My favorite movie is a Hindi film named Jab We Met. I first watched it when it came out on DVD back in 2007 or 2008 (I had small children then so my memory is fuzzy) and it was within the first ten Hindi films I watched. Since then, I've enjoyed dozens more, but Jab We Met is still my favorite, and among other reasons, that's because it takes the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope and completely upends it.
What's a Manic Pixie Dream Girl? As defined by the term's creator Nathan Rabin (and quoted in Wikipedia) an MPDG is "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." One of the most important qualities of an MPDG is that she exists only to advance the (male) main character's story and give him some important life lesson or whatever.
Note: this movie was written and directed by Imtiaz Ali, an Indian man writing for an Indian audience, and it's entirely possible that I as a white USian woman am reading things he never intended into the film. But, for the purposes of this post, The Author is Dead and I love this movie so moving on!
Jab We Met (When We Met) opens with the main character, Aditya Kashyap (Shahid Kapoor), depressed to the point that he simply walks out of a meeting,
goes to stare at a woman who's obviously an ex and take pictures with her at her wedding to another man (Aditya, dude. no), and then hops onto a train with no real idea where he's going, leaving his phone and car keys behind.
(Side note: every single time I have watched this movie with a first-timer, they have asked, "Is that a bomb?!" No, it's not a bomb, and I don't want to know why that's the first thought in your head.)
Fortunately, Aditya's heading to Bhatinda, and Geet (Kareena Kapoor, no relation) is going right there with him, although neither of them know it yet. Aditya's only there because he has a half-baked plan to throw himself out the train so he can die.
Geet, perhaps sensing his despair, distracts him at the last moment and gets him back to his seat.
He has a cruel outburst, but she calls him on it.
(All the Vs in the subtitles are capitalized. I don't know why.) Geet's friendly and outgoing, so she fills the silence between them with a lot of small talk. Although neither the audience nor Aditya know it yet, she's giving important information about herself during this part, but we keep cutting in and out as Aditya's attention wanders.
The impression viewers get on their initial watch is that her one-way conversation is as pointless as Aditya thinks. She tells him about the love of her life, Anshuman, whom she'll have to run away to marry because he's not a Sikh like her. Her plan is to get married and then throw herself at her parents' feet to beg for forgiveness afterward. It's clear that she has no concerns about the whole thing, and that she's secure in her family's affection.
Alas, they're not fated to stay on the train. Aditya gets off at the next stop, Geet follows because she's worried about him, and while they're arguing the train takes off. Aditya commandeers a taxi, which results in one of the most random Claymation breaks I've ever seen (no, I'm not screencapping it, I want you to actually watch this movie) and they catch up to the train at the next stop.
Except, after Aditya satisfies himself that she's safe and ready to board, then wanders off, Geet argues with a vendor about the cost of bottled water long enough to miss the train... again. This might seem stupid or Manic-Pixie-ish, but it's my take that Geet just refuses to let herself be taken advantage of by some random guy, which might be misplaced valor at the moment but overall is pretty admirable. And there are few places less scary than a train station at night. The vendor comes over to harass her.
Side note: this part always makes my skin crawl. A man who laughs at you without moving when you threaten violence for crossing your boundaries is terrifying.
Geet tries to join the nearest group of women she can find this late at night, but soon realizes that prostitutes actually want men to talk to them, so runs off and finds Aditya wandering the alleyways alone. Although she's fully aware he finds her annoying, she throws her lot in with him by embracing him in front of the man who's chasing her on his motorcycle. She orders him to take her home, and he agrees just to make her stop talking. Together they head off to find a hotel.
Unfortunately, though it seems pretty obvious that Geet's not a virgin, given later information, she's definitely very naive.
Here's where we start to catch a glimpse of the real Aditya, not the depressed mess he's become. He can barely keep from laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the conversation.
Geet gets worried about what she's gotten herself into and warns him she knows karate, so not to try to rape her. This brings them to Aditya's ex, and she gets him to deal with his last relic of the now married woman (seriously Aditya why??? did??? you keep it???) in a satisfyingly immature way.
Geet, while still encouraging Aditya to not think of his romantic possibilities as over, firmly lets him know that he has zero chance with her, "although, if I hadn't been engaged to Anshuman and all that, then, you never know! Maybe I would've been smitten too!" Aditya asks wistfully, "You really like yourself a lot, don't you?" as if he can't imagine that feeling. "A lot!" is her instant reply. "I am my favorite." She's adorable, and it's no wonder Aditya's looking at her with heart eyes. Then the hotel gets raided by police and they run.
And it's here that we get our first song! (By the way, Pritam lifted almost all the melodies used for this movie except "Nagada Nagada," But let's just pretend it's fine and that he'll never work again.) I love musicals of all sorts, including English-language ones, but while in English-language musicals songs are often breaks in the action or used to expound on a previously stated idea to move the plot forward, in Hindi (and other Indian language) films, they're most often used to give a window into the characters' mindsets and feelings, hence all the mountaintops, floral fields, and Taj Mahals. However, in this case, the song is used in a way that's more familiar to Western viewers, as a background to Geet and Aditya's journey to her family home in Bhatinda. They steal a bike for a day! They eat street food! They fall asleep in restaurants and ride in the back of trucks!
By song's end, they've wound up sitting on some random pier high above a small lake, and Geet, in service of making a point about doing what scares you, persuades Aditya to do a wild and crazy leap--into waist deep water. Ahem. Anyway. What really matters is the conversation they have afterward.
No, not that part. Aditya's been having a horrible time with his mother, who's suing for half his business, which she built with Aditya's recently deceased father before leaving Kashyap-Dad to marry someone else. When Aditya tells her his name, Geet immediately remembers the entire story from the news, so it's clear that his family is a big deal. Aditya's obviously eaten up with bitterness, but once again, Geet enlarges his perspective beyond his hurt feelings, even though she's briefly thrown into formal language now that she knows who he is.
Aditya rejects her "all is fair in love" pep talk and retreats to his bag to pack in sulkiness, but Geet isn't having any of that.
"Sister" actually means her paternal first cousin, Roop.
They're obviously good friends by the time they arrive at Geet's home, and, obviously still concerned about his state of mind, she talks him into coming into the house.
Aditya's feeling himself enough now to flirt with Geet, especially during the song "Nagada Nagada," which is totally awesome and not stolen from anyone.
Even in front of the childhood friend her family has brought in as a marital prospect for her on her return.
By the way, Cousin Roop is the one in pink and is clearly not laboring under the illusion that Aditya's going to be interested in anyone other than Geet. She's not jealous, she just doesn't trust him. And poor Other Guy Manjeet, in blue, is also seeing what's going on.
Geet obviously isn't taking any of it seriously, but she does use Aditya as a convenient excuse to get the other guy to give up his suit. She talks Aditya into running away from the family compound with her in the dead of night, and taking her to Anshuman so she can live out her childhood dream of marriage. On their way, she gives him some more insight:
Her face is so animated that it's hard to get a cap of her with her eyes open or her features unblurred. She hugs Aditya because they're friends, and they run off hand-in-hand.
While Geet's singing about what her love for Anshuman is like in the Himalayas, we observe Aditya getting more and more pensive, until at last they're in Manali, and can see Anshuman just down the hill from where they stand. She begs Aditya to come meet Anshuman, but Aditya wants to keep her separate from Anshuman in his memory.
So instead of making sure she gets to Anshuman all right, he says her name one last time and walks away, leaving her wavering between wonderment and realization.
And that's where the Cameron Crowe movie would end, with the plucky, temporarily set-back young innovator having recovered his mojo thanks to the inspiration of a carefree young woman who comes into his life at just the right time. And, honestly, the Western viewer could be forgiven for thinking this is the movie's end, because so far Geet's main purpose has seemed to be healing Aditya and being cute and funny.
Fortunately, this isn't a Cameron Crowe movie, and this is only the intermission.
Part Two
What's a Manic Pixie Dream Girl? As defined by the term's creator Nathan Rabin (and quoted in Wikipedia) an MPDG is "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." One of the most important qualities of an MPDG is that she exists only to advance the (male) main character's story and give him some important life lesson or whatever.
Note: this movie was written and directed by Imtiaz Ali, an Indian man writing for an Indian audience, and it's entirely possible that I as a white USian woman am reading things he never intended into the film. But, for the purposes of this post, The Author is Dead and I love this movie so moving on!
Jab We Met (When We Met) opens with the main character, Aditya Kashyap (Shahid Kapoor), depressed to the point that he simply walks out of a meeting,
goes to stare at a woman who's obviously an ex and take pictures with her at her wedding to another man (Aditya, dude. no), and then hops onto a train with no real idea where he's going, leaving his phone and car keys behind.
(Side note: every single time I have watched this movie with a first-timer, they have asked, "Is that a bomb?!" No, it's not a bomb, and I don't want to know why that's the first thought in your head.)
Fortunately, Aditya's heading to Bhatinda, and Geet (Kareena Kapoor, no relation) is going right there with him, although neither of them know it yet. Aditya's only there because he has a half-baked plan to throw himself out the train so he can die.
Geet, perhaps sensing his despair, distracts him at the last moment and gets him back to his seat.
He has a cruel outburst, but she calls him on it.
(All the Vs in the subtitles are capitalized. I don't know why.) Geet's friendly and outgoing, so she fills the silence between them with a lot of small talk. Although neither the audience nor Aditya know it yet, she's giving important information about herself during this part, but we keep cutting in and out as Aditya's attention wanders.
The impression viewers get on their initial watch is that her one-way conversation is as pointless as Aditya thinks. She tells him about the love of her life, Anshuman, whom she'll have to run away to marry because he's not a Sikh like her. Her plan is to get married and then throw herself at her parents' feet to beg for forgiveness afterward. It's clear that she has no concerns about the whole thing, and that she's secure in her family's affection.
Alas, they're not fated to stay on the train. Aditya gets off at the next stop, Geet follows because she's worried about him, and while they're arguing the train takes off. Aditya commandeers a taxi, which results in one of the most random Claymation breaks I've ever seen (no, I'm not screencapping it, I want you to actually watch this movie) and they catch up to the train at the next stop.
Except, after Aditya satisfies himself that she's safe and ready to board, then wanders off, Geet argues with a vendor about the cost of bottled water long enough to miss the train... again. This might seem stupid or Manic-Pixie-ish, but it's my take that Geet just refuses to let herself be taken advantage of by some random guy, which might be misplaced valor at the moment but overall is pretty admirable. And there are few places less scary than a train station at night. The vendor comes over to harass her.
Side note: this part always makes my skin crawl. A man who laughs at you without moving when you threaten violence for crossing your boundaries is terrifying.
Geet tries to join the nearest group of women she can find this late at night, but soon realizes that prostitutes actually want men to talk to them, so runs off and finds Aditya wandering the alleyways alone. Although she's fully aware he finds her annoying, she throws her lot in with him by embracing him in front of the man who's chasing her on his motorcycle. She orders him to take her home, and he agrees just to make her stop talking. Together they head off to find a hotel.
Unfortunately, though it seems pretty obvious that Geet's not a virgin, given later information, she's definitely very naive.
Here's where we start to catch a glimpse of the real Aditya, not the depressed mess he's become. He can barely keep from laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the conversation.
Geet gets worried about what she's gotten herself into and warns him she knows karate, so not to try to rape her. This brings them to Aditya's ex, and she gets him to deal with his last relic of the now married woman (seriously Aditya why??? did??? you keep it???) in a satisfyingly immature way.
Geet, while still encouraging Aditya to not think of his romantic possibilities as over, firmly lets him know that he has zero chance with her, "although, if I hadn't been engaged to Anshuman and all that, then, you never know! Maybe I would've been smitten too!" Aditya asks wistfully, "You really like yourself a lot, don't you?" as if he can't imagine that feeling. "A lot!" is her instant reply. "I am my favorite." She's adorable, and it's no wonder Aditya's looking at her with heart eyes. Then the hotel gets raided by police and they run.
And it's here that we get our first song! (By the way, Pritam lifted almost all the melodies used for this movie except "Nagada Nagada," But let's just pretend it's fine and that he'll never work again.) I love musicals of all sorts, including English-language ones, but while in English-language musicals songs are often breaks in the action or used to expound on a previously stated idea to move the plot forward, in Hindi (and other Indian language) films, they're most often used to give a window into the characters' mindsets and feelings, hence all the mountaintops, floral fields, and Taj Mahals. However, in this case, the song is used in a way that's more familiar to Western viewers, as a background to Geet and Aditya's journey to her family home in Bhatinda. They steal a bike for a day! They eat street food! They fall asleep in restaurants and ride in the back of trucks!
No, not that part. Aditya's been having a horrible time with his mother, who's suing for half his business, which she built with Aditya's recently deceased father before leaving Kashyap-Dad to marry someone else. When Aditya tells her his name, Geet immediately remembers the entire story from the news, so it's clear that his family is a big deal. Aditya's obviously eaten up with bitterness, but once again, Geet enlarges his perspective beyond his hurt feelings, even though she's briefly thrown into formal language now that she knows who he is.
Aditya rejects her "all is fair in love" pep talk and retreats to his bag to pack in sulkiness, but Geet isn't having any of that.
"Sister" actually means her paternal first cousin, Roop.
They're obviously good friends by the time they arrive at Geet's home, and, obviously still concerned about his state of mind, she talks him into coming into the house.
Aditya's feeling himself enough now to flirt with Geet, especially during the song "Nagada Nagada," which is totally awesome and not stolen from anyone.
Even in front of the childhood friend her family has brought in as a marital prospect for her on her return.
By the way, Cousin Roop is the one in pink and is clearly not laboring under the illusion that Aditya's going to be interested in anyone other than Geet. She's not jealous, she just doesn't trust him. And poor Other Guy Manjeet, in blue, is also seeing what's going on.
Geet obviously isn't taking any of it seriously, but she does use Aditya as a convenient excuse to get the other guy to give up his suit. She talks Aditya into running away from the family compound with her in the dead of night, and taking her to Anshuman so she can live out her childhood dream of marriage. On their way, she gives him some more insight:
Her face is so animated that it's hard to get a cap of her with her eyes open or her features unblurred. She hugs Aditya because they're friends, and they run off hand-in-hand.
While Geet's singing about what her love for Anshuman is like in the Himalayas, we observe Aditya getting more and more pensive, until at last they're in Manali, and can see Anshuman just down the hill from where they stand. She begs Aditya to come meet Anshuman, but Aditya wants to keep her separate from Anshuman in his memory.
So instead of making sure she gets to Anshuman all right, he says her name one last time and walks away, leaving her wavering between wonderment and realization.
And that's where the Cameron Crowe movie would end, with the plucky, temporarily set-back young innovator having recovered his mojo thanks to the inspiration of a carefree young woman who comes into his life at just the right time. And, honestly, the Western viewer could be forgiven for thinking this is the movie's end, because so far Geet's main purpose has seemed to be healing Aditya and being cute and funny.
Fortunately, this isn't a Cameron Crowe movie, and this is only the intermission.
Part Two
Great post! I had this on my very long 'To Watch' list but I think I need to move it closer to the top.
ReplyDeleteThe caps from the Nagada Nagada make me want to youtube the song and watch it.
If you do end up watching it, let me know so we can do it together!
DeleteAfter you commented, I added links to the songs with English subs on YouTube. :-)