Oh boy! Another great interesting section! Although not as interesting as the next section, my favorite part of the film. (full index of Jab Harry Met Sejal coverage here)
This is an odd point to come back into the film. And it’s an odd point for the characters too. In the last section, after spending a day hunting around Amsterdam together and before leaving for Prague, Anushka followed Shahrukh when he went out that night, landing at a club. Shahrukh recognized her there and tried to get her to go back to the hotel, and she reacted by asking if he found her attractive. He sincerely denied attraction, not feeling for her the kind of sexual desire mixed with danger and domination that he felt for other women (as we saw in his brief interaction with a woman before Anushka arrived). And Anushka was offended, not so much because he wasn’t interested, but because of the reason he wasn’t interested, he slotted her in as a certain “type” of woman, “nice sweet sister-type” and she didn’t want to be just that, the thing everyone saw her as, the thing she had spent her life trying to be and couldn’t. What is almost equally interesting is what happens after. Anushka leaves, and Shahrukh follows her, like he is pulled by a cord. She gets mad, he grabs her hand and tries to take her back to the hotel, she pulls away, and he embraces her, holds her tight, until she calms down. It’s caring, but not sexual. He is holding her because he wants to take care of her, keep her safe. Which is something she may never have experienced before (considering her fiance and family left her to go off on this journey with only a paid guide as guardian), and something he has never felt with a woman. And then they ride the train together to Prague, her curled up asleep and him watching her.
And now, the interesting bit! We pan up to see Anushka moving around inside her hotel room from outside the window. She is rushing about, not lingering and enjoying anticipation of going out, but seemingly kind of moving fast so she doesn’t think too much or lose her nerve. And over it we have Shahrukh speaking in English below to yet another friendly acquaintance, explaining that a tourist lost a ring, doesn’t know where, but his boss insists that they go all over looking for it. It’s mostly just to set up that he is, once again, casual and friendly and cosmopolitan with everybody. And it’s not very good dialogue, kind of awkward one-sided thing. But it is a little interesting how he is bending the truth of the situation. Saying that he is just following her around, just another tourist instead of the slightly deeper relationship we know they already have. And that the boss is insisting that he escort her, rather than that she and her family are insisting that he travel with her.
And then Anushka comes down and immediately proves false all his cool claims about how he is just doing what the boss insists. He sees her, and how she is dressed (red dress, leather jacket, high boots) and immediately asks where she is going, tells her she shouldn’t go out, this is a bad neighborhood. And she snaps back “you want me to sign another indemnity bond?” and then turns and strides away. And Shahrukh kind of shakes his head and trots along after her. And she smiles as she senses him behind her.
(the bit 40 seconds in here)
Look! Look how fast they have progressed! The first time Shahrukh tried to warn her and she reacted by confidently pulling out an indemnity bond, sure it would solve the problem. Now, she knows that it won’t really solve the problem, she is snapping it out sarcastically. And Shahrukh knows to back off and just follow her lead (literally), that she is on her own journey here and she isn’t going to let him get in her way.
Oh, and also that little smile she gives and his head shake. They are no longer pretending to themselves that he is just worried about losing his job and she just wants him to do what she is paying him for. Despite what he just told his friend. He is shaking his head at himself for not being able to stop following her, he knows he can’t stop. And she is smiling because she knows he can’t stop either, just as she can’t stop following him.
And then, nightclub! Strange nightclub! Anushka comes in past a bouncer with an arm band, it’s all black leather and scary looking. She seems slightly uncertain perhaps, but then glances back and checks that Shahrukh is still following her. And only then takes her jacket off and poses at the bar and orders “something wicked”. She wants an adventure, but only so long as Shahrukh is there. Both to watch the show she is putting on for him, and to keep her safe.
And then creepy guy in like a throne chair behind her comes up and clearly feels up under her skirt before swinging around to stand next to her and tell her how pretty she is. And kind of obviously rubs his fingers and sniffs them. It’s super unpleasant. And also kind of unbelievable, would he really do this to a woman without being sure she was into it? This kind of serious S&M type person I mean? And if the assumption is that everyone here is into this sort of thing, than wouldn’t the bouncers at the door have a way more stringent policy and not let Anushka in in the first place?
But what I like is that Shahrukh doesn’t show up to “rescue” her at this point. This guy is rubbing her hair and right up in her face and Anushka is on her own. And that’s a good thing, because she is okay on her own at this point. She looks a little shocked but not sad or afraid. And then the shock wears off and she is able to take care of herself, kicking him in the groin and then slamming her drink glass in his face hard enough that he topples backwards, falls on a glass table, and gets a big cut on his cheek. The edit is a little choppy here, possibly just to cheat around the fake cut showing up on the cheek. But I think what they were trying to show is that Anushka didn’t mean for it to get that bad. She knocked him into the crowd, and then the person he fell against shoved him, and that’s when he fell into the table. She really didn’t “need” need Shahrukh until chance took a hand. She wasn’t just being an idiot going to a dangerous bar where she would inevitably end up in danger. She was going to a slightly dangerous bar for an adventure, she didn’t like it (like Shahrukh warned her she wouldn’t), but she could take care of herself as needed.
Until the guy she hit turns out to be the head of some kind of strange Russian/Prague gang, and is permanently scarred thanks to the table which breaks his fall, which makes him angry enough to send his strange gang after her. That is when Anushka calls out for Shahrukh. And that is when he shows up, when she asks for his help, not before. The perfect guy! Holding back, there if she needs him, but letting her go her own way until then.
(Yep, we want this guy)
And he “saves” her not with a big macho fight scene, but by distracting them all. He bursts in, speaking Hindi, yelling at her, making a scene, so that the attackers are confused and not sure what to do next. And also getting out his frustration, that he told her not to go out, this was a bad neighborhood, and she went anyway! But mostly hiding his message for her, that he is telling her to “run!” And, while pretending anger, throwing her jacket and purse at her so she is ready. And then grabbing her hand and dragging her out.
Remember the first time he touched her? Just the night before? In a kind of similar situation, late at night leaving a club he wanted to guide her back to the hotel. And she resisted. This time, they grab hands and run together naturally. Already, such progress!
And then run run run, chase chase chase. On the way out they tell security there is an emergency inside and a bunch of guys run in. Which is weird, where were they when a woman was being molested at the bar? But also a sign of Shahrukh’s very specific set of skills, he knows exactly who to talk to and what to say in order to create a distraction in the bar while they flee.
Run run run through Prague, which is strangely deserted. Odd moment when they are hiding and a Nosferatu looking guy pauses and shouts out for them and Anushka can’t stop herself from squealing in response, revealing their location. And then Shahrukh drags her along again, down steps under a bridge and along a pier until he calls her back from where she has run ahead, so they can hide together. And that’s when Anushka breaks down and says she is so sorry.
And Shahrukh’s reaction is “for what?” Which is so perfect! And he actually means it, because he drops into Punjabi (the sign of his real emotions peaking through), telling her that the guy deserved it, she should have done even more to him. It’s just so great! Anushka went to a dodgy bar when he told her not to, she got molested, beat up the guy, and then while they were on the run revealed their location. And she is ready to be blamed for all of this and everything else, because she is always blamed for everything. And instead, Shahrukh doesn’t even care. He got out his frustrations in that speech at the bar, and it was just over her going to this bar when he told her she shouldn’t. Everything after that, he forgives and doesn’t care about. She can beat a guy up, she can scream when she gets scared, and obviously she shouldn’t feel bad for being molested. Heck, she can do it even more! He likes her like that, he likes her doing what she naturally feels like doing, he likes her like her.
Unlike everyone else in her life. Which is what we learn in Anushka’s mini-breakdown here. Her fiance hasn’t called her in 3 days, he says she doesn’t care, but she cares so much! She is here, traveling through Europe, trying to find his ring, that’s how much she cares!
And boom! Anushka’s backstory explained! She is always trying to be the good daughter, the good fiancee, and is never appreciated. And is used to not being appreciated, braced to apologize for everything always. And determined to fix anything she can so she won’t have to apologize again. She’s let herself experiment a little on this trip, because with Shahrukh she doesn’t feel like she has to be so perfect. But now it is all coming crashing down on her, she made her own decisions and tried things for herself, and it all went wrong. She could have ended it here, could have decided to just go home and play it safe for the rest of her life, but Shahrukh surprises her. He doesn’t say “yes, it was your fault, you shouldn’t do such risky things”. Instead, he says “You didn’t do anything wrong, you should have gone even farther”. And that changes everything.
Okay, there is too much left of this sequence, I’m going to have to pause and pick up tomorrow with the second half of the chase and the song.
dontcallitbollywood 
Gosh, I love these. Don’t want them to end just like I don’t want the movie to end each time
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Thank you!
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Yes! Spot on! I didn’t pick up on the “feeling up” part with the creepy guy in the bar. Ugh. He is an example of how I think the bad guys in JHMS are representative “types” rather than real characters, intentionally. He is the far end of gross Western men who think they have a right to paw over and come on to women–especially South Asian women or other exoticized/fetishized groups–even though clearly not a match for or compatible with the particular woman in any way.
Unclear to me if the cut on the guy’s cheek comes from her smashing the glass into him, or from falling into the table. And I loved “Nosferatu looking guy”. Do you think the casting person did that on purpose?
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I think the cut came from falling into the table, because I don’t think we see the glass break, she is just using it as a blunt instrument. Not that it makes a huge difference, I just like it that Anushka wasn’t “overreacting” exactly, the situation got out of control because of an accident, not her direct attack.
I noticed the “feeling up” because Anushka wears such short dresses in this whole film and I was thinking the whole time “you better be careful how you stand of someone can look right up your skirt” And the way she was perched at the bar, with the gross guy seated behind her, he absolutely could look right up her skirt, and might have even seen that as an invitation. Which, again, Anushka was so unaware that she wasn’t even aware she was making. She was posing for Shahrukh at the end of the bar, not the guy sitting behind her.
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Russians in Prague were the only thing that I really really hated in the movie. Somebody should have said to Imtiaz that it’s not 1980 and Cold war is over. That was such a hollywood cliche moment for me. These days are more common romanian gangs, they operate across whole Europe.
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That whole sequence was just odd. Russian or Romanian, would a whole gang really go on this elaborate cross city chase? I could maybe explain it was an “honor” thing because of his head cut, but it was a strange gang, and it was a strange club, and it was very strange that they were so determined to find these tourists.
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In the early 2000’s there were tons of Russians in Prague. There were also Romanians, but they were very different.
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After seeing Jab We Met, I have been mulling the role of non-lead characters in the two films. One of the criticisms I saw of JHMS was that there weren’t enough supporting roles, and I am starting to disagree. The story is about two people, and we are supposed to be engrossed in their story. I could imagine Imitiaz getting really bold and doing a film with just the two lovers. I actually found most of the rest of the cast distracting in JWM. This is the opposite of Dear Zindagi, where the ensemble feel of the movie was one of its strengths, and also not by accident!
And yes, it’s a film about Sejal. Maybe he’s working towards a one-character film. I would also watch that.
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I’ve been thinking about JWM since watching this as well. It’s definitely a story just about the two people too. The other characters felt more vivid, perhaps because the were such recognizable character “types” to us, or were played by familiar actors. But they didn’t really have any more to do with the plot than the non-lead characters in this film. Only this time they were played by random European actors, so we didn’t think of them in the same way as, say, Dara Singh playing Kareena’s grandfather.
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And may I say this community gets better and better all the time?
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Anonymous, I join in ;.)
Margaret, thanks a lot for those scene by scene!
Yeah, Harry encourages her (without a second thought) and he really “likes her like her” (which is such an important ‘message’ in this movie…)
Oh, I’m very sad that the movie was rejected…that even critics did not (want to) see the potential of this movie…in India, soooo many still don’t want to give the respect due to women 😦 .
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joyomama, I hope many more will join this gorgeous blog…I post Margaret’s link whenever there is an occasion…and joined in after some time of only reading 🙂 I like to read you and the others, now I like to talk to/with you 🙂
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Claudia, Welcome! I hope you are ready to translate the German parts of the scene-by-scene for me! I have a German “son” — we hosted him as an exchange student when he was in high school, and now he is a professional basketball player in Germany! He’s from Oldenburg, but has played for teams all over the country; name is Jannik Freese.
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Thank you! I’ve been wanting to say “thank you” for a while, I can track how people were referred to my site, and I’ve been getting a lot of referrals thanks to you since Dear Zindagi at least.
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Pingback: Jab Harry Met Sejal Scene By Scene Index | dontcallitbollywood
That’s the intention 🙂 (it’s a bit ‘one-sided’ as I’m mainly interested in ShahRukh’s work and Hindi cinema 😉 )
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joyomama, I’ll do it now but you have to bear with my holey memory 😉
The woman in red (!)…is his girlfriend from Frankfurt whom he left one day without a word owing her some money . So when she sees him, she lets him know her anger… “Shit” he says. “Yeah, shit”, she says…”bastard.” He says her name trying immediately to soothen her…She:” you remember my name! Did you imagine I won’t get you?!” Harry: “Let us make a deal. I’ll make up for it. I’ll be in Frankfurt soon.” – he sees Sejal coming and states that “it’s not a good moment now”…she repeats his last words and looks at Sejal guessing that he is with her. Harry: “nein, nein”… (ha! I love this scene!)
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I googled Jannik 😉
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Okay, this part sort of irritates me. When Sejal looks out the window I believe it’s to make sure Harry is outside down below. As she sashshays past him in her red dress she does so to get his attention, knowing full well he won’t approve of her going out by herself at night. Of course, she gets all huffy and strides off. He’s left to follow behind her. Look at her face with the small smirky smile because she knows he’s behind her. Playing games! Sejal is trying to act so cool, but only if she knows Harry is there to protect her. When she runs into trouble in the club, she looks for and calls for Harry. Of course, ever faithful, he rescues her. I think her fear of what could have happened to her is very real. Maybe she just realized when hiding on the boat that she might have overplayed her hand. She starts to look at Harry as a wife would look at her husband for protection. I think we’re done with the rich girl, servant roles (at least till the end).
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I like the thought that she was looking to see if he was downstairs! To put it another way, maybe she wanted to explore a little more who “Sejal” was, but she only felt confident enough to do it if Harry was with her. Heck, maybe she had been waiting for this, wanting to go out but not able to make herself do it until she saw him downstairs. And only later realizing that the only reason she even wanted to go out was to see if he would follow her, to see how he would react.
On Thu, Sep 7, 2017 at 3:17 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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We already wrote about Sejal feeling like to be on vacation again, albeit a totally another kind of vacation than with her family. In Amsterdam, when she is on the balcony just having witnessed Harry seemingly being untouched by the loud anger of a woman he was with, she rests a moment to enjoy the summer evening night around her…with a still vibrant life. She inhals deeply this feeling of an unknown freedom. If only Harry hadn’t told her about his whomanizing and the danger she would risk if she did not take his friend to help her for the search. Well, practical Sejal (whose life till then did teach her nothing about what an effect bare long legs and a short shorty could have on a man) only hears a new attempt from Harry’s side to get out of the job she wants him to do…him and nobody else. As a lawyer (maybe the only thing she is proud of to have achieved on her own) she immediatly believes to see the problem and…coffee? tea? some juice?…goes ahaed to solve it.
What to do now with her freedom? Search for the ring? Sure, sure, that’s for the day. And the night? No idea where to go. Asking Harry??? Noooo, he would advise her the stuff he did the last month…where he himself never went. I’ll watch out for him where he goes…disco.
Prague…night-passtime again…she had seen the dresses, so she chooses another outfit (a really niiiice one – what a fun to buy it!) – this time she knows where to go (smartphone…Google…yes, the phones, Margaret 😉 )…okay, Harry was really upset with her last night, maybe he is right…better let him know where I go…he’s downstairs…perfect…he h a s to follow me, he fears that otherwise I would phone the agency and complain…ha!
It is an understandable play, Sejal is doing, but it’s a bad one…it has to end…this night (right, Nancy)…unfortunately (or not?) she continues to play using Harry as co-actor,albeit indeed on another level.
And Harry…untill the moment on the boat, he may have had the chance to get away from the job…if only he would not have fallen in love this very moment (oh yes, the swans!).
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This is sheer poetry.
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This is so beautiful Claudia
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I’ve thought about this scene a lot, having watched the movie three times now on Netflix (once by myself, one attempt with my husband where he fell asleep within three minutes and I rewatched the whole thing without him, and once more for a fun movie night with a friend). This is the only scene that really rings false in a way that bothers me. I get that it’s a rom com and you want the bad guys to be a little cartoony, but it’s also a really important scene to the relationship between Harry and Sejal so the fakeness of the bad guys is a poor setup to the emotional exchange they have leading into the first night together and Radha. The bad guys are just so silly and unbelievable. (Made me think this is probably what it feels like being Muslim and watching the bad guys in some Hollywood films, so fair enough.)
One thing I thought of, that would make it feel more real and scary, is if the club were a bit sketchier, and the guy she ran into not some random improbable gang kingpin on a throne but more of a neonazi type. Because they do run in packs and attack people for no good reason. If the threatened violence were like four racist thugs instead of B movie bad guy stand-ins coming around every corner, the danger would have felt much more real and the intensity of their reactions to it much more understandable. (Also would have played into Harry’s complicated relationship with his Indian identity and Sejal’s being way out of her depth.)
But maybe that would be a little too real for this kind of film, I don’t know…
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I wonder if at some point in the process that was the plan? To have them be scary racist types? Because he does call Anushka a “Paki” girl, and the club is a little Nazi-ish. But then it was one of those things that the original idea got lost somehow when they found the set, and hired the actors, and storyboarded the chase, and all of that.
On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 7:39 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, that Paki girl comment was probably what triggered this idea for me.
How do you think a scene like that would play with the audience if it were more real?
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Strangely, I felt that it was a rather threatening situation because Sejal had humiliated the gang’s boss (not because of racism) and Harry did know that they had just a moment time by confusing the goons because they had taken the “Paki girl” as a single person without a ‘boyfriend’ accompanying her.
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Have you seen My Name is Khan? It was a movie that I somehow feel the Indian audience didn’t really know what to do with since it showed a part of the immigrant experience they may not have expected or understood. While it broke records overseas.
Anyway, so much of JHMS feels like it is talking about immigrant issues, and I am not sure how well they were understood by the at home audience, to add in a realistic depiction of an ugly racist mob in Europe might have been too much, better to make it less realistic and more fantastical.
On Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 8:43 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, I totally agree, this is essentially an immigrant’s story. I haven’t seen My Name is Khan yet, just added it to my queue. What you say about the difference in domestic and overseas audience is sort of what I suspected, that’s what the choice they made with the cast g feels like, a deliberate decision to be unrealistic.
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My Name is Khan is a very uneven movie, watch out for that, but it does try to deal with the realities of overseas life and prejudice you will find, realities that most films choose to laugh at, treat lightly, instead of facing up to the real dangers that are present for NRIs no matter where they go.
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So I think Harry follows her, not because he likes her, but because he knows he will get in trouble if anything happens to her. And unlike Amsterdam, where his grabbing her for her own safety is not something I have ever bought into, Prague actually is dangerous. Now I do think he likes her, but not consciencely so, yet.
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How about, he saves her after everything goes wrong and keeps trying to save her because he is unconsciously in love with her? If she were just a regular client, once she almost kills a guy in a club, he would maybe help her get out of the club, but then leave her on her own. I just can’t see him doing this whole life risking chase scene if he were thinking fully with his head and not his heart.
On Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 10:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But he is a really good tour guide “Tops!” he has to protect his clients! Honestly I think he would be trying to protect anyone in his employ, you can’t let your customers get stabbed or raped! BUT it is while protecting her that he realizes he actually wants to, that he realizes his love.
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YES! Okay, that’s it then. I think he would try to protect any client, but with a different client, he might have just called the police, or something. With Anushka, it feels different to him.
On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 10:01 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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1. So a thing I definitely noticed this time about Harry’s tactics here and later with Gaz’s guys, as well as in his own dealings with other people is how natural these diversionary tactics and deflecting attention comes to him. He is more likely to confuse his opponent into dispersing than actually attack. And when we see the club scene again it’s so obvious how much he’s trying to hint to Sejal to run first while still creating a scene.
2. When I first watched the scene I honestly thought Harry was indicating Sejal to run but Sejal was refusing until he came with her…but I kinda see on rewatches (and after reading the post!) that he was trying to build her up for running so that both their hands would be free and they wouldn’t be bogged down by anything nor lose their stuff in the bar.
3. What also struck me was the way his voice changed based on where he was being comically dramatic and where he was actually seriously giving Sejal instructions. His voice is raspy and high-pitched when he’s distracting the gang members but normal-and-more-tense when he’s telling Sejal to run.
4. This scene and the Hawayein remind me of how well this film made use of Anushka’s height. Even though the gang leader is dominating Sejal through his harrassment and even before she actually fights back, she is already beginning to tower over him.
5. It’s great that they’re not as in sync here in Prague as they eventually get with Gaz’s people in Lisbon. Sejal is panicking, this is the first time she’s found herself in a situation this dangerous on her own so the onus is definitely on Harry to both guide her and calm her nerves. By Lisbon they’re so attuned to each other that they can communicate nonverbally without anyone else knowing what they’ve got planned and Sejal is confident about what her self-chosen purpose is (to take care of Harry because he will never take care of himself). But here in Prague Sejal is definitely too new to this situation to register anything but her own sense of terror.
6. This underground canal scene is so special to me because Sejal is the most vulnerable she has ever been in the film and I wish there were more scenes like that with her. I mean it’s perfect in that EVERYTHING she has been doing so far can be seen in a new light when you hear it – both for Harry and for us the audience. She’s considered the screw-up, the person who will always get things wrong, the person who is too emotional and expects too much, the selfish stubborn spoiled one. And she’s actually running around a strange place with a man she barely knows to find a ring that her fiancé couldn’t even bother to CUSTOMIZE for her finger!!
Suddenly it becomes very clear where some of her brashness and bravado comes from, or why she’s so hung up over this ring. It also sheds a new light on the way she performs “practicality”. Being “practical” and “selfish” is her juvenile attempt at appearing worldly, except that people who have benefited from actual world experience are aware that vulnerability and admitting to your emotions isn’t exactly a weakness. Especially in the scene where Sejal asks Harry what she should do if they catch her and assault her, and then claims she is trying to be practical. A small part of Harry’s frustration seems to be that he knows she’s *performing* practicality (and now he has a better idea why)…but a larger part is that he was terrified too and even the idea of her being in danger affects him on a deeply personal level. I think it’s why he asks her, for the second time in the film I think, to leave.
7. The boat-hiding and swan scene! Harry’s thumb caressing the center of her forehead!! My heart!!!!
(Also having two swans in the foreground when the camera pans out is lovely, considering those birds mate for life).
8. I feel like the God conversation that they have just before they find a place to sleep is small but says a lot. Both because it says something a little similar to the tagline of the movie (“what you find might have been searching for you”), and it also works as a nice little RNBDJ Easter Egg (Harry asks her if she’s ever met God coz he hasn’t, she asks him if he’s tried to look and adds the tagline thing I was mentioning before, and then he stares at her and says – “well, I wasn’t searching for you, that’s for sure”. Tujhmein Rab dikta hai, yaara main kya karoon!).
9. Little aside that idk whether Imtiaz intended or not, but every Punjabi naming site that I checked for Harinder’s meaning mentions “God” (one or two mention Lord Brahma or Lord Shiva, but the general consensus seems to be “God”). So I think that adds a tiny extra layer to the divinity conversation – he hides his divinity-laden birth name with a Western sounding derivative and carries around his spiritual markers in a way that they are not completely hidden but they’re also not identity markers. Part of which is to remain accessible obviously, but also I think because he could view “Harinder” as someone he has already lost.
10. I found Harry say one Punjabi idiom in this scene! “Saddi na bulai, main larey di tai”. One site mentioned its meaning as refering to people who poked their noses into other people’s business, and another it was about people who came uninvited for a discussion or event or something but spoke like they knew what was going on (don’t take my word for it on the second one tho). Man I’m sure he’d have mentioned other idioms in the film and I’m determined to find them on latter rewatches. The translation does a good job of capturing some of the spirit of that idiom – it says “uninvited guest” instead.
11. It’s actually painful to see how much Sejal was expecting total blame and criticism from Harry for the incident at the bar, and how intense the breakdown is when he will offer her only validation and praise. But in a very good way. Without that context, all those conversations where Sejal tells her sister to convince her dad to calm down, the lack of actual communication from the parents themselves, the way the sister herself seems to half-listen or the way Rupen completely shuts her out after ripping into her verbally for losing his ring…all those just seem like mild irritants initially, because that’s what Sejal wants the world to believe they are. She doesn’t WANT anyone to figure out that those slights are hurting her and making her feel like she’s a failure. She wants people to think she can handle it. The beautiful part is that Harry absolutely believes she can, because he has not lost sight of the strengths she reveals behind her mistakes.
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1/2. Jumping WAY ahead, I just went back and watched the ending and he has to try so hard to psych himself up to making a scene at the wedding, actually doing the kind of confrontation he hates. And Sejal fixed it for him, allowed them to have the sort of private coming together he would want instead of a huge mess. Plus, of course, the Klara scene where again Sejal just attacks the problem head on instead of letting him continue with the diversions. I don’t necessarily even see that as a character flaw, more just a trait which makes them compatible. Harry’s always looking for the way around things, Sejal’s always a bit too direct, they balance.
SRK does so much voice work in this movie! And language work! Jumping between English, formal Hindi, and Punjabi, and also the smooth “ma’am” type of accent versus his rougher angry sound versus when he is real with her and it’s all sort of calm and deep.
They must have cast the gang leader for that. And shot the scene to emphasis it. He is being creepy and weird, but he is also such a little man. Clearly he thinks he can dominate Anushka just because he is a man and scary, and she instinctively reacts to defend herself instead of cowering like the “proper” woman she was taught to be, and this guy thinks she is.
And Sejal’s panic causes Harry’s panic! Both because he’s not sure what she’s going to do, and because he is so worried about her emotional state. In Lisbon, they are equally concerned for each other, but it’s not panic, it’s just fear, slightly different.
I wish the movie hit this point slightly harder, but unlike the usual “spoiled beloved rich girl runs off with poor boy” plot, in this case her family has essentially abandoned her. Clearly her main value for them was not as an intelligent lawyer and business person (although we see she has those skills), but rather as someone to be married off for an alliance. Once she is out of their sight, they forget she exists, and she is left desperately trying to please them by trying to do the “right” thing, the thing they want which will get her back in their good graces. I guess Imtiaz hit that more in Highway, the idea that the nasty kidnapper hijacker actually treats this woman with more care and love than she ever got from her family, that her family just saw her as something to be used and abandoned despite all the trappings of wealth and love. But it’s the same here, Anushka’s family has done a real number on her and luckily Harry is there to give her that unconditional love she needs just as she starts to break free.
That’s such a subtle wonderful moment!!! It starts as him calming her, but then becomes something more. And of course there is a call back at the very end of the film in Butterfly.
I’m not sure if this is the right reading, but I like the idea that Sejal’s isolation within her family has caused her to turn to faith as a source of strength. Not rituals and so on, but really trying to find spritual strength through the day. And on the other hand, Harry’s isolation has made him try to reject his beliefs, to convince himself they don’t matter. Put another way, I suspect Sejal’s family goes through the motions of devotion without a lot of thought or meaning, while Harry’s really truly believed. So Sejal rebels by thinking about things like “you will find God if you look for him”, and Harry rebels by hiding his tattoo. If this is the right reading, it’s also a hint that Sejal is more than the superficial rich girl she tries to be, that she has a deeper side and thinks deep things, just has never had anyone to express them too.
I think this scene coming right before Radha is a pretty clear sign that Harry is God!!!! We are about to have a whole song about how Anushka worships and loves him as a God, with him resisting that label before giving in.
I wonder how much input SRK had on the Punjabi? It seems like the kind of thing you’d ask an actor to help with if they could, and I know he likes to improvise dialogue.
It’s not even that Harry thinks they aren’t mistakes, it’s that he is surprised at the thought they could be defined as mistakes! It’s just the best most validating possible response from him. And makes us see, as the audience, that she wasn’t just being punished she was also being a little big gaslit by her family and Rupen. Even the most basic simple thing, she was told was wrong. And if she did the opposite, that was also wrong. And everyone, everyone in the whole world including this random tour guide, would agree with them and disagree with her. And now suddenly she is in the world on her own and discovering that the things she was always told were “true” and universal, aren’t real at all.
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