Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Luck by Chance, and Billu
I had another fun movie night with Old Schoolfriend today. We met for lunch at Kabuki, one of (if not the) oldest Japanese restaurants in Helsinki.
The restaurant is very small and quite popular, so as soon as we had decided on the date we could meet, she made table reservations for us. After an excellent meal, we continued to her place to watch some movies.
Today we only watched Indian movies, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Luck by Chance, and Billu, which all were very enjoyable. I think my favourite was Luck by Chance, which is a slice of life story about struggling actors, the film industry, and how some people get the lucky break while others don't.
The cast was wonderful, and I loved all the special appearance by people who appeared as themselves for brief cameos. I've always liked Konkona Sen Sharma and Farhan Akhtar was also excellent, as were the rest.
My friend was actually joking that it was really a triple-Shahrukh night, since he appeared in all three films :D. He was the main lead in only one (RNBDJ), and his appearance in Luck by Chance (as himself) was rather brief, whereas his role in Billu was a bit of a parody of his star image (the song picturisations were hilarious :D).
He was maybe a bit too much in Billu, since the story wasn't really about him. It told of a small village barber (played by Irrfan Khan) who used to be friends with him when they were small boys. When there is suddenly a film crew in town, everybody goes a bit crazy, and when they find out about the friendship, everybody is trying to arrange a meeting with the superstar through his supposed friend.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was a more traditional love story. SRK's character, Surinder Sahni gets suddenly married to his old Professor's daughter Taani (Anushka Sharma), because her fiance died in an accident right on the day of their marriage, and her father had a massive heart attack after hearing the news, and passed away as well. Before his death, he asked his good friend and former student to marry his daughter and take care of her.
Taani was, of course, grieving for all her losses, whereas Suri had fallen in love with her at first sight. He is a rather ordinary and very awkward seeming middle class employee of a power company, and nothing glamorous - it was actually great fun to see Shahrukh looking very nerdy in this role.
After a while they settle into a routine life, but Suri wants to find a way to bring a smile back into Taani's face. He allows her to take classes at a dancing school, but he wants to at least get a glimpse of her acting happy again.
With the help of his friend (another barber, by the way :D), he does a complete makeover, getting rid of his moustache and glasses and dressing in trendier clothes, while introducing himself as a rather brash and pushy character named Raj. (the line, "Raj, you may have heard of me," immediately made me think of Om Shanti Om XD).
I loved how Raj is supposed to be very in-your-face and much more confident and "macho" than Suri, you can still see his utter awkwardness at times. But Suri himself is rather sweet as well, and I am actually glad that Taani did recognize that, even though Raj did sweep her off her feet for a while.
All in all, a very enjoyable night with three fun films.
The restaurant is very small and quite popular, so as soon as we had decided on the date we could meet, she made table reservations for us. After an excellent meal, we continued to her place to watch some movies.
Today we only watched Indian movies, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Luck by Chance, and Billu, which all were very enjoyable. I think my favourite was Luck by Chance, which is a slice of life story about struggling actors, the film industry, and how some people get the lucky break while others don't.
The cast was wonderful, and I loved all the special appearance by people who appeared as themselves for brief cameos. I've always liked Konkona Sen Sharma and Farhan Akhtar was also excellent, as were the rest.
My friend was actually joking that it was really a triple-Shahrukh night, since he appeared in all three films :D. He was the main lead in only one (RNBDJ), and his appearance in Luck by Chance (as himself) was rather brief, whereas his role in Billu was a bit of a parody of his star image (the song picturisations were hilarious :D).
He was maybe a bit too much in Billu, since the story wasn't really about him. It told of a small village barber (played by Irrfan Khan) who used to be friends with him when they were small boys. When there is suddenly a film crew in town, everybody goes a bit crazy, and when they find out about the friendship, everybody is trying to arrange a meeting with the superstar through his supposed friend.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was a more traditional love story. SRK's character, Surinder Sahni gets suddenly married to his old Professor's daughter Taani (Anushka Sharma), because her fiance died in an accident right on the day of their marriage, and her father had a massive heart attack after hearing the news, and passed away as well. Before his death, he asked his good friend and former student to marry his daughter and take care of her.
Taani was, of course, grieving for all her losses, whereas Suri had fallen in love with her at first sight. He is a rather ordinary and very awkward seeming middle class employee of a power company, and nothing glamorous - it was actually great fun to see Shahrukh looking very nerdy in this role.
After a while they settle into a routine life, but Suri wants to find a way to bring a smile back into Taani's face. He allows her to take classes at a dancing school, but he wants to at least get a glimpse of her acting happy again.
With the help of his friend (another barber, by the way :D), he does a complete makeover, getting rid of his moustache and glasses and dressing in trendier clothes, while introducing himself as a rather brash and pushy character named Raj. (the line, "Raj, you may have heard of me," immediately made me think of Om Shanti Om XD).
I loved how Raj is supposed to be very in-your-face and much more confident and "macho" than Suri, you can still see his utter awkwardness at times. But Suri himself is rather sweet as well, and I am actually glad that Taani did recognize that, even though Raj did sweep her off her feet for a while.
All in all, a very enjoyable night with three fun films.