Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (translation: A Match Made in Heaven) 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.
Release
Box-office
On its opening day, the film earned 7.5 crore net all over India. The second day earnings were estimated at 10 crores. 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.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. It is the second highest unadjusted Bollywood grosser after Ghajini.
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”. 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.” 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.” 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.” 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the film, “has been dismissed in some quarters as self-conscious and artificial, a coyly self-referential reworking of outdated movie tropes a la Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, but it works for me in a way that most contemporary Hollywood romcoms don’t.”
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.” 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.” 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.”
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.” 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.” 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).”
Cast
- 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
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