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Is Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi a musical midlife crisis forShahrukh Khan?

Have you ever outgrown a friend? Someone you knew in college, perhaps, that you promised to stay in touch with. But then you moved to another state and after a year or two you stopped visiting each other. Then the phone calls and emails became infrequent, until finally you were just names on each other’s holiday card list. Or maybe you reconnected with an old friend at a wedding and found that the two of you had just gone in different directions. Maybe you even found that while you had been getting on with your life, your old friend was still trying to live in the glory days.

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan has a friend like that. This guy has used many names, but let’s just call him Raj. Shahrukh and Raj have been inseparable for years - ever since Raj burst onto the scene in 1995, in Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and lifted Shahrukh to the top tier of the Hindi film industry. To be sure, Shahrukh had been doing fine on his own and was already known for his intense acting. But where Shahrukh was magnetic and compelling, Raj was charming and lovable. In DDLJ he was a dream boyfriend: a nice boy with an irresistible smile, a streak of naughtiness that never went too far, and a heart bigger than the Punjab worn breezily on his sleeve.

Raj was the life of the party, and pretty soon he was seen everywhere. Shahrukh seemed to enjoy the fun as much as anyone else when Raj did his two party pieces – dream boyfriend and/or lovable rogue - in fluffy bits of escapism like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Baadshah, Paheli and Kal Ho Naa Ho. If Shahrukh resented being eclipsed by his popular friend, he didn’t give any sign of it. After all, Raj’s demands on Shakrukh’s time didn’t prevent the actor from taking on more complex roles in films like Asoka, Swades, and Chak De India (though many reviewers complained that he had picked up some bad habits from Raj,  particularly a tendency to play to the crowd.)

But in 2004 we spied the beginning of a rift between the two friends. In Main Hoon Na, director Farah Khan and Shahrukh poked a little fun at Raj. Wasn’t his penchant for playing young lovers getting predictable and even a little silly? It seemed like gentle teasing, but by 2007 the two Khans were gleefully tearing Raj to shreds in Om Shanti Om. Now Raj was presented as a smug, shallow brat obsessed with a woman twenty years his junior. That might sound like Farah Khan came between the two boys, but I think the truth is simply that Shahrukh has outgrown Raj. Things are different than they were in 1995. Shahrukh is now a 43 year old with a wife and two kids, while Raj is still single and still romancing younger A-list heroines with boyish ardor.

It’s never been clear how old Raj actually is, but he really doesn’t seem to be acting his age.

Things have come to a crisis in the new movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which reunites Shahrukh and Raj with the man who brought them together, writer/director Aditya Chopra. But instead of happily reminiscing  and having a grand old time, Shahrukh and Raj get into a protracted fight. The film is about the troubled marriage of Surinder (Shahrukh) and Taani (Anushka Sharma) who have wed in haste after tragedy left Taani all alone in the world. To cheer up his emotionally numb bride, Surinder concocts an alter ego, Raj - a brash charmer who is an amalgamation of movie heroes – who can not only be the kind of lover he thinks Taani wants, but can say and do the romantic things Surinder is afraid to do. Surinder’s deception is all too successful; Taani starts to fall for Raj, Surinder becomes jealous of himself, and the film hangs on Taani’s choice: will she pick the exciting dream boyfriend or the loving, faithful husband?

If all that sounds like a fascinating character study and exploration of duality, then I’m afraid I’ve misled you. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a mediocre movie. It’s poorly conceived, sloppily written, and saddled with creepy subtext that makes Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam look proto-feminist. I won’t go on at length, as the film’s flaws have already been pointed out by many insightful people.

And really, isn’t it about time? I don’t need to watch Shahrukh Khan run through another mustard field, and I certainly don’t want to watch him become Rishi Kapoor or Dev Anand, insisting on playing loverboys until he’s a pensioner. I enjoy him too much to take any pleasure in watching him become a complete joke.  I like Raj too, but his memory will be evergreen on DVD.

Besides, I hear Raj has a younger brother who’s been hanging out with Shahid Kapoor.