed by Salim-Sulaiman. The song "Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte" pays homage to Bollywood legendary actors Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor. The performance of the song includes appearances by Kajol, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukerji. [23]
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi's score is the first Bollywood soundtrack to reach the top ten albums sales for the iTunes Store.[24]
| No. | Title | Singers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai" | Roop Kumar Rathod | 04:44 |
| 2. | "Haule Haule" | Sukhwinder Singh | 04:25 |
| 3. | "Dance Pe Chance" | Sunidhi Chauhan, Labh Janjua | 04:22 |
| 4. | "Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte" | Sonu Nigam | 06:36 |
| 5. | "Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai" | Shreya Ghoshal | 01:43 |
| 6. | "Dancing Jodi" | Instrumental | 03:59 |
Notes
- ^ IANS. "Shah Rukh's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi sees heavy booking". IBNLive. Retrieved 2008-12-2.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - BBC review
- ^ "Yash Raj Films' incredible line-up for 2008". Yash Raj Films. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ Official trailer: Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte
- ^ Kareena, Priyanka, Deepika's battle royale in 'Billu Barber'
- ^ Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is unmissable
- ^ "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi First Day Business". Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
- ^ "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Second Day Business". Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
- ^ "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 1st week Business". presstrustofindia.com. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
- ^ RNBDJ: SRK's third consecutive blockbuster!
- ^ Box Office India
- ^ Abele, Robert. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (A Match Made by God), Los Angeles Times
- ^ Saltz, Rachel. "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: Forlorn Husband Makes the Right Moves", The New York Times
- ^ Gajjar, Manish. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (review), BBC
- ^ Lovece, Frank. Film Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Film Journal International
- ^ McDonagh, Maitland, Rab ne Bana di Jodi (review)
- ^ Satyam Shahrukham Surinderam
- ^ Mayank Shekhar. "RNBDJ Mumbai Mirror Review". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
- ^ Romance with Raj -- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
- ^ Masand, Rajeev. "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is contrived". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
- ^ Kazmi, Nikhat. "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi". The Times of India. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
- ^ Rab ne bana di jodi
- ^ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi's music fails to excite
- ^ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi features in iTunes Top 10 Charts
External links
- Official Website
- Official trailer:General
- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi at IMDb
- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi at Bollywood Hungama
- Template:Gomolo title
- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi at Rediff.com
- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' at BBC
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