Thursday, 28 May 2009

Rab ne Bana di Jodi
(2008)

60%

A married man wants his wife to love him (as he loves her) - although he married her knowing she did not – so he pretends to be the type of movie hero she prefers. The result, however, is that she ends up loving the stereotype he presents rather than the man he actually is inside.

This tale of unrequited love about a man who, essentially, wants an affair with his wife gives Shahrukh Khan the opportunity to play two roles. A challenge he rises to with some deft touches of humor and his usual energy; displaying his versatility as both an actor and as a star. His wife, played by Anushka Sharma, is a great actress in the making who should, hopefully, get better work than this. The characters remain essentially two dimensional because the screenplay does not offer enough for the two performers to do.

The other main problem with this film is that its views on love are flawed and naïve: 'There is no pain in true love'. The plotline meanders to fill out the formulaic content and length - it is funny but not nearly as philosophically profound as it would like to think it is. In its own mediocre way, this movie is about being the person you are as well as not hiding your light under a bushel. Yet, the central metaphor of dance representing the essence of sexual unions is not used as effectively as it could have been to express the very idea that marriage is a partnership. Given that this is a tired and over used metaphor, perhaps this is not very surprising.


Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.