I thought the movie was a decent one-time watch but on retrospect, I must say the movie was problematic in its depiction of love, apart from gaping holes in the narrative.
The plot of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi pits a shy, reserved and dull Surinder in conflict with outgoing and effervescent Raj, who embodies SRK’s brightest characters; even the name. Works at a meta level and for SRK fans, no doubt, but the core message was that to win over his wife, he had to become somebody different from whom he actually was.
Isn't love all about acceptance of a person exactly the way they are? And to win over someone, do you have to essentially change your core characteristics and woo them in a filmy manner? Also, the film espouses the idea that extra-marital affair is fine if your marriage is "predictable" and "unexciting".
Anushka's character is quite selfish and self-centred. Suri is very courteous and righteous. He never oversteps his boundaries, he leaves his own room for her, takes her for movies every day. She literally doesn't careabout any of it. Instead she finds a dance competition poster and decides to enroll in it. There she finds "love" as she has envisioned it.
The film puts a problematic message out there, that love can only be found by one of the partners changing themselves to the point of being unrecognisable, instead of mutual compromise and adjustment.
Discuss.
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
CID
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