Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak

Forget London, forget Prague, forget Miami and forget any other locale your travel agent can take you. Instead let’s go deep into the heart of India itself, more specifically the heart of Punjab, Amritsar. Where an “…extraordinary love story is in every jodi”. Who knows, that random couple walking down the street were once Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, whose best friend happened to be Vinay Phatak (that truly is extraordinary).

One of the most elusive directors in the business, Aditya Chopra, wakes from a deep hibernation period for only his third film over the last 13 years. His first was a little unknown picture by the name of DILWALE DHULHANIYA LE JAYENGE (I’m sure most have already forgotten it by now) starring none other than Shah Rukh Khan. His next, MOHABBATEIN, again featured King “Raj” Khan. Appropriately so, RAB NE BANA DI JODI goes for the hat trick.

Expectations are high, and with no other real competition (GHAJINI is still two weeks away) the thirst from the audience is there.

The film starts with our peppy heroine, Taani (Anushka Sharma) losing her soon to be husband in a tragic accident. Wanting to see his daughter happy and married, Taani’s father asks Surinder Sawhney (Shah Rukh Khan) a former student of his to whom he took a keen liking to. Taani agrees and of course so does Surinder, after all it’s hard to say no to someone on their death bed.

Surinder (the shy and nerdy hero) is already infatuated by Taani, unfortunately Taani reveals that she will remain a loyal housewife, but will never love him. Surinder responds by letting her know he too does not expect “love” especially since he’s never loved in his life or even talked to another woman. Taani soon attempts a life of normalcy by entering a dancing class. Wanting to see her practice, Surinder with the help of his friend Bobby (Vinay Pathak) transforms himself into a cool looking dude with tight clothes, gelled up hair and awesome shades!

Our hero is forced to participate in the dance sessions and ironically gets matched up with his leading lady. Unable to recognize him, she buys into the new Surinder, er rather Raj.

The biggest plus of the entire experience is its simplicity. The simplicity of the cast (only three main characters), the simplicity of the location and of course the realness of Shah Rukh Khan’s innocent shy character. The idea of “ordinary” cannot be stressed more.

The biggest flaw is the one “extraordinary” twist Aditya Chopra attempts…Raj. This is the typical character that’s been in almost every Yash Raj production. A handsome social butterfly with a heart of gold, who shows the heroine a new way to live. There’s a keen interest in the hero from the get go, but is lost once his neurosis kicks in.

Performances from the three lead actors were carried out very well. Shah Rukh’s dorky book worm character was loveable and charming, though the Raj character was overplayed too many times. Anushka Sharma is definitely the Deepika Padukone of this year and displayed maturity in only her first feature film. Vinay Pathak’s role is limited (after all its not his love story) but effective as Surinder’s best friend.

The movie goes into the right direction in the first 45 minutes. Surinder’s interaction with Taani is very entertaining. However, as soon as Raj steps in, the film strays into the path of every other Shah Rukh film. Also the climax at the dance contest is a little too convenient.

Overall the movie is limited to the first hour and a few scenes in the middle, other than that it’s two and a half hours of a weak storyline. The Khan-Chopra tagline will catch one like wildfire and the monetary return will favor the distributors, but don’t expect this to be a DILWALE DHULHANIYA LE JAYENGE or even a MOHABBATEIN.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars