Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: Aditya Chopra Weds Ekta Kapoor!

This is 0215 am IST, Dec 14, 2008 and I just returned from watching Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi....sounds great title isn't it? Well true to its name going by the love we Indians seem to have on so called happy ending movies, this surely is a great title. There's special reason why I took writing this blog immediately after the movie.

So let me first talk of the movie....hmmm, Aditya Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Aditya Chopra, what I mean is as we know from our past it was written all over our minds that movie will have a happy ending and hence no element of suspense prevailed on the climax in our minds despite Chopra brigade trying its best to create a twist here and there to keep us on tenterhooks. To speak my heart out I consciously think there was neither anything wrong with the movie nor with the direction and as piece of sheer entertainment I am generous to bestow 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars to Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Shahrukh, his co-star debutante Anushka Sharma have played their parts well with the special acclaim to Anushka and has come across as someone with potential to evolve. The music too is also just about enough to remain in the memory for an average period with one or two good numbers.

Now let me come to the real issue why you started reading this blog…the core issue. What comes to mind spontaneously whenever there is mention of middle class housewife in India....going by the Aditya Chopra brigade the description should read something like this, a sari clad woman who wakes up before her husband every morning, cooks breakfast and lunch together so to keep his lunch box ready, washes all clothes, cleans the entire house daily, finishes all household chores, keeps dinner ready to provide him hot servings post his so called tiring schedule (pun intended) in the office, takes his permission for any investment or spending and in other words for all money related matters, oops the list is endless........summing all this is she is loyal to husband (read subservient).

I am neither against the Indian culture nor am I against the thesis of loyalty or affection for the family but I am dead opposite to this ideological system followed in the country from decades. Where on earth is written that husband should always work and woman should always remain in the four walls thus being the prime object of house arrest....I technically do not find any difference between Masood Azhar detained by Pak as house arrest and our Indian women who undergo this.

Thanks though to the ever growing tribe of educated men and women who are outrightly abandoning this unspoken code of conduct and are not shy to flaunt their fundamental rights of equality, be it in any field.....and thanks to this tribe that even their next generation is preached on the changing values in the society. Even though I have least interest in the ideology of feminism, the chauvinistic touch by our filmmakers and by large our saas-bahu serials quite often awaken this thought in me as today's generation will not stand up for this age old custom. It is understandable that the entire society as a whole especially the not so urban part of this subcontinent has built an ecosystem which has this philosophy of housewife being the lady servant of the house and hence will require the persistent efforts by those who understand it is the time to evolve in eradicating this menace. I am not against any woman or man for undertaking the household responsibilities but what I am trying to say is it should be a matter of choice and interest unlike now where it is an unwritten golden rule in many Indian families which is thrust on women right from the time they reach puberty.

Having said this there is also a growing populace of men in India who consistently put efforts to be a genuine part of this change thus extending a helping hand right from changing the baby diaper to cleaning the house. I have though criticized certain filmmakers who believe in this notion, will not hesitate to congratulate and thank those new thinking filmmakers who have been showing this change in their movies from few years now.

I respect the liberty the artists have in expressing their skills in all its forms but need to guard themselves against succumbing to the power of mass attraction at times....the point to be noted here is that I am not saying ban smoking in movies because it is injurious health, as I truly believe it is a matter of personal choice to smoke and hence artists have the creative freedom to smoke on screen but the same is not true for the inequality issue mentioned above....it is indeed a very fine line that will differentiate the right from the wrong in the society due to changing values.

Now this is where I found a common thread between Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi's theme and our modest Ekta Kapoor, who is a household name due to her ever increasing popularity (wish popularity goes down steadily) of K series of soap operas which strictly speaking show nothing but lady servants in the form of rich bahus and saas' wearing silk saris and expensive jewellary round the clock....wonder whether Ekta was subjected to any psychological shock by a woman in her early days.

So finally ladies and gentlemen welcome to the ideological marriage of Aditya Chopra and Ekta Kapoor and thus the invitation reads Aditya Chopra Weds Ekta Kapoor!