I just watched Dear Zindagi straight through for the 5th time. With my friend who missed it in theaters. And who had also suffered through Josh with me on an earlier movie night. And suddenly, IT ALL MADE SENSE!!!!
Stick with me here. In 1970s/80s Goa, a young teenager and his twin sister run a dangerous gang.
His sister falls in love with the brother of the rival gang leader while Shahrukh is still in love with a spicy local girl.
But Shahrukh is tormented by his childhood trauma!
In the end, the bad gang is defeated and their real estate racket revealed, along with the fact that Shahrukh and Aish are secretly the heirs to a massive fortune!
But then, what would he do next?
What if, with no longer any need to work or be a gang person, he attempts to move on with his girlfriend. But, still traumatized by his childhood, he eventually destroys that relationship. In a desperate effort to understand what is happening inside his head, he begins intensive therapy.
After years of work on himself, he comes out the other end, sadder, wiser, and fascinated by the mental health profession. He travels the world learning how to be the greatest psychiatrist of all time! While back home Aish and her now husband have never really gotten over their gang enemy past with Shahrukh, he says they are ashamed of him because he is in psychiatry, but in fact it is because he killed his brother-in-law’s older brother.
(Sorry for the big play button over his face)
So now he is back in Goa, no longer running from his fears. But his wife has lost touch with her local girl roots and lives abroad with their son. Shahrukh has taken his half of the inheritance and bought a lovely beach house. Where he spends time with local boys, trying to assuage his guilt for all the young man he lead astray in his gang banger past. And uses his old biker gang skills to fix bikes.
And, sometimes, takes on patients who remind him of the beautiful innocent young girl his sister was, trying to build up some faint echo of that connection.
And who remind him of himself, struggling with painful childhood memories that result in random outbursts of aggression. Until he gently leads them back to healing and happiness, the kind of healing he has finally found.
SEE???? It all makes sense!!!!
dontcallitbollywood 
Of course!
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It all makes sense now, right?
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Talk about flights of fancy.But I’m loving it.Wonder what the directors would have to say about it? On the other hand, I bet your mom was treated to some excellent tales when you were a kid.
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I think the director’s should be grateful to me, because Josh is a much more exciting backstory than any Gauri could have come up with, and Dear Zindagi certainly gives a better ending than Mansoor Khan did.
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This is what I would tell my students is “a reach” a BIG reach. But, very creative and no one does sad on screen like our Shah Rukh. I loved Josh even tho parts are ridiculous.
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I probably shouldn’t tell you my alternate universe KANK/DTPH theory either. Or my “Aish isn’t really dead, it was all an elaborate con on Amitabh and Shahrukh’s ‘visions’ were actually her visiting him!” theory.
On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 12:27 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ooooh, no do TELL. I want so so badly for Mohabbatain to be different than it is. Go with the KANK/DTPH theory please!! I didn’t say a reach was bad. As a matter of fact, I had a brilliant and quirky student who would say, each time, “This might be a reach” and often have the best and most original idea in the class. Go for it.
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So, this is actually my sister’s theory, KANK as the version of DTPH in which Shahrukh and Madhuri don’t meet until after marriage. Shahrukh marries his best friend, who he loves, but isn’t “in love” with, the way she is with him. Madhuri/Rani marries her childhood friend/foster brother just because she cares for him and his family. And then, years later, Madhuri/Rani and Shahrukh meet and fall in love anyway, the sacrifice is for naught, their love could never have been denied!
Mohabbetain, it’s simpler. Aish faked her death with Shahrukh’s assistance in order to cover their elopement/punish Big B. Now, Shahrukh has returned to complete the vengeance. Aish can’t come with him because she is hiding at a hotel in town taking care of the kids. But, late at night or whenever she can find a babysitter, she sneaks away to have a little tryst with him. Until finally, at the end, they have driven Amitabh to turn over all his most deeply held beliefs and decide to complete the gaslighting, let him see his “dead” daughter and think it is a hallucination. Shortly after the film ends, they have him committed and take over the school.
On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 1:03 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hmmm. I don’t know on the Mohabbetain…the ghost is fantastic (as in fantasy) enough…I think we all just can’t stand the idea that that beautiful man NEVER gets to hold a real woman. SRK himself has said, that kind of love is not something he is capable of. He said, “to go without physical love, children, seems impossible to me.”
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Ok. You have inspired me to share my idea of Fan 2. Aryan Khan, overcome by remorse, makes a film about Gaurav, this time with a happy ending. Jabra Fan is the featured dance number.
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GENIUS!!!!! Also, that is kind of the connection between Tere Bin Laden and Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive!!! You should watch both movies.
Can I add that Gaurav’s parents and girlfriend are made part of the film, and someone is trying to kill Aryan again seemingly, is Gaurav back? Only then it turns out to be someone you would never expect and Aryan isn’t the real target. Only I can’t figure out who the person you wouldn’t expect is and who is the real target. I do know that Shahrukh should play two parts again, both himself, and the actor he has cast to play himself in the film.
On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 1:39 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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