Jab We Met, or, Best MPDG Fakeout, Part Two

Part One

We open on the second half with Aditya having returned home, refreshed and rejuvenated by his time with Geet. He's still got all the same problems, but now he has the mental wherewithal to deal with them.

Sidenote: Aditya's talking about his dad watching them, but he might as well mean his right-hand-man/assistant dude Raghav, standing behind him, who is completely and obviously in love with Aditya.

After this, everything's coming up Kashyap. Aditya's reconciling with his mom (having gained a newfound appreciation for the things love can inspire otherwise steady people to do): 

and taking care of other long-delayed business, based on Geet's advice to do what frightens you.

As he goes through his day-to-day tasks while "Tum Se Hi" ("Only From You" or something along those lines--I don't speak Hindi so I have to go on subtitles) plays, he pictures Geet going ahead of him, encouraging him. (Notably, she's dressed as she was the last time he saw her--he took a "perfect picture" of her in his mind to come with him. Typical musician.)

He's not just using her as inspiration, though. He also fantasizes about staying up all night with her... drinking tea and talking. Also reminding him where his tie is and dancing in the rain with him. Dude is so gone.

But everything changes when the Fire Nation attacks.

No, sorry, wrong fandom. Everything changes when Aditya's new product idea debuts, a long-distance phone card named after Geet. Geet's family sees it, and when they show up, they have one very urgent question for Aditya.

Because Geet embraced Aditya in front of Manjeet, her rejected suitor, to get Manjeet to leave her alone, and Roop saw Geet leaving with Aditya the night they ran away from their family home, her family assumed they eloped. The only other reason her dad can come up with for her having remained silent for 9 months is that she's dead, which is vaguely hilarious since we're pretty sure she's okay.

Aditya tries to reassure Geet's family, but they don't believe she's not with him. Mindful of his responsibility as a friend not to betray her secret marriage to Anshuman, he promises reluctantly to get her and bring her home.

Off he goes to Manali, ready to do another thing that scares him and see Geet with her new husband. Unfortunately, as soon as he finds Anshuman and asks about Geet, the answer isn't a good one:

No, Geet isn't delusional, although based on how he acts during the rest of the movie, my guess is that Anshuman did his best to make her feel that way. As we see during the very sad "Aaoge Jab Tum" ("When You Will Come Back") things did not go well for Geet after she parted from Aditya. And this is where we part forever from the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, because Anshuman's vehement rejection ruins Geet's life, leaving her anything but bubbly.

She's in Shimla, having met up by chance with one of the nuns who knows her from her boarding school days. Geet's stuck in a branch of the school she couldn't wait to get away from, doing a job she's not all that into, and living in the one place she swore she'd never return, a hostel.

Furious with Anshuman for breaking her heart (plus probably with himself for not looking out for her better), Aditya drives directly to check on her, and what he sees breaks his heart.

The girl who cared enough to talk to a suicidal stranger on a train turned into a woman so demoralized that she doesn't see her friend standing right next to her.

Aditya's seen enough, so he goes to her hostel and waits on the steps. Unfortunately, when she gets there and tries to lie that her life is going just fine, he makes it all about him for a second. "You've really hurt me a lot," and "why didn't you call me." Then he tries to order her to come home, which goes over about as well as you'd expect. Just because she's depressed doesn't mean she's not the same Sikh girl from Bhatinda.

Damn, Geet.

Anyway, Aditya is supremely unimpressed by her outburst and tells her to come home again. Geet deflates and tells him she can't accept any more favors from him. And here's where our former MPDG completely switches roles, because Aditya isn't about to let her characterize his help as a favor. 

And he runs out of words, because he's face to face with the consequences of using a living, breathing woman as an inspirational icon rather than considering her as a whole person. If he'd just reached out to her once, he would have been able to spare her and her family a lot of grief. Fortunately, Geet's heard enough to change her mind.

Look at her poor little face. I just want to hug her. She's felt worthless for nine months, ever since Anshuman dumped her, and here comes a billionaire industrialist whose product announcements make the news, and he tells her that everything he is today is because of her. That would boost anyone's ego.

Once she gets her luggage, they check into a hotel suite and Aditya starts wondering what to do to help jar Geet out of her depression. He doesn't know what to do with this quiet, subdued person she's become. But when he tries to tease her by reminding her of their past adventures, Geet starts sobbing about her lost naivety. 

Remember, she told Aditya when they first met that since she was a little girl, she was planning to be married. She doesn't know who she is now that she's not planning to marry. Instead, she kept calling Anshuman and trying to find the right thing to say to get him to agree to it.

Aditya, desperate to find a way to cheer her up, grasps at her old advice and suggests they burn a photo of Anshuman. When she doesn't have one, instead he offers the phone and tells her to cuss out Anshuman to her heart's content. This proves to be the magic formula, because after a false start, Geet gets really into it.

Aditya's pleased to have done his post-breakup-friend-duty, but Geet's so happy that she flings herself into his arms, and it's time for a Porno Hug, complete with weirdly sexy music.

Oops.

Fortunately Aditya realizes what's happening before it's gone too far and backs off with a frantic, "It happens sometimes. It's normal!" which we're supposed to believe is about hugging and not other things. Meanwhile Geet is left with this expression:

which is an oh shit if I've ever seen one. But true to his word, Aditya isn't taking her heartbreak as an opportunity to advance a case for a relationship with him. Not even the next day, when she asks him directly.

Gaaaaahhhhhhh I just love him.

Guess who I do not love? Guess who shows up just as things are looking up for our OTP?

Yup. Anshuman's seen the light now that he knows a very important person is interested in Geet. All of a sudden he's begging to get back the girl he couldn't be bothered to talk to for the nine months before. Now Geet has a choice to make, and in spite of her misgivings, Aditya takes the selfless route and urges her to follow her heart back to Anshuman, even though his own is breaking.

In a final act of service, Aditya drives Geet and Anshuman back to Bhatinda, where her family waits to welcome the penitent couple home. Except, somehow everyone failed to discover which penitent couple...

And no matter how hard Aditya and Anshuman beg, Geet can't seem to find it in her to clear up the misunderstanding. Anshuman isn't having a very good time.

Aw. I feel so sorry for him. Meanwhile, Geet is having a realization of her own when her mother asks how Aditya treats her. All Geet can say is, "He treats me so well." It's true. The problem is, Aditya fits in really well with her family, and Anshuman... doesn't. And Geet's starting to realize that's really important to her. 

Basically, this whole second half is about Geet's character arc--moving from bubbly MPDG-dupe to depressed rejection to slow realization about her priorities and what she wants.

Unfortunately, it might be a little too slow, because her parents and the rest of the family want to have a wedding celebration in two days--and Geet still hasn't told them the truth. 

Aditya, still determined to help her with as little self-interest as she showed when he needed help, tells her not to worry, and that if she keeps smiling good things will happen. It's a silly truism, but she gets his intent. 

But he can't meet her eyes because he knows that's not true. He's as intense as he ever was; he's just determined not to burden her with his feelings. 

The next morning, he says goodbye, and Geet's obviously still confused.

Aditya walks away without looking back. As soon as he's got Geet in front of him, Anshuman starts detailing his plan on how they'll tell her family the truth about who she's actually marrying. Geet starts flashing back to all the times she's hugged Aditya, and realizes that train she's afraid she's going to miss? Is actually Aditya Kashyap.

Aditya's gotten sidelined with helping one of her little nephews or cousins to shoot his bb gun at a target, so she finds him without too much trouble and throws herself into his arms. She's done that before, of course, so Aditya just stares at her without understanding what's happening. So, she explains.

But the look on his face is this:

because he thinks she's still telling him she wants Anshuman. She's hugged him plenty of times as a friend, and that could be all this is. Geet seems to realize this, because she does the one thing he couldn't possibly misinterpret:

and Aditya finally lets himself believe it.

He isn't getting rewarded for being a good guy by getting what he wants. Geet's getting what she wants--and luckily it happens to be what he wants too. Or, you know, not luckily, Imtiaz Ali wrote it that way. Which is why, even though I've never loved any of his other movies the way I do this one, I still consider Jab We Met the greatest Manic Pixie Dream Girl fakeout I've ever had the pleasure of watching.