A commentator nudged me, so I’m back!  Doing my best to get through this.  Past the interval today, all the way to Aish’s intro and hopefully making it to another song. (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here)

Ranbir, Anushka, and Fawad just had a confrontation.  Which felt partly like a love triangle and Ranbir being jealous of Fawad.  But also a lot like Ranbir just being a good friend and seeing how Fawad could destroy Anushka.  Was destroying her, in fact, without any lines in this scene Anushka manages to convey that just the presence of Fawad is turning her back into an uncertain teenager, as she probably was when he first met her.

Ranbir walks off in one direction while Anushka and Fawad go in another.  And we see Ranbir, alone, on his private plane back to London.  It’s a throw away scene, a transition scene, but Karan makes something of it, forcing the audience to think about how carefree and happy Fawad was just a little bit ago, when he was making this same journey in the other direction with Anushka.  Making us see that on the way out they were fresh and alive and joyful.  And now, without her, Ranbir is the sort of bored seen it all rich boy that you would logically expect from someone with a private jet at his beck and call.

Back in London, the bored rich boy effect continues.  He goes in and out of bars, wanders through the night, and constantly calls Anushka, with no response.  Until, finally, he gets a call back!

I didn’t think about it until just now, watching it again in my head, but this is one of the first films to acknowledge the time difference!  Or at least to obviously acknowledge it, not just have both sides of a phone call in some artificially lit inside set so it isn’t as clear.  But here we have Anushka, in the early morning sunlight, holding a china cup of tea, standing on a rooftop and talking to Ranbir.  And Ranbir in London, on the sidewalk outside a bar, all in black.

I noticed first just the dramatic difference in lighting and tone, Anushka’s part almost seems fake, like nothing could be that light and bright.  But really it just feels that way because we keep cutting between her and Ranbir, in the London night.  The time change is the most dramatic difference between the two, but the costuming, the locations, it’s all telling a story too.

Anushka is in a home, having morning tea, in light bright Indian style clothing on an Indian terrace.  Ranbir is in western clothes, at night, on a sidewalk, but also alone.  See, that’s the thing, the fantasy that Anushka is living in, of returning home to South Asia, of marrying the man she loves, of everything, it is giving this illusion of lightness to her.  But in the midst of all this, she is alone.  Ranbir should be past all of this traditional stuff, should be enjoying the big fun life in London, but he is also alone.

(The usual version of night in London, all glitzy nightclubs and happy sexy people.  Not a lonely phone call on a sidewalk)

The visuals are supporting the content of the phone call.  Anushka calls, only half apologizes for being out of reach, and begs Ranbir to come to her wedding, because her family have disowned her and she wants there to be someone from her side, someone there for her at the wedding.  And she ends by saying a casual “See you soon, I love you!”  From Ranbir’s side, he is furious and upset about her not being available for so long.  And even more upset, and disapproving, when he learns she is still with Fawad and planning to marry him.  And when he says “I love you” at the end, and then abruptly hangs up, you can tell that he has just realized those words are true.

Man, this is an interesting conversation!  They are both in such denial and pretending to be so strong and perfect.  Ranbir is in denial that his concern for her and his anger at her disappearance is tinged with jealousy.  But Anushka is in a much more complicated state of denial.  She is in denial that she still can’t trust Fawad, that Fawad will likely break her heart again.  That she is so lonely and unsure of her future she needs her friend there with her.  And she is in denial that she really has treated Ranbir terribly, and that she did so out of fear.  Why not call him and let him know what is happening sooner?  Why not respond to his messages?  Most likely, because she knew he would try to talk her out of it, and she knew he was right.

My one wish here is that Karan had found a way to make the friendship last longer before it reached this point.  It’s tricky, because he wanted them to have the Paris trip as a huge leap forward in their relationship, and he wanted Fawad to interrupt it and ruin it.  But he still wants their friendship to be so established and certain by this point, that Ranbir is the only person Anushka wants at her wedding.

Maybe if he had made it two trips?  Kept the original Paris trip, and had them swear to come back in a year for their anniversary, and then jump forward?  Because right now we are talking about people who have really only known each other about 10 days in total.  But they are talking like they are friends of longstanding, like their bond has already been secured in a way only time really can.

This is the one part of the film that I have to sort of blur over in my head and force it to work.  Because the relationship feels real to me, I can believe all their interactions, and I just have to pretend the timeline makes as much sense as the emotion-line.

Speaking of blurring over, pretty sure we lost a scene here.  And I know they changed Lahore to Lucknow.  Which is too bad, because it was kind of cool to have a mainstream film with absolutely no time spent in India.  We go right from Ranbir saying “I Love You” to him riding in the back of a rickshaw, already in wedding garb, shotgunning mini-bottles of alcohol.  That’s a cool cut, but then we go straight into the “Cutie Pie” song, which feels a tad abrupt.

(This is almost a completely different edit than what was in the film.  I wonder if it is because they had to re-cut it after editing Fawad’s part, or if they always had a different version for the promo video?)

It’s fine as an edit, but during the song, Fawad is all friendly-friendly with Ranbir, and it feels like we missed a scene where they two of them talk and smooth over their differences.  Hopefully we will get that on the DVD deleted scenes.

The song itself is brilliant.  On a whole bunch of levels.  First, if it had been in Lahore instead of Lucknow, they whole “Punjabi!  Punjabi!” lyrics would have had a really interesting layer to them, an acknowledgement that there is Punjabi culture in Pakistan, just like in India.  Even now, in the quickly changed Lucknow, at least it is saying that a Muslim Punjabi wedding is the same as a Hindu Punjabi wedding in many ways.

And then there is the way it absolutely nails Ranbir’s position as friend and the pain of that.  On the one hand, both Anushka and Fawad put him front and center in all the celebrations.  But on the other hand, Anushka still only has eyes for Fawad.  And Ranbir is in the awkward position of having no one to talk to and nothing to do when the couple is together.  Plus, he is drinking A LOT.  And he is also a little “unmanned”.  As the bride’s friend rather than the groom’s, he ends up at the female events like the henna party, awkwardly thrown in with a bunch of women, which makes him more lonely and out of place.  Of course, at least 50% of this is just because he is so unhappy.  Really, Ranbir was in a similar position in the second half of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, but in that case he had no underlying discomfort, so he was able to happily go off and explore the city while the bride was unavailable, and to make a connection with other wedding guests, and to shake off any sense of “losing” his friend to marriage.

(See?  Happy!)

It all comes to a head right as the song ends.  Ranbir pauses in front of a mirror to admire himself.  He is clean shaven, with henna on his hands.  He drapes his scarf over his head, holds up his hands, and names himself “Alizeh” in a soft voice.  And then says “marries” as he pulls himself straight and ties his scarf like a turban, finishing triumphantly “Ayan!”

See, THIS is why he had to be clean-shaven for this scene!  To show his feminine side.  So that he can do this little game of playing them both.  But also so that he has the softer, open face.  And the henna hands.  That’s not just a neat style touch, that is to put him in the place of the woman, the sad longing woman from all the other films, the one who sings as her lover marries another.

Which is what happens next.  As Anushka comes out all dressed up with her attendants, Ranbir leans against a pillar and starts to sing.  “Channa Mereya” really is a lovely song.  And Arjit Singh’s voice is lovely.  He is kind of new, looks like his big break was “Tum Hi Ho”.  But looking back through his discography, I have liked a lot of his songs.  And he has sung for Ranbir quite a bit!  Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Tamasha, Barfi!, Roy, and now this.

(Such an amazing song!)

Anushka plays this bit perfectly.  While everyone else is just kind of enjoying the song, her face changes, and you can hear her thoughts “oh how nice my friend is singing! Wait, he is singing a lot better than he ever has before.  And he is making eye contact, and I am remembering our conversation about how he will only be able to really sing after his heart breaks, and I know he is remembering that too, and I have to stop this.”

She walks over and talks his hand and leads him into a room, and then locks the door with her face towards the camera looking worried.  And then she turns around with a big fake smile, all “wow!  You really can sing!”, trying to play it off like it didn’t happen.  Giving him a chance to compose himself and come up with an excuse, but also locking them in together in case he can’t compose himself.

And of course, he can’t.  Because Ranbir is just an unruly little puppy in this.  Speaking of, should I get a puppy?  I’ve been thinking about it over the past few days, while I’ve been in such bad shape, how nice it would be to have a living thing to come home to.  But then there’s the training and the daily walks and having to rush home all the time.  I just don’t know!  And Ranbir is really not selling me on it either, with all his whining and following around and can’t stand to be alone.  Maybe if Anushka took him to doggy-daycare he would be less energetic and needy?

Oh right, back to the movie!  This scene is really well done, but also very one note.  Ranbir is miserable and heartbroken and doesn’t care who knows it.  He wants her fiance to die on the way to the wedding, he wants her to die too, he can’t pretend to be happy.  And Anushka is heartbroken on his behalf!  This isn’t the poetic and elegant kind of heartbreak, where they exchange a glance and a single tear.  This is real killer heartache, the kind that is a physical pain to Ranbir, and a sympathetic pain to Anushka, because she does love him, just not that way, and seeing him like this is hard for her.  It ends with that great KKHH redux shot from the trailer, instead of Shahrukh silently expressing his love, it’s Ranbir silently flipping her off, and then walking away while she is in the background in her wedding dress.

(WHY IS THIS SO ROMANTIC?!?!?!  I’m going to DIE!)

And the great silent shots continue with Ranbir walking out through the grooms party coming towards the house.  Fawad smiling and laughing and leaning down to talk to someone, while Ranbir walks by unnoticed.  And then Ranbir riding his rickshaw away as Anushka and Fawad say their “Kabul”s, Anushka trying hard to smile but clearly still distressed, Fawad laughing and happy.

Such an interesting triangle!  Fawad is terrible!  Anushka and Ranbir are heartbroken, in their different ways, and Fawad just floats above it all, completely unaware of all the pain around him.

And, INTERVAL!

And, we’re back!  Ranbir is walking through a super fancy airport, up to the first class lounge where he casually grabs some grapes and then walks over to ask if he can sit at a table with someone, who says that his wife is sitting with him.  So Ranbir kind of wanders over to another table and sits down, and then notices the woman sitting next to him reading a book, and says “I almost finished that.”  And it’s Aish!

Backing up a bit, the stage directions, and Ranbir’s body language, are really good here!  He manages to convey physical shock.  He thinks he is functioning normally, but he isn’t quite really.  His movements are a little clumsy, he isn’t aware of how he appears to the people around him, he isn’t able to speak normally.  The way he zigs and zags around the room, like he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself, is perfect.

But as soon as he sits down with Aish, the directing changes.  Karan talked about this in his recent interview.  That he filmed Aish’s scenes differently from all the others, because her character and persona required it.  They had a gloss and glamour and polish that none of the other’s did.  Which is already true here, Aish is elegantly flipping her hair and opening and closing her book and coming out with lovely elegant line readings, while Ranbir is still kind of awkward and clumsy.

I mentioned in an earlier review how Aish and Ranbir’s dialogue miss-matches, and how great that is for the characters.  Aish is all elegant and clever, and Ranbir is just struggling to put two words together in front of her.  Right from the start, Aish knows who she is and how to live and how to handle things better than Ranbir.  And so she cuts through his random comments to ask him “What’s going on?”  And Ranbir responds by telling her everything.  It’s very immature of him.  And again, puppy!

(Puppy!)

We do get a nice shot of them in the first class seats, the nice roomy first class seats (why can’t I fly first class?), as they share a flight to Dubai.  And then say good-bye, as she goes off to Vienna.  She gives him a book of her poetry (earlier she had says “Main Shayer hoon” and of course Ranbir responded with “Main Shayer to nahin” and I went down my usual rabbit hole of “wait, so in this universe is there an actor Rishi Kapoor who sang that song, and has a son who looks exactly like this character?”), and she lets him know her phone number is on the first page.  Ranbir is a little gobsmacked, but manages to accept the book and her number.

And, SHAHRUKH!!!!  Right?  I’m not crazy?  Ranbir sits at home and reads the title “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” poem.  And it echoes in his head in Shahrukh’s voice.  Right?  I am almost positive I recognize it.  And he is really really good at reading poetry.  That stage training is still there!

We don’t see how he did it, but somehow over the next 3 months Ranbir worked up the nerve to call her.  We see Aish in her fancy Vienna apartment picking up the phone and telling Ranbir she has been waiting 3 months for this call.  Ranbir is looking a little rough, his beard is back and his clothes are more loose and layered and casual, not the almost too cool looks he had back in London.  But he seems a little happier in himself, a little less like a puppy, a little more “hey, if you want to see me, cool, but I’m okay either way.”  Only Aish does want to see him.  And she orders him to meet her at a club that night.

At the club, it’s kind of a strange through the looking glass version of his meeting with Anushka.  Like Anushka, Aish calls him over to dance, silently, with her hand.  But unlike Anushka, it’s not a dance of personality and flavor, but one of sex-sex-sex.  On the other hand, again like Anushka, Aish is the one taking the lead, while Ranbir is happy to just follow along.

The next morning, huge glamour shot of Aish sweeping into her kitchen in a long white silk robe.  While Ranbir is sitting in the kitchen, eating cereal, like a human person.  And this is the conversation we saw part of in the trailer, where they lay out the terms of their relationship.  Aish doesn’t want him to feel obligated or to do anything he doesn’t want.  But Ranbir wants to keep seeing her, even just on her terms, just for sex.  And he also asks, casually, if she would mind if he uses her poetry for his songs.  Aish agrees, tells him to do whatever he wants with them.  Oh, and she casually mentions something about her ex-husband (SHAHRUKH!!!).

Aish’s character here works really well on two levels.  First, on the surface, I love it that she is this unapologetically sexual older woman, and despite the age difference Ranbir clearly knows he is lucky to have a chance with her.  But secondly, I like that they are already giving clues to how she is a little more than just a surface sexual being.  Her desire for no commitment and just sex, it isn’t because she is a male fantasy, we have this little hint towards a messy divorce and a complicated history, just like Ranbir’s.  She is more than just the surface perfection that Ranbir sees.

And, song!  Boy, there are so many in the second half!  It’s mostly Aish and Ranbir just having sex sex sex all over Vienna, while she gives poetry readings and he rehearses and records songs in scenic locations (seriously, is there a worse place to record music than a train yard?).  But right at the end, there is a super important moment.  They kiss good-bye, and Ranbir walks away smiling.  And Aish walks in the other direction, but can’t help looking back twice.  And Ranbir never turns.  Danger!  Danger danger!  One person is more involved in this relationship than the other!