Why I loved Jab Harry Met Sejal!
This post was long overdue. The day I saw this movie I wanted to talk about loving it. Somehow, I couldn't find the words. I knew why I liked it but putting it into words somehow eluded me. So I kept watching the movie. It made me laugh and cry, but words? Nope. What could I possibly say to the people who called this anti-feminist, stupid and crap? I could argue that it was SRK's most romantic and passionate part yet, but that wasn't an answer to why this movie was brilliant. And then I realised I didn't have to convince people to like it, just like how people shouldn't be convincing me that it was crap. All I wanted to do, was talk about why I loved it and words, found me! Ironically that is also the premise of the move!
Here's the thing, this movie was very simple, based on a very simple concept, a concept that somehow when we get down to judgment we forget to grasp. So let me talk about it a little more and see if you can get to it yourself. The basic story, a girl went on a trip with her family and got engaged on the trip. Miraculously, she lost the ring that the fiance gave her. The family had hired a tour guide to take them around and she comes back to him to help find the ring. He refuses in the beginning but then decided to help her, they go through a lot of adventures and eventually fall in love.
Getting the basics out of the way Anushka's accent was more accurate than a lot of people playing Gujarati characters. I know women like that, a lot of them in fact. But that is the least of my problems. People thought her biggest problem was that she was not attractive or the fact that the guide was not attracted to her. Let me put a question out there, when you are in a relationship with someone do you or do you not wonder if you are attractive to them? Okay, let's leave that question here and let's go and look for the answer.
Now here's the thing, also a scenario. A girl lived a princess sort of a life. Absolutely loved by her parents. Then she grew up and met a boy, boy was right, family loved a boy and she is all set to marry the boy. Sounds like a perfect situation right? Now, think of this situation as a woman. When a woman get's into a relationship, she wants to feel attractive. She wants to feel like the boy whoever she is with is absolutely into her and she would without a doubt would want to feel sexy. This girl was never made to feel like that.
She meets this seemingly good-looking man. At first, there's nothing that strikes her about him, she is more focused on finding the ring. Then she sees his philandering ways and realised an intrinsic detail. She was alone, ALL alone, for probably the first time in her life. She realised that this was also a time to finally live her life the way she wanted to. But there was one thing that was bothering her. Was it that she was not sexy? NO!
Her problem was something that I think every person has felt at some point in her life, INSECURITY! We are all insecure about something or the other in our lives, and somehow they double up when we are in a relationship. Relatable? She was insecure that she wasn't enough and did what any person would do, she behaved like someone else. You could see that in the way she dressed and in the trouble that she attracted.
Now about the guy. Like a lot of us he was running, not just physically but also from the demons of his past. He's flawed in every way but also in a very real way. And there's one amazing thing about flawed human beings, they understand other flawed humans very well and sometimes just know what they need to hear. He understood that she was clingy and thought it was annoying but then he understood why too. She had never been loved romantically, for her the most romantic thing that had happened to her was that she was proposed to by her boyfriend in a gorgeous location. He understood that he tried to fill the void that she had in her life, filling his own in the process.
Did they cross boundaries, yes maybe they did. Did they break rules, they definitely did. But that's where the premise of the movie comes into play. They found what they were looking for, him for a place to rest and her to be loved passionately. They found what they were looking for, it came to them without them knowing at all. They didn't know they were looking for these things, they just did.
That's where I fell in love with this movie. I have been insecure, I have been hurt and I also have tried to cover up my flaws. It was a movie where the moral compass didn't point due north, but it was a beautiful film. It showed how two people can love each other when they decide they do not want to play by the rules. It showed me that insecurities sometimes need external help to leave you. And it finally taught me that flaws sometimes just fade away when you're with the right person.
So no, her priorities weren't warped, she just wanted to be loved, she just wanted to be enough and as it turns out, she was.
Here's the thing, this movie was very simple, based on a very simple concept, a concept that somehow when we get down to judgment we forget to grasp. So let me talk about it a little more and see if you can get to it yourself. The basic story, a girl went on a trip with her family and got engaged on the trip. Miraculously, she lost the ring that the fiance gave her. The family had hired a tour guide to take them around and she comes back to him to help find the ring. He refuses in the beginning but then decided to help her, they go through a lot of adventures and eventually fall in love.
Getting the basics out of the way Anushka's accent was more accurate than a lot of people playing Gujarati characters. I know women like that, a lot of them in fact. But that is the least of my problems. People thought her biggest problem was that she was not attractive or the fact that the guide was not attracted to her. Let me put a question out there, when you are in a relationship with someone do you or do you not wonder if you are attractive to them? Okay, let's leave that question here and let's go and look for the answer.
Now here's the thing, also a scenario. A girl lived a princess sort of a life. Absolutely loved by her parents. Then she grew up and met a boy, boy was right, family loved a boy and she is all set to marry the boy. Sounds like a perfect situation right? Now, think of this situation as a woman. When a woman get's into a relationship, she wants to feel attractive. She wants to feel like the boy whoever she is with is absolutely into her and she would without a doubt would want to feel sexy. This girl was never made to feel like that.
She meets this seemingly good-looking man. At first, there's nothing that strikes her about him, she is more focused on finding the ring. Then she sees his philandering ways and realised an intrinsic detail. She was alone, ALL alone, for probably the first time in her life. She realised that this was also a time to finally live her life the way she wanted to. But there was one thing that was bothering her. Was it that she was not sexy? NO!
Her problem was something that I think every person has felt at some point in her life, INSECURITY! We are all insecure about something or the other in our lives, and somehow they double up when we are in a relationship. Relatable? She was insecure that she wasn't enough and did what any person would do, she behaved like someone else. You could see that in the way she dressed and in the trouble that she attracted.
Now about the guy. Like a lot of us he was running, not just physically but also from the demons of his past. He's flawed in every way but also in a very real way. And there's one amazing thing about flawed human beings, they understand other flawed humans very well and sometimes just know what they need to hear. He understood that she was clingy and thought it was annoying but then he understood why too. She had never been loved romantically, for her the most romantic thing that had happened to her was that she was proposed to by her boyfriend in a gorgeous location. He understood that he tried to fill the void that she had in her life, filling his own in the process.
Did they cross boundaries, yes maybe they did. Did they break rules, they definitely did. But that's where the premise of the movie comes into play. They found what they were looking for, him for a place to rest and her to be loved passionately. They found what they were looking for, it came to them without them knowing at all. They didn't know they were looking for these things, they just did.
That's where I fell in love with this movie. I have been insecure, I have been hurt and I also have tried to cover up my flaws. It was a movie where the moral compass didn't point due north, but it was a beautiful film. It showed how two people can love each other when they decide they do not want to play by the rules. It showed me that insecurities sometimes need external help to leave you. And it finally taught me that flaws sometimes just fade away when you're with the right person.
So no, her priorities weren't warped, she just wanted to be loved, she just wanted to be enough and as it turns out, she was.
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