On being pleasantly surprised by 'Raanjhanaa'

If your idea of a well-spent weekend or a holiday is to catch a movie in a nearby theatre then you would be with me as I ramble on in the next few minutes. This might also interest you if you take it upon yourself to read every god-forsaken film review that floats around in the netizens world and decide in favor of or against a movie, and hence its relevance and the special role it plays in my insignificant existence. I mostly rely on facebook for quick reviews - sometimes an uptight review by some uptight newspaper, sometimes the more reader-friendly and agreeable blogs by friends and friends of friends and sometimes the comic strippy blogs or something like that (don’t know if they have a name for it) I have been following this last kind, actually bump into them here n there as friends keep posting and re-sharing it to prove a point. I am no alien to that concept either. We all are trying to prove the same point afterall – ‘M funny as hell!!’ Sorry but I had to put it out there since it’s kinda getting annoying  as there is very little genuine intent to inform and more of these gimmicky writing to get as many hits and shares in the sacred world of the Fbians. And I am quite apprehensive of the way these posts go viral and become influential in forming opinions on just about anything. Opinions that are so one sided that if you start buying it all then you would lose all hope of living. Ok, now m starting to sound like one of them.

Coming back to this comic strippy blog that I was talking ‘bout, I read its review on ‘Raanjhanaa’, the new Dhanush-Sonam flick, and it did crack me up as usual. You know how we exaggerate over things that we disapprove of, that are not agreeable to our eyes and ears and so on and so forth. This blog follows the same mantra, but what works for it like most of the funny blogs, is that it carries forward the mantle of ‘bash and trash’ pretty effectively. You love the satiric sting as you take sides with it even if you have not watched the film. The deal is simple – raving about it is so passé and old fashioned and most importantly, forgettable! So let’s trash it with some cool lingos and comedy. I can tell from my experience that you mostly take sides with such posts when you want to skip the movie since the trailers suck, or the hero looks less evolved (in appearance), or the heroine can’t speak Hindi but the Director won’t have anybody else and the list you know is endless. In such situations, it helps when you get a different perspective and it shouldn’t hurt your ego to give it a try much against your will. And for all you know, you might just come out raving about it.

Raanjhaana has it’s loopholes like any other film, it looks ridiculously silly when the main conflict is based on an unbelievable situation – Abhay Deol, Sonam’s love interest,  almost marrying her by successfully faking as a Muslim and nowhere the families get involved in  background checks! Ever heard of that? She is their only daughter by-the-way and all the drama was a result of the ‘arranged’ guys Sonam’s parents kept showing her. One can pick on many such instances but once you start looking above the obvious and shut the rule book for once you would enjoy the film. Although I did not understand ‘going along with it’ for films like the recent YJHD, in this case, I do, since it was so easy doing so. Even if a stubble-free Dhanush would creep the hell out of you in the first few scenes, I say give yourself some settling down time and he will get lot easier on your eye post interval. The fact that he is an actor of great caliber has been sealed with a national award, but I was only worried about yet another MTI-ed Southey debuting in Bollywood! But I was relieved and pleasantly surprised when his 'Ds' and 'Ts' were solidly pronounced as one would expect from someone from the Northern belt - the character he essays in the movie. For those who are Sonam fans, this girl has never looked as gorgeous before, I would say the same for Abhay, afterall who wants to gush over his acting skills, that’s done. The one, who plays Dhanush’s friend, makes effective use of a meatier role this time. 

Banaras has now been added to my list of must visits and JNU brought some old memories back. All in all, despite a particularly painful lady sitting next to me yakking away throughout the film, I got distracted very little. Though the dialogues get a little verbose from time to time but overall it’s appealing and the film's end and the final narration by the hero particularly interests me and touched a chord. It manages to be poignant and humorous – life-like! You would not regret watching Raanjhanaa, if you have to take a chance with a movie, pick this one!