Oh boy! Moving right along, I’m like a whole 5 minutes in! Which wouldn’t seem like a lot, except I’ve been working on my DDLJ scene by scene, and that is sooooooooooooooo much slower. And here I am, only on part 2, and we are already past the opening credits! Woo-hoo! Lightening speed! (although, in case you were wondering, no DDLJ today, skipping another Wednesday. Partly because this post took up a lot of time, partly because getting only 6 hours of sleep because I am seeing JHMS every night is not in fact conducive to clear thinking) (full index of scene by scene here)
In part 1, we met our hero, Harry/Shahrukh. Through song which really sketched in all the background we need. He has lost the sense of what it is like to be normal, to be human. His life is always in transit, never connecting with a person or a place. And his job involved an added layer of inhumanity, always acting the perfect polite servant helping his tourists instead of revealing his real self. Which we see at the end of the song when he waves a bitter good-bye to the tour group and then immediately strips off his jacket, his tie, and his whole “good boy” look to drop into the “sexy bad boy” he really is.
Which is when Anushka, our heroine, stops him. The goodest of good girls. And the most boring of good girls. She is all loud and eager and angry when she doesn’t get her way. Wants him to take her back to the hotel so she can look for her engagement ring. Shahrukh doesn’t want to because he is sick of these boring needy people making demands on him. But he has to give in when she threatens to call his boss, making him even more resentful.
And now here they are in his car listening to his music with his “real” self sitting next to her. And he can’t switch back so suddenly to his perfect tour guide persona, he has to stay uneasily real with her. While she is still confidently fake with him.
When talking about Baadshaho yesterday, it came up that you could argue the “older lower class guy saves and seduces upperclass woman” trope can be applied to this film. But, I don’t think so exactly? In this scene, Shahrukh is listening to the radio and Anushka can’t identify the language. When he brusquely tells her it is French, she isn’t sure whether or not they are in France, and when she learns they aren’t, she is surprised that French songs are played on the radio. And finally, she declares she took French in school and leans forward and is delighted when she can translate a word here and there and starts singing along. This is not classy behavior.
Anushka is rich and spoiled, but she isn’t sophisticated. She is babyish really, throwing a tantrum until Shahrukh helps her, then proudly showing off her minimal knowledge of languages while at the same time revealing vast ignorance of, well, everything. And this is also a sign of class.
If Anushka were home, in traditional clothes, in their ancestral village, that would be one kind of class. She doesn’t need to know French or where countries are in Europe, because she is beyond that. Or, if she were in Europe, speaking perfect fluent English, calmly accepting fancy foreign language songs, that would be another kind of class. And this isn’t even an Indian thing, this is consistent for all cultures, class is all about comfort. That is, being comfortable and confident with your place in the world. And you can either remain in one place and be perfectly fitted for that place, or you can travel everywhere and be fitted where ever you go. But Anushka isn’t that. She is revealing herself to be a petty parochial school girl type. This is part of what Shahrukh resents about his tour groups, he isn’t taking around the leading members of society, people who can converse about art and culture and really appreciate what they are seeing. He is taking around nouveou riche (I have no idea how to spell that) types who want to brag about a European trip but without ever really interacting outside of their little bubble.
That’s why Shahrukh hates them all, and that’s the hate he is transferring on to innocent Anushka. Because she is innocent. We don’t need any backstory (although it would have helped! Where is Anushka’s “Safar”?) to know that really. We just need to know she is a young woman traveling with a large family group and her fiance. That’s not the person who is yelling at the tour guide, who organized this superficial look at Europe, who is part of a whole “money-equals-bullying” kind of attitude that is killing Shahrukh. She is just a young woman who doesn’t know any other way to be and is being herself. Well, herself as she was trained to be by her family.
Oh, and one other thing about this scene. We see them traveling in cars a fair amount in this movie. And this is one of the few times that we see them in profile instead of head on. The camera is telling us that they aren’t traveling in the same direction, as it were. Anushka leans forward to listen to the radio, happily sings along, looks out the window on her side of the car. Shahrukh puts on sunglasses and looks anywhere but in her direction. Well, except for one moment I will get into later.
Anushka doesn’t even care about him at this point. That comes in the next scene. She has told him that she needs to go back to the restaurant where they had dinner the night before because that is where she had her “romantic proposal”. And once they are in the restaurant and she starts to describe her “romantic proposal”, she is suddenly aware that Shahrukh doesn’t actually think it was that romantic. Probably the first time in her life she has been aware that there is an alternative perspective to the one she was raised on, the way everyone around her thinks about things. It’s a small thing, but when they were arguing before, she just didn’t hear or understand why he wouldn’t want to help her, she was so caught up in her own problems. But now, when he sarcastically repeats “romantic proposal”, she feels the need to justify it, to say “it was! It was romantic!” She is hearing him, finally, and he is making her doubt herself.
And Shahrukh is increasingly aware of her, and it is making him hate her! He doesn’t hate her in a sort of general way, but in a really specific way. She is so casually unaware of anything anyone else might want, of how to have some give and take. He offers to buy her coffee, his treat, and her response is “no, too much caffeine”. He sits down and she remains standing. He tries to explain why he doesn’t want to travel with her, and she declares that none of his reasons make sense, she will pay him, it is settled. We can kind of see why he raises a middle finger at her when she turns away.
This is also when she explicitly threatens to call his boss. I miss-remembered yesterday (I’m sorry!), but a second watch reminded me. And Shahrukh has a very dramatic reaction, stopping on his stomp out after refusing to help her any more, and turning back immediately, chastened. In yesterdays sequence, it was just an implied threat, but this time it was explicit. And she is triumphal in her “win” over him, which just makes her seem more childish and un-understanding.
What is really interesting is the details of her complaint. She specifically says that he committed a fraud by pretending to be someone else (nice calm helpful tour guide) when he is completely different. Which is the theme of the film, that they have both acted differently than who they really are inside until just now.
And, we are seeing, Anushka is a bit of a fraud too. Through implication. Again, I really wish she had gotten her own “Safar” type sequence, something to quickly establish her life pre-film. But we sort of get that here when she describes her engagement. Her “romantic” engagement, with her fiance, and his entire family watching. In a restaurant, that’s what made it “romantic”. This is a woman who is so sheltered that her idea of romance is a proposal in a restaurant instead of a living room. And yet here she is fearlessly ordering Shahrukh around and confidently confirming that yes, it was “romantic!” Like Shahrukh, she has two faces, the sweet girl who would want the family proposal, and the demanding aggressive woman who likes enforcing her power. And like Shahrukh, I don’t think either of them are the “real” Anushka. She isn’t sweet and simple and innocent, but she also isn’t really aggressive and bossy. She is somewhere in the middle. And Shahrukh isn’t the tired safe robotic tour guide, but he also isn’t entirely the rude bad boy type. He’s something in the middle too, the “real” Shahrukh. But they have to bring out the worst in each other before they can find the best.
That’s what this scene is, the worst of the two of them. Anushka is somehow both naive and demanding, Shahrukh is rude and angry. But they don’t give up on each other. Partly for plot reasons, Shahrukh really doesn’t want her to complain to his boss and Anushka knows her father will only pay for this extended trip/search if Shahrukh, who he trusts, is her guide. But partly because I think, already there is something there that is drawing them together.
Ready for BIG THEME discussion? Through out this film, we constantly see Shahrukh following her, her following Shahrukh. The two of them seem to be tied together by an invisible cord, which becomes visible in “Phurr” (Anushka’s ipod cord). I think what Imtiaz is getting at here, made explicit in the tagline “what you seek is seeking you”, is that beyond their personalities meshing and all of that, there is something on a deeper level which makes them truly “made for each other”. That’s why everything seems to move so fast, and kind of illogically. After this meeting, Anushka could have complained to her father instead of Shahrukh’s boss, gotten him to agree to have someone else be her guide. But, she doesn’t. Somehow she insists on it being him. And Shahrukh could have changed back to the polite tour guide, he kind of does towards the end of this conversation after her threat, but then snaps back to bitter “real” Shahrukh pretty quickly. Sure, it might be a little hard for Anushka to convince her father to let her stay back with someone he doesn’t feel he knows, and she really wants to stay. But it wouldn’t be impossible. And it might have made Shahrukh even more depressed to have to snap back into being “fake” after allowing himself to be real with her. But he could have done it. This whole artificial situation is part movie magic, but also partly because there is something in each other they just can’t resist.
(Literal cord)
And then we move on to the next scene! Which is as close as we get to exposition and explanation in the whole film. And is also kind of a boring scene. Boringly shot too, Shahrukh and the comic relief friend guy standing by a river in matching light colored shirts talking. Not a lot of fun colors or anything on screen. Plus, no one in the real world has ever stopped and had an intense conversation standing on a sidewalk. And yet in films, constantly!!! Because it’s a lot easier to film that two people talking over coffee or sitting on a sofa, the way you actually talk in real life. It’s especially noticeable because every other scene up to this point in the movie has had really interesting blocking and use of space. You can tell it is a film shot entirely on location, and they wanted it that way. They moved into interesting cafes or museums or alleys in Europe, and took advantage of the different space. In the last scene, they are on opposite sides of a table, with Anushka standing most of the time and Shahrukh sitting. There is a couch behind, which at one point Anushka looks underneath, and a mirror above the couch which occasionally reflects one of the other so we can see both parties in the conversation. All of this isn’t, like, the most imaginative blocking in the world, but they are using the space. Anushka and Shahrukh are out of synch both because she is vertical while he is horizontal, and because they are on opposing sides of the frame. As the argument continues, Shahrukh goes up and down but Anushka stays determinedly standing. There is even a cool low angle shot that emphasize when Shahrukh finally literally “stands up” to her. And, bonus, the location has a neat mural on the ceiling, so the low angle shot doesn’t give us boring empty space above/behind their heads, but something interesting filling the rest of the frame.
(See?)
I’m just giving this as an example, but if you watch closely, every location in the film is used in a similar way. It’s not in your face and flashy, but they found a spot that would work for the scene, and then clearly spent some time figuring out the best possible way to use it. This is the kind of thing I am talking about when I say this is a very well made movie. And that if you concentrate, there are a lot of deeper meanings there. The dialogue of the SRK-Anushka scene gives some info, but if you watch close and look at what the camera is telling you, the costumes, the body language, there is SO MUCH MORE. Oh, and this is also the kind of thing that made me watch it and go “yeah, worth a scene by scene analysis series”. It’s not a throw away lazy “bad movie”. It’s a small odd movie, but it is very very well done.
(See? Mirror on the right echoed by the window on the left, actors’ posture and expressions telling us all we need to know in the scene, and so on and so forth)
Except for this one bit, with Shahrukh and comic relief friend talking in a boringly blocked and framed moment. The only thing slightly interesting is that we can see the window of Anushka’s hotel room over their shoulders. Only we don’t know yet it is Anushka’s hotel room, so that is kind of lost on us.
Dialogue and performance, also dull. They wanted to get a little bit of explanation out, and they put in fun things like Shahrukh pretending his phone was breaking up in order to entertain us, but really it is just clunky exposition. Although it does give us some mildly interesting facts about his backstory.
Based on this, and other clues we will get later in the film (and earlier, there is a glimpse of his passport in “Safar”), we can piece together a picture of his life so far. Ran away from a small village in the Punjab as a young man in order to look for fame overseas. Landed in Canada, presumably had a facility with language and obviously was naturally charming, and thus got a job in tourism. And all of this was years and years and years ago. And now here he is, after probably a decade at least of going from tour group to tour group in Europe. Terrified and yet also resentful of the boss who is controlling him from afar, his only connection with his homeland the tourists he has grown to hate. And because of that hatred, he is sabotaging himself, and now has 25 complaints against him. He is avoiding his boss’ call, but not willing/able to just tell him off the way he wants to. And his only friend in this strange land, someone who we will learn later is close enough to expect him to play the part of the groom’s family at his wedding, Shahrukh isn’t even really willing/able to relate to him either. He is talking, but Shahrukh is turning and looking everywhere but at his face. And looking everywhere but at the obvious solution, to just go and talk to Anushka and explain the situation she has put him in. His friend finally convinces him using the phrase “confess le lo”. Which I know, thanks to Hum Aapke Hain Koun, means “give confession”. It’s not an action he is suggesting, it is a gift. Which is accurate, is Shahrukh willing to give up a part of himself to Anushka?
(This movie teaches so much! “Le lo”, “de do”, all your pronouns and your Hindi relationship words!)
Which brings us to the next scene, Anushka and Shahrukh alone in a hotel room. Which has an outstanding series of props, blocking, etc. etc., all without getting out the realm of what you would naturally find in a hotel room. However, that is too long for this post, so I just want to give you one little teaser.
Anushka opens the door, Shahrukh is standing outside with very uncomfortable kind of almost aggressive body language. His head is cocked, his shoulders twisted, he looks kind of ready for a fight. And then we pull back to reveal Anushka in her bedclothes, a t-shirt and tiny shorts. And Shahrukh kind of looks down and reacts and then forces himself to look away. Anushka doesn’t even notice his reaction. So much so that she invites him into the room which kind of shocks him and makes him want to flee, until she insists.
So, what is up with that? Plus the moment I noticed earlier when he kind of looks at her in the car and then makes himself look away? And a bunch of other moments later on?
I think it’s that he is super super super super super attracted to her. In a way he isn’t used to. It’s not just about dominating and getting in and out and feeling alive for a moment (which seems to be what his sex addiction is with other women). It’s about being super attracted to this woman in particular.
Partly because she is her, the woman made for him, the one person he has been searching for without realizing it. But also, I think, because at heart he is a good Indian boy and he really wants a good Indian woman. But he feels like he doesn’t deserve it any more. We see him with two women over the course of the film, neither of them desi. And none of them terribly young or inexperienced. He looks at Anushka and sees the pure perfect virginal Indian bride type, what he was raised to idealize and still reacts to because of that early training, but no longer feels he deserves.
(This is his fantasy now. Not the exotic western women, but a simple Indian girl in Salwar. And he feels he doesn’t deserve her)
Beyond a general “hands off!” feeling that I think he would have with any woman of this type, there is also the way that Anushka proves herself, over and over again, to be more of a child than a woman. It doesn’t even occur to her that she is dressed provocatively, that she should feel awkward inviting a strange man into her hotel room. On top of her tantrum and refusal to respect his feelings earlier. He’s a decent guy, he is resisting his overwhelming attraction to her, and is kind of ashamed of it, the same way he would be ashamed of being attracted to a high school girl, someone physically mature, but not mentally, which as a decent man, he knows is wrong. That’s why he is so awkward and defensive about talking with her here.
Notice, he doesn’t even admit it to his friend. That’s why his friend can’t quite understand his full reluctance in their conversation. Shahrukh is turning this way and that trying to escape the hidden part of himself that is afraid to be alone with Anushka because he is afraid of falling in love, or being vulnerable, or being rejected, or of not being able to resist her. And Anushka doesn’t even know enough to be afraid, like a child playing with fire.
dontcallitbollywood 
Pingback: Jab Harry Met Sejal Scene By Scene Index | dontcallitbollywood
I so so love that you are doing this. I’ve read all the other things you wrote but I was on my phone and for some reason it won’t let me post to you. So, I am seeing it tonight for the third time. I will be back later with many more comments. Thank you for liking it. I HATE all this failure talk.
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Samesies! Just got back from my third time. Can’t wait for your comments!
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Okay, just saw if for the fourth time. First, it wasn’t boring AT ALL even the parts I didn’t really like (Gaz). Second, everytime I walk out of the theater the Indian audience baffles me more and more. They have been BEGGING him to do a romance. Okay, its not DDLJ but what do they expect? He’s not a kid. Its very much like the AIB interview when he says no matter what he does he can’t win. A friend of mine who is not a Hindi film buff but who likes Shah Rukh said tht she thought Anushka was weak. Interesting. This movies should be doing GREAT. Does a film have to be a bio pic, or patriotic to do well these days? More later. (I’m in the middle of watching your box office analysis)
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I think I have to put the blame on the audience and the promotion campaign combined. It was sold, a little bit, as more of a fun all ages romance. But, it isn’t. It’s a mature romance, for an audience that wants to pay attention to characters and think a bit. Which isn’t the whole audience, and that’s okay. It just needed to be explicitly sold to that audience, the 10-20% who would like it, instead of shooting for more like 50% and dragging in all those people who were just never going to like a movie like this.
Anyway, glad to hear it isn’t boring on the 4th watch! Although last night, on the 3rd watch, I did make a bathroom run in the middle of the post-wedding conversation scene, I just couldn’t watch them go through all those beats again. And yeah, I think the “Gas” section might be my least favorite too. On my fastforward watches, I would probably skip the “Gas” scenes and the post-wedding fight. But keep everything else, it’s a really well-made film.
On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 1:32 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Loved this. When Harry closes the door behind, as Sejal wishes him Good Night, this “innocent” side of her is so evident – she sits provocatively, teasing him that he has high hopes, not realizing for a bit what she is getting into. I didn’t quite feel he was attracted to her yet, but may be another watch and I will watch for your clues more closely.
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Normally a movie like this would be the innocent reminding the “experienced” one of essential truths or something. I love how in this both of them were wrong snd right. Anushka was right that she could trust shahrukh to take care of her, but Shahrukh was right that she had no grasp of how complicated relationships could be.
I only started really noticing the attraction on watch 2-3. Partly because it is the only way to make sense of other scenes. Shahrukh being so reluctant to travel with her but not willing to tell his friend why, following her to a club, watching her while she sleeps, all of this before they even have a friendly conversation. If he had this instinctive pull towards her, as she did to him, it would make sense.
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Saw this for the 2nd time last night. I’m hoping it hangs around til mid-week next week in the small S. Asian theater near me so I can see it a 3rd time. There’s just so much about this movie that makes it worth seeing and hearing it in the theater. I noticed music and sound effects much more this time.
Overall your analysis is spot on! I interpret the line about “Is Amsterdam in France?” a bit differently though. I think she knows perfectly well that they are not in France, so she’s teasing him about listening to French music. She’s already noticing that he is a bit sentimental, and maybe a bit of a Europhile in a way that is different than his tour guide persona. I interpret him getting his phone down from the visor as meaning that he’s playing the music via his phone/bluetooth. So it’s not on the radio, but is his music. He almost changes it, but in the end decides to keep it and turn it up. Another sign of that early feeling of connection?
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Just to quickly add that I saw it with joyomama, which was so fun! And, I’m grateful to whomever decided Shah Rukh’s shirts should be not only quite tight, but a bit short as well. Especially given Ali’s apparent penchant for low-angled shots.
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And we both agreed that you should schedule a watch along of Jab We Met. In your ample free time, of course!
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Tempting! i’m hosting my cousin and her boyfriend next week, so probably not the greatest time for it.
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Yes! I’m revealing myself as the person who hasn’t seen Jab We Met (or at least the one you’ve been most recently talking to about it on here, Margaret). Maybe just keep it in the hopper of options for the next time you feel like doing a watch along!
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But you shouldn’t wait that long! It’s right there! On Netflix! Do it now, you will thank me. And then you can join our erection/no erection debate over on the review I wrote. I’m going with “erection of the soul!”
On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 8:24 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You know, normally I don’t get the appeal of the male tummy shots (there was a period that Abhishek either thought his tummy was super sexy or didn’t know how to buy shirts, and I never liked it), but in this one, totally worked! In a sort of “my shirt is about to fall off” way.
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Ooo, I like that version! I am still not sure about her “is Amsterdam in France?” line being real or fake, but I did get a similar vibe about his decision to keep playing the music. once she starts to really listen, he reaches over and turns it up for her. And it’s while she is singing along that I noticed the little moment where he looks at her and then makes himself look away.
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he says confidence mein le lo. not confess 🙂
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Thanks!
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I seen the movie in Australia, I went to see it for enjoyment that SRK was in the movie. I didn’t judge it. I understand meaning of the movie. I loved the singing and dancing, loved everything about the movie. SRK was so good in it. I thought SRK and Anushka were wonderful in the movie I gave it a 5 Star to me it was a hit. It should had been a blockbuster.
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I thought it was a good movie too! It’s too bad the critics and a lot of the audience didn’t agree with us.
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For me, the car ride and the restaurant scene both show that Sejal, at this point in time, looks at Harry in the servant role. Maybe in her household there are many servants and she has been brought up to rely on their serving her family’s needs. As of yet, she does not see Harry as an individual but just a means to an end. Harry understands this and rebels against this. When she throws out the threat, he knows what that would mean for him, even if she doesn’t. Now he feels backed into a corner and this just adds to his anger. His friend tries to help with the suggestion he just be honest and confide the problem to her. Now we come to the scene I really like. You’re right, when she opens the door, his anger is quite apparent but when he sees how she’s dressed, he fumbles all over his words. She invites him in and tells him to close the door. Harry is now getting the real sense of how sheltered Sejal really is. He tries to explain, but she doesn’t understand and when she does she writes up the indemnity bond paper. When she reads it to him, you can tell how incredulous he is that she would think this would protect him (or her). She keeps chiding him about it until he finally says he’s warned her. At this stage, it almost felt like Harry would like Sejal to fall in bed with him just to show her how little she knows. But after all, Harry is a decent man. Her innocence is really her protection. Taking advantage of her (which he could very easily do) would be like kicking a kitten.
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Oh, that’s a good point, that Shahrukh didn’t know when he planned this conversation exactly how sheltered Anushka is. It was that moment when she casually invited him in and ordered him to close the door, that was his first hint. So no wonder this conversation didn’t go as planned, he had planned it for a slightly different person, someone who would react in horror to his first admission, who would immediately agree to find a different solution. But with Anushka, she didn’t even know enough to be horrified.
On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 7:03 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thus, one of my favorite Anusha espressions in the film, the “so what” stare.
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It’s gorgeous to get reminded the subtleties…after one viewing and one month passed the words help a lot to build up the images again…
Both trying to be ‘practical’ – with opposite motivations…it was touching and funny and exciting.
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Great analysis!
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But I also I’ve had plenty of intense conversations outside on steps and even awkwardly on street corners. I had one recently for an HOUR on the corner of the small neighborhood grocery store parking lot.
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What I love most about this particular write-up was what you said about the invisible cord. Actually there’s a moment that features after the Indemnity Bond sequence that adds a bit more symbolic weight to this theory but I think I’ll talk about it when I get to that sequence. And I definitely agree that Harry is immediately aware he’s attracted to Sejal straightaway in a way that even he wasn’t expecting.
1. I actually didn’t notice the “look” he gave in the car until you mentioned it! It’s just before she starts identifying the “mon amour” part of the French song, right? And then that look melts into mild irritation when she attempts to sing in her limited French.
2. As an unabashed romance junkie I think I loved that the only phrase Sejal could identify and sing along to in the French song, translates to “my love”. That, coupled with her talking about hiring an “open-top” vehicle for her honeymoon, and ironically that’s what we see in the final scene of the film. Sitting with her amour on his tractor on what she would definitely consider a perfect honeymoon.
Oooh also!! Harry quietly increases the volume the moment she begins to sing “mon amour” out loud. Music is a huge connect between the two, even before we get to see “Radha”.
3. Parallels – Rupen’s engagement vs Harry’s proposal. Rupen’s is in a public place and rather staged, and Sejal seems to have given the dramatic reaction her family expected. Yet in Harry’s case she draws him to a private place, and the fact that she no longer has to care about anyone else but herself and the man she loves is clear in her reactions and the way she speaks. She’s awkward and nervous and shy but also finds the humour in their present situation.
4. Isn’t it interesting that when Harry asks her for her name, her immediate response is “didn’t Rupen tell you?”. I know a lot of the discussions here explored how she’s meant to be in the background among her family and I feel like this statement confirms that. She wasn’t exactly expected to speak much for herself, clearly.
5. Meanings that I have seen for Sejal are mostly either “river water” or “pure”. I do love how they emphasize on the “river” meaning with waves throughout the movie. Plus rivers are often used as romantic motifs – you often see in Hindi poetry and film the metaphor of the free-flowing river racing to unite with the ocean.
(One of my head-fanfics is that many many years later, Harry and Sejal will name their twin daughters after rivers – Jhelum and Narmada. Jhelum is in Punjab, Narmada is in Gujarat – best of both worlds haha).
6. Damn I have a special soft spot in my heart for the Harry-Mayank scenes. Even though Harry is clearly the less openly emotive of the two and more afraid to have a connection even with this man who is the closest thing he has to a found family. The boring scene with them talking is alright as a filler I guess. Tho I do love the moment when Mayank points out the irony of Sejal’s family trusting Harry as much as they do given his reputation (“Harry cheez kya jante bhi ho tum saalo?”/”Do you fools even know what type of man Harry is?”). There is a certain sense of familiarity and comfort I sense in that kind of frank exchange.
7. I really love how you touched again on Harry’s sense of self-worth in this writeup, because I feel like that’s heavily associated with Sejal’s questions about “laiyak” even though he never really uses that word for himself.
8. Absolutely agree about the difference between their personas and their actual personalities. The personas they use for public performance or social currency are slightly exaggerated depending on the context, but their real selves are milder and more toned down. So Sejal will either perform the role of shy bride for her family, or be overly brash to a man she considers her employee. Harry will either stamp on his own frustrations to cater to his clients or try to establish dominance and show power. But they’re really both regular people who need to either discover (Sejal) or recover (Harry) their happier selves.
9. I was facepalming along with Harry at the Indemnity Bond scene the whole time…sigh.
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Random thought: I’m not sure why I find this one detail intriguing, but the first time Harry refers to the ring (as a person interested in an answer), he calls it “challa”. I wanted to find out what type of a ring a “challa” would be and found myself reading this: https://www.allaboutsikhs.com/punjab/punjab-traditional-ornaments-of-punjab/
I’m intrigued that challa seems to be a bit different from the word you also see for ring in Hindi, which is anghuthi. It’s probably just more of Harry reverting into Punjabi without knowing he’s doing it but I’m still very fond of that moment and that dialogue choice.
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Interesting! I can catch the big obvious moments he drops into Punjabi, but not the little ones. Definitely signs of cracks in his facade.
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I love the way SRK plays his looking at Anushka. His whole emotional journey can be followed just by those looks. Intrigue and attraction melting into fascination, and then just pure joy when he sees her. Such an amazing performance in every small thing.
Ha! I’d never thought about the “open top” line like that before!
Yes, absolutely. And while Rupen’s proposal is a “romantic proposal” that she loves to describe, SRK’s is very much NOT romantic and not something the two of them would ever want to or be able to share with anyone else. There’s so much wrapped up in that interaction which no one else would understand, the inside jokes, the references to their past, all of that is just between them, versus Rupen’s proposal in front of his family.
Yep! And that also explains her awkwardness that reads as rudeness. She is so loud and forceful with Harry, but then again, it is also the first time she has had to take this role in this sort of situation. As she gets more comfortable speaking for herself, she also gets more polite.
I like that head fanfic! And with Sejal meaning “river”, I will add on the meaning of Amsterdam as the place where her journey starts, the water flowing everywhere around them.
Harry and Mayank are fun together, and Mayank is definitely a proto-Sejal. Harry is only going to open up with someone who forces themselves in, and warm needy friendly Mayank is that person. You can imagine the start of their friendship as very much Mayank forcing Harry to open up, and Harry feeling a reluctant responsibility to this young man all alone.
Harry’s self-worth is interesting when I think about the virgin-vamp division in the film. Does he not think he is “worthy” of Sejal because she is a “good woman”, but all those other women didn’t count? I don’t think that’s it, I think that is way way too simple. I think he doesn’t think he is “worthy” of any woman who will treat him well. Whether it is a woman on a tour who is just looking for a vacation fling and will blame him if they are caught, or a local European woman who will abuse him if he doesn’t call or return to her. He is looking for that abuse in his relationships, and Sejal is clearly not experienced enough or confident enough in love to give him that abuse.
This movie is actually really realistic, more so than most romance films. Why wouldn’t you put on a fake persona with this person you just met? Of course there will be time to get to know and trust each other before you open up and show your “real” selves. Especially in this circumstance, when they are thrown together not by choice.
Oh Sejal.
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Oooh I love that question about self-worth and whether it is only Sejal specific and I’m 100% confident it isn’t. One of the things I wanted to touch upon in the comments for Part 6 was that Harry seems to be by nature a pacifist, someone more comfortable defusing situations. If the lack of self-worth didn’t extend to the other women he was with, I highly doubt he would respond to Klara and the other two women the way he did – thanking them, humbly bowing his head, quietly leaving, or if they’re more aggressive – trying to divert their attention. I have a feeling that his self-loathing may allow him to blame himself for the aftermath, and leave the women he sleeps with out of it. Because at no point does he actually blame them or pass any judgement on the women themselves, but it’s clear he also feels shame about those encounters (calling those incidents “chori-chuppi”/secret in the bedroom scene with Sejal, calling *himself* cheap and having a “gandi nazar”/dirty gaze). Which is also why it’s so jarring, to us and to Sejal, when he drops that final explosive question during the fight – “will you be the woman who ditches her fiance and elopes with the tour guide? The cheap, ghatiya woman?”…and gosh do I have READINGS about that scene and that dialogue in particular but I feel like his self-loathing is at its highest peak there.
Re: Amsterdam…OOOH. I like that!! New exercise for my next re-watch: I need to try and look out for all the scenes where water is prominent (and off the top of my head I can think of the bridge, hiding underground in that canal, Fado, Harry shouting out to the sea in Lisbon…).
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Things I found out in between rewatches:
1. I’ve found another Punjabi muhavara (proverb) that Harry says! In fact he says it twice – both times to Sejal to signify “why do I care? What’s in it for me?”. The saying is “koi marrey , koi jeevey suthra ghol patasey peevey” and is used to describe a person who doesn’t care much about what’s happening around him/her and is lost in his/her own world.
2. Also apparently the song they listen to in the car is “Ou es tu mon amour” by mindpleasure and friends. It’s a pretty niche track I think because this band doesn’t seem to have released any other music besides this one.
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Ok correction: Harry doesn’t say this muhavara (koi marey koi jeevay…) twice…he says it only once on the boat. At the “romantic engagement” restaurant he says something different but the meaning is essentially similar (I don’t know enough Punjabi to figure out if this is a muhavara/proverb or not) and he uses the same closing line in both the restaurant and the boat scene: “What is it to me?”.
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