WHAT THE F*** JHUMKA?

JUST WHEN IT SEEMED THE MOVIES WERE DYING (SAVE FOR THEIR DIGITAL PRESENCE, MUSIC RIGHTS), AND WE THOUGHT EVEN A RANVEER-ALIA STARRER MAY TANK AT THE OLD WORLD CHARMED BOX OFFICE…WE HAVE A WINNER! SANGEETA WADDHWANI OFFERS A QUICK OVERVIEW ON WHY ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI BROKE A LOT OF ‘DHARMIC’ STEREOTYPES

Somehow a Dharma Productions caper always has some key ingredients that never go off the rails: The lavish joint family living in even more lavish mansions, the stylishly turned out cast, and of course the pan Indian archetypes. The Lord Of All Things Archaic and Dharmically Correct…The Patriarch.

The OG cinematic Patriarch, of course, was Amrish Puri as Simran’s eggy-eyed father…in the iconic Yash Chopra produced Dil Waale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge…saying (after causing much anguish to all and sundry)…in a pivotal scene…“Jaa Simran…jee le apni zindagi!“

Well how many Simrans in real life then proceeded to hope and pray that they would escape the clutches of a Patriarchy…go on a lovely European holiday, meet their Prince Charming and enter into equitable marriages founded on friendship rather than business mergers and killer dowries and bank breaking weddings?

Alas that was the Great Simran Dream…and a whole host of mothers at that time actually named their daughters Simran! There’s practically a mini-nation of Simrans out there, who are mothers themselves now!

Yes of course, that dildaar and devastatingly patriarchal film, DDLJ, set the metrics for various archetypes. So iconic were the style statements, that the garish green satin sharara worn by Simran aka Kajol, had sheikhas and Indian society girls placing orders with designer Manish Malhotra. The same ensemble was suspended as a museum worthy sight at the India In Fsshion exhibition at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. That is the power of a story well set in its own era. Speaking the language of widely accepted socio-cultural norms.

Let us fast forward to our socio-cultural milieu today, and Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, the latest emo-romance from the Dharma stable. Relating is a ‘fling, just a thing’ for a modern Indian working woman. She has agency over heart and hearth, and is not averse to open-ended couplings. In fact it is Rocky Randhawa… a caricature of a new moneyed ‘PUPPY’ (Punjabi Yuppie) dressed head to toe in Gucci, who insists on the sacrality of marriage, but who is so unlettered he actually (and super comically) uses tapora phrases – ‘This Side Rocky Randhawa’ …to “SNOOJ! SNOOJ yaar’…when a dance class in his future in-laws courtyard wakes him up and he thinks it’s his phone!

The kitschy drama of Rocky’s character is so easily embodied by Ranveer Singh”s naturally tapora oriented, Gucci addicted personality! Like Karan Johar, Ranveer too shops Gucci online and the two exchange notes constantly, “sliding into each other’s DMs”, according to what the Dharma founder shared with me for HELLO! last December!

Well, we can see how mismatched Rocky and Rani are in terms of her far more old moneyed sophistication. The bhadralok of her family place a far greater value on literacy and Rani’s biggest moment on the job is stripping a politician of sexual hypocrisy as a TV news anchor. All these milestones stand at total variance with Randhawa”s blasphemous colloquialisms and his multicoloured Gucci ensembles. But there is a hearty connection that grows out of their ‘fling, just a thing’ which leads to a series of face offs and face ons between the Bong beauty and the West Dilli Boy….but still, finally, they admit that in India, it is the families who are the ‘backseat drivers’ of every love story, which kind of makes this part of the extended DDLJ franchise.

So in a brilliant mis-en-scene, we arrive at a proposed experiment that totally makes sense in a far more equitable era. Rocky has to move in with Rani’s family for three weeks, and Rani has to move in with Rocky’s. The nuclear detonator had been switched on!

To me, this is Karan Johar”s true genius. Somehow he takes a deep dive into the complex fabric of generation gaps, mindset gaps and the need to nudge and question the many sacred cows and bulls in the room. The Unquestioned Old World is suddenly the new glass house Alia”s character finds herself in…and sometimes when you throw stones at a glass house from Within, it is far more effective than from your own glass balcony.

That is what made the film in some ways like that Hrishikesh Mukerjee classic Khoobsoorat, where Rekha as a bachelor girl visiting her sister, eventually challenges the toxic matriarch, the classic mother-in-law who rebukes Rekhas’s every attempt to win her over after Rekha falls in love with one of the eligible sons of the family.

Eventually a crisis that requires a sharp mind, sees Rekha save the day as she summons a doctor in the nick of time to save the life of the family Patriarch. Her winning lines? She tells the doctor that being busy with surgeries and visiting patients may mean more money…but saving lives is what a doctor’s life is meant to do! Suddenly, Rekha’s education, confidence and modern ideas, her pro-freedom and pro-creativity stance, earn her enough brownie points to make her acceptable to the family. Case closed. But what a highly watchable, super hit film, which was super acceptable to the masses and classes.

Back we go to Rani, unleashed in a home where the elder Patriarch is already a weak figure, with Alzeimhers disease, given to sher- o-shayyers and weeping over a lost soulmate.

Rani is sharp enough to see that Dhanalaxmi, the matriarch, Rocky’s grandma, with her superhit boondi laddoo business, is an actual bawse lady who has never flinched in her ambition…very much like boss ladies of her own time. It is Dhanalaxmi (aka Jaya Bachchan, The Angry Old Woman of Indian cinema)..who raises her son Tijori (!) to become a toxic Patriarch. Poor Tijori is never allowed to spend tender moments with his wheelchair ridden ailing father, (played by Dharmendra who is actually ailing in real life). Tijori grows up unwittingly a cardboard chauvinist, expecting totally one sided services from his wife, who dare not dream of expressing her musical talent in the public domain, as wives must be dharmically correct doormats. Trust Rani to strip away and challenge this status quo, like the stripping away of a Draupadi saree..except Rani’s unraveling of the power structure is a necessary disruptor towards Gender Equity.

What the audience, and Rocky, find horrific, is when Tijori is physically assaulted by Rani in public, when he insults her family. Yet I personally feel like that while the rigid Amrish Puri character ‘permits” his daughter Simran to ‘ja, jeele apni zindagi,” a girl of Alia”s generation will whack sense into a toxic man no matter what his age or family stature. Because sometimes, you need strong antibodies against old viruses that are obstructing evolutionary tides.

In Rani’s own family, full of intellectuals who speak a Kolkata-style defunct Queen’s Angrezi – all the more hilarious when juxtapositioned with Rocky”s tapora-isms. We see a Patriarch, Chandan Chatterjee (played with great finesse ny Tota Roy Chaudhary), who loves to dance. Now remember Karan Johar too, loves to dance and has a unique style of doing his thumkas minus jhumkas. It is hardly surprising when K Jo creates a male character who teaches Kathak to young students in his compound, and a resounding and loveable meterosexual like Ranveer steps in and up to the challenge of mastering some Kathak. But the scene where Rani’s father performs to Devdas”s Dhola Re with Rocky, who is born from the Chauvinist Randhawa Genes, at a Durga pandal, moves one deeply. It is almost a violent challenge to bend the gender cages of the ages and liberate the human spirit, be it born in a male OR female body!

So here is my verdict. Relationships often insist that we confront our inner darkness and our inner light. Not just our own, but the values and defacto notions we carry of our entire tribe. And gender fluidity is definitely going to takeover modern life with many more meterosexual lovers and husbands bringing tiffin late into the night to their working wives’ offices, when she is doing graveyard shifts…like we see Rocky doing for Rani.

This is one Dharma caper that adds new layers of question marks to what India considers to be dharmically correct. The matriarch is shown her true ugliness…She accuses Rani of being a career oriented modern girl who would never put family first. when Rani says their levels of ambition are the same. However, Rani proves her wrong after living in her house, and holding up a mirror…declaring that as a mother figure she does NOT necessarily put family first, as her choices have actually suppressed her own daughter and daughter-in-law’s happiness.

There was a lot said between the lines in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani….a clash of eras, generations, North India vs Bengal, Patriarchy vs the Rising Matriarchy…and yes, delicious chemistry between Alia and Ranveer…paisa vasool with all the new vasools being explored!

PS: Interesting to note, the movie was surprisingly evocative on the questions of Matriarchy vs Patriarchy…like Barbie the other viral summer hit. Remember when Ken cries about being forever dismissed and powerless around Barbie and her perpetual girls nights…well here when Alia dismisses marriage with Ranveer because he is so uncouth, he lashes out, “So you used me for my body!!!!” Why not Rocky..after all it’s gym honed, double waxed AND certified Covid free!!!

@ranveerofficial @karanjohar @dharmaproductions #rockyaurranikipremkahani @aliabhatt #Rocky #rani #bollywoodhit #whatjhumka?

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