We all know that Hindi film loves a love triangle.  And usually a blameless love triangle, two good options and one of them loses out through no fault of their own.  So, I thought, why not give a happy ending to all of love’s losers?  And, just to make this more fun, why not cross streams and give happy endings to losers from different films? And why not make an easy post in which I rapidly run through a whole bunch of different plots without a lot of details?

I might as well start with the real inspiration for this post, poor Mandira Bedi in DDLJ.  Her life is so sad!  And then she doesn’t even get the perfect husband she was dreaming of!  I want better things for her.  And there is a guy out there in film world who would be just about perfect, if they ever met.

Mandira Bedi from DDLJ and Vinod Khanna from Chandni:

As I like to picture it, Mandira took from the DDLJ experience that she is worthy of respect, and maybe she would be happier if she went after what she wanted, like Kajol did, instead of just waiting and accept what her father gave her.  But not a boy!  Not yet.  First, she sees an ad for a new nurse’s school and sends in an application.  And is accepted, and is finally brave enough to ask her father to take some of the money set aside for her wedding jewelry to pay the tuition.  Kuljit is a jerk about it (obviously), but Satish Shah takes it seriously (he also learned from the DDLJ experience) and finally agrees.  Mandira spends two years at school, makes friends, has experiences outside the home, and then at a wedding, meets Vinod Khanna.

(Like this.  Laughing with friends and watching movies and going shopping.  I can’t see Mandira ever clubbing or something, but I want her to get out of the kitchen and live life!)

Poor sad jilted widower Vinod.  Who isn’t in love, but is intrigued, and his mother jumps in and arranges a proposal.  Which Satish is all excited about, but Mandira turns down politely because she wants more “me” time.  Vinod takes it well, and even takes the blame (he tells the families that he was the one who turned Mandira down because he still wasn’t over Juhi/Sridevi).  But his mother (Waheeda?) makes a mental note and when they are back in the city, she pretends to feel faint and ill and arranges to be taken to Mandira’s hospital.  And then Mandira is so nice and helpful, that she asks Vinod to hire her as a temporary home aid after she returns home.  Mandira and Vinod slowly become closer, she starts doing nice things like having a hot meal ready when he works late, and he starts bringing her little presents like flowers and a book.  And then Kuljit comes in and stomps all over it, because he must be a nightmare as a big brother.  Walks into the house like he owns it next time he is in the city, starts ordering Mandira around and talking about her “cute” little career.  Vinod speaks up to defend her, Kuljit misunderstands, and suddenly they are engaged.  Mandira goes along with it, so Vinod does too.  But they are both too restrained to admit that they are now in love.  Until the night of the engagement, when Vinod suddenly starts singing a passionate Punjabi love song to her, and Mandira responds, and they realize that they really do love each other now.

 

Ali Zafar from Dear Zindagi and Florence Brudenell-Bruce from Love Aaj Kal:

I just feel bad because both of them were nice people who just weren’t that interesting and weren’t right for our main character.  So, Ali continues his life as the lounge singer type in Goa.  Florence, after her Saif break-up, decides to go to Goa.  She meets him on a beach at night.  It is magical, they fall in love at first sight.  They become a kind of dull hippy type couple.  She grows her hair out and wears a lot of loose tie-dye type clothes.  They open their own bar.  They have a bunch of cute little hippy children.  Saif and Alia both occasionally come visit and then leave as soon as possible because they are nice people, but not that interesting to talk to.

(This is Florence.  Remember her?)

 

Aditya Roy Kapoor from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Deepika Padukone from Cocktail (just ignore that Other Dips is also in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.  It’s a random coincidental similarity):

They have a drunken one night stand and they next morning Dips can’t find her keys and so isn’t able to sneak out, and they end up talking and having breakfast together.  And compare notes of all the things that have fallen apart in their life.  And finally help each other to realize, that they are both alcoholics.  Dips finally leaves in a taxi, saying she has a lot of thinking to do, goes home and calls Saif and Diana Penty for support, they take her to rehab and tell her they love her and are proud of her.  Aditya immediately falls off the wagon and gets drunk again, this time so bad he passes out and ends up in the hospital when Ranbir breaks into his apartment after he stopped answering his phone.  Ranbir and Kalki confront him (FINALLY!) and tell him he has to go to rehab.  And so he ends up in the same place as Dips, but 2 weeks later.  She is happy to see him and shows him the ropes, and they become odd kind of friends/sponsors, since they are sharing deeply personal things in group therapy sessions, and then just enjoying telling each other jokes over lunch.  At some point, Adi tries to kiss her, Dips stops him, tells him it is just heightened emotions from therapy and stuff.  Plus, the sex addiction which is clearly part of his bouquot of addictive behaviors.  Which makes it awkward when Dips suddenly realizes her own feelings when she is leaving, two weeks before him.  She doesn’t know what to say, so she doesn’t say anything, just slips him her phone number and asks him to call her when he is ready.

Adi gets out, moves in with Kalki and her husband and tries to get his life together without alcohol or any of his other addictions (sex, gambling).  He tries working in Kalki’s husband’s office, that doesn’t go well, but he wanders into the daycare center attached and really enjoys, and is great with, the kids.  Kalki encourages him, and he starts going into a training program for early childhood education.  After a montage going through the program and bringing him to his first job, an apartment paid for with his own money, and a full year sober, he calls Dips.  Meanwhile, Dips has been trying to forget him.  And also working on her own stuff.  She moves in with Saif and Diana Penty and gets used to living on a regular schedule and doing normal human stuff like playing board games and having family dinner night.  Diana is pregnant, Dips takes care of her when she gets sick and takes her to the hospital, where a nice kind doctor helps and then asks Dips out (let’s say it’s Mohnish Behl from Vivah).  Dips doesn’t know if she wants to go, finally admits her lingering feelings for Adi to Diana and Saif, who tell her that it sounds like she is falling into bad patterns, maybe she should forget this super addict guy from rehab and try dating a nice “dull” doctor.  She does, and the relationship progresses, but when Mohnish proposes, she has to admit that she doesn’t really love him.  There is nothing wrong with him, she enjoyed the non-dangerous dates and meeting his family and all of that, she wants that, just with Aditya, not him.  And of course as she walks away after reaching this realization and turning him down, her phone finally rings and it’s Adi!  He waited a year, until he was sure of his recovery, and then called.  To ask her to marry him!  Dips says yes, and they start a safe sober life, sharing a tiny apartment, with him going to work at his charity elementary school every day, and her making him breakfast and doing laundry and meeting him for lunch and generally enjoying a grounded normal person life.

 

Katrina from Dhoom 3 and Aamir from PK

Okay, Kat wasn’t exactly part of a love triangle, but she was a loser in love, so I’m accepting it.  And she deserves a happier ending!  As does our poor alien lover PK.

So, this is pretty simple, Aamir returns to earth to discover if love is a permanent emotion, or not.  He tries to forget Anushka all kinds of ways, and nothing works.  Finally, he is told that if he goes to a certain show, the headliner will make him forget everything else.  It’s Kat, and she does.  Aamir tracks her down after the show and tells her that he has to spend all his time watching her now, because it will help cure his broken heart.  Kat is depressed, but also kind, and after an initial freak out, she listens to Aamir’s story and feels bad for him, and agrees that he can hang around her as much as he wants.  Aamir eventually finds her drunk and crying over Dhoom-3-Aamir.  He tries to cheer her up, telling her that if he figured out a way to cure his broken heart, she can too.  She just has to find something that helps her forget.  Aamir takes her on a whole series of options, roller coasters and skydiving and stuff, and nothing works.  Until she is rehearsing her show and Aamir stumbles on stage and starts dancing with her.  Dancing with PK Aamir!  That is what helps her forget Dhoom 3 Aamir!  They work out a routine together to show her boss, and then it becomes a huge hit and suddenly they are stars.  And Kat starts hinting around to PK Aamir that maybe the way they can help each other forget their broken hearts means that they are now in love with each other.  PK Aamir doesn’t get it, until finally at the end of their routine one night Kat kisses him.  And then he does and sends a message back to his home planet that he is in love again, human hearts can heal, and he will be continuing his research mission indefinitely until he finds a time when love ends.  Quick flashforward of Kat and Aamir’s entire happy life together, until finally, surrounded by their children, Kat dies.  And Aamir goes to the roof and looks at the stars and blinks away.

 

Varun Dhawan from Student of the Year and Sanah Kapoor from Shaandar

In case you forgot, this is Sanah from Shaandar:

What drives me crazy about Shaandar is that it has this stupid “anti-fat shaming” message.  Which is very different from a “this woman has a perfectly normal body which, for the majority of non-Westernized Indian society, is actual the ideal, and the problem is that this particular man who is being forced to marry her just is not attracted to her”.  Anyway, I want someone to fall passionately madly in love with her and also be insanely attracted to her.  Plus, I want Varun from Student of the Year to find mad passionate love in his life.

So, let’s say that Shahid-the-event-planner is hired to help plan one of Varun’s concerts.  Sanah, is beloved little sister-in-law, is visiting so he takes her along with him to work.  Varun, at first sight, immediately falls passionately devoutly in love/lust.  Heck, let’s be really trite and have him on the phone with Siddharth, saying “no yaar, love just isn’t for me, I’m not like you, I’m not going to see a girl and just know in that first moment that she”-pause as he looks across the room and sees Sanah shyly enter “is…the…ONE!”  And then he hangs up and rushes over to talk to her.  Only, Shahid thinks he is just hitting on her, and zooms over and takes Sanah away.  And when Sanah is all “he seemed so nice!  who was he?”, Shahid is all “a bad man!  Don’t talk to him!”  Sanah tries to obey, but Varun manages to keep bumping into her, and is super nice, and listens to everything she says, and gives her little gifts that show he was paying attention (like, a copy of the new book by her favorite author).  Shahid finally finds them talking together and confronts Varun, tells him that his little sister-in-law is fragile and Varun shouldn’t be flirting with her just because he thinks she is an easy target because she isn’t supermodel beautiful.  And Varun is FURIOUS!  Blows up that Sanah is gorgeous and sexy and the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and supermodels wish they were that beautiful.  And he isn’t just flirting, he wants to marry her.  With or without Shahid’s permission.  But, meanwhile, Sanah has run into Alia from Student of the Year who came to visit Varun and check out this girl he is obsessed with.  Alia is all nice, but Sanah misunderstands and somehow things she is Varun’s girlfriend, and of course Varun was just being nice to her and didn’t actually like her/was attracted to her.  She sadly goes home to Alia from Shaandar and cries out her broken heart.  Alia goes and yells at Shahid for not taking better care of her little sister and Shahid yells at Varun for breaking her heart, and Varun yells at Alia from Student of the Year for not being cool.  But, the end solution is all of them working together to surprise Sanah with a big romantic proposal, complete with a love song about how amazing she is, at Varun’s concert.  Sanah of course says yes, Varun embraces her, balloons fall, happy ending!

 

 

 

I could go on and on, there are SO MANY love triangles!  But, of these, which do you like best?  If we had a magic wand that could give happy endings to fictional characters, who deserves it more?

And, of course, who are losers in love that you would like to put together?