Oh boy oh boy! I get to continue my favorite section! I probably won’t get all the way to “Radha” today, that will be our little Independence Day treat tomorrow. (full index of Jab Harry Met Sejal posts here)
So, previously, Anushka and Shahrukh are stuck together, her family insists he act as her personal tour guide/babysitter while she travels through Europe. He tries to get out of it by telling her that he is a womanizer and should not be alone with her. But she is too innocent to even understand what he is talking about. However, later that night, she overhears him fighting with an ex and suddenly starts to awaken to new kinds of life and to get curious about him. After more sniping at each other during the day, Anushka sneaks out in a new outfit that she thinks is “club” wear and follows him to a nightclub. He recognizes her, and takes her home, after rejecting her awkward childish flirtations. The next night, they reverse the pattern. Anushka gets dressed up in a much more flattering and confident red dress and goes out to a nearby club, Shahrukh follows worried that she might need him. And she does, sort of. She is harrassed by a creepy guy, but beats him up with no help. She needs help when his friends start gathering around her and calls for Shahrukh (who she has been aware of this whole time and putting on a show for). He rescues her by distracting the gang and then grabbing her hand and dragging her along as they are chased. Finally, they hit a dead end and hide. And Anushka breaks down in tears about how everything is all her fault, always, even losing the ring is her fault and her fiance blames her and says she “doesn’t care”. Shahrukh reacts perfectly and naturally and honestly saying that he doesn’t blame her at all, he wishes she had beaten up that guy even more, he was asking for it, she was awesome. And then I stopped my last post.
So, before Anushka can fully process the little breakdown she just had, and the balm Shahrukh applied to her fears, they hear the gang coming again. Shahrukh has been pacing a bit, and mentioned “this is not a good place” as soon as they hit the dead end on the pier. He is a “guide” above all, always aware of where they are and worried about the next place he can take her.
Now he takes her hand again and the sneak onto the boat fastened to the pier, then he opens the one window that has a sign taped to it so you can’t see through the glass, and gently helps Anushka through it to the outside of the boat, then closes it. And then closes the matching window, climbs out, and runs around to join her.
It’s a small moment, but he is careful to make sure Anushka is hidden before he hides himself. Because he cares about her, and because even in this extreme situation he is putting the client first. And then they hang off the side of the boat while the gang searches inside.
And there is a lovely silent moment. Anushka looks terrified, hysterical. Earlier, she had been surprised into revealing their location when she screamed. That might be going through Shahrukh’s head too, along with just being worried about her. So he reaches out with one hand and cups her head. And Anushka grabs onto it and holds it in place.
I mentioned in one of my reviews (cannot remember for the life of me which one) that this is kind of an awkward position for the hand to be on her head. It’s not exactly cupping her face, it’s half on her face and half on top of her head. Which must be on purpose. Because that’s the husband’s blessing position, hand on top of the head. Shahrukh reached out in that way naturally when he thought about touching her. And Anushka took his hand and held it in place there, just like a wife would.
Beyond that, let’s look at what their faces are telling us about how they are feeling at the moment. Because this is kind of what’s going to be happening for much of the film. Shahrukh is calmer, puzzled, kind of studying her face and studying his own feelings at the same time. He isn’t just reacting, he is watching his reaction.
Whereas Anushka is all about the reacting. She is scared, she is clinging to Shahrukh because he is the one who can save her. She doesn’t need to think past that, it doesn’t occur to her to think past that. She wants Shahrukh to touch her and comfort her and that’s all there is to it.
This is important because coming soon is the period when Shahrukh’s reaction will be SO MUCH stronger than Anushka’s for a while. But his actions will be the same as before, because he is so aware of and afraid of his reactions. While Anushka, who just does what she feels like doing, will be lagging behind him for a little while instead of taking the lead like she is here (holding his hand on her head).
And then they get off the boat and are hiding behind a tree for a moment. Anushka is terrified and shaking and asks “what should I do if they catch us? I mean, if they attack me? Practically speaking?” And Shahrukh just keeps shushing her. Until the men leave and they can get out from behind the tree and he bursts out in anger “Practically? Practically? Practically what?” Anushka is completely confused, says “I was scared”. Shahrukh turns away, and then turns back looking distressed and stressed and angry and confused and tells her she should just go home, she doesn’t belong here, she should give up on ever finding the ring. Anushka says, confidently, that you can find anything if you see for it, even God. Shahrukh says he hasn’t found God. Anushka asks if he has looked. Shahrukh turns away, then turns back, and says “I certainly wasn’t looking for you.” And then he kind of turns and starts walking away and Anushka stands still for a second until he gets about 5 feet away, and then jerkily starts moving after him.
(I’m just going crazy with the screenshots in this one!)
SO MUCH INTERESTING STUFF!!!!! First, their conflicting reactions to Anushka’s fear. Again, Anushka is just feeling without thinking. That’s why she can’t understand Shahrukh’s anger. She was scared, she asked him what to do. What else would she do? But Shahrukh was even more scared, and aware of his fear, and that he shouldn’t be feeling it. He shouldn’t care this much about this irritating young woman. And she shouldn’t be throwing herself into dangers in a way that he knows, on some level, is in reaction to his presence in her life. He is trying to keep her quiet, trying to keep her safe, and once she is safe, he is FURIOUS. At her, for making him feel all of this, at himself, for feeling it. And Anushka can’t understand any of this because she doesn’t understand his internal conflict, doesn’t realize he is already feeling too much for her, and also doesn’t consider that he shouldn’t be feeling those things, that he is breaking his own rules in how he treats her.
And then there’s the dialogue. Shahrukh wants her to go back. He knows she is terrified and in danger because of him, sort of. The changes he is bringing in her are leading her to this state. Anushka doesn’t understand any of it. That she is changing, she doesn’t fully realize that about herself yet. Or that Shahrukh is the catalyst and she needs to get away from him to stay as she was before, she doesn’t consciously know that either.
But then it takes a turn. When Shahrukh says she can’t find the ring, he is questioning her essential faith in the rightness of the world. And Anushka can’t accept that. She has a faith that you can find anything you are looking for, that purity of purpose will bring about results. And that is what Shahrukh has lost, the sense of purity of purpose, the sense that doing the right thing is as simple as having the right intentions. And so he has no real response besides his “real” response, that he was never looking for her. That he never considered someone as pure as her coming into his life, never considered that someone like her would be “his”, even if only for a little while.
And, boom! Theme of the movie! He wasn’t looking for her, but she found him anyway. “What you seek is seeking you.” He was seeking, without realizing it, something that would give him back his hope and faith and home. But since he wasn’t looking for it consciously, and he is resisting it now that it is here in front of him, Anushka has to “seek” him. Force her way into his life and past his boundaries over and over again without really knowing why she is doing it, just knowing it is something she needs to do.
Which is what happens here. They are no longer holding hands, he isn’t even looking at her, but as he walks away, as soon as he gets more than a few feet away, Anushka starts moving. She has to stay at least that close to him. And she stays that close as the silently walk up steps, through a gate, to a deserted castle-y looking place. There was a line of dialogue at some point earlier when Anushka started to go towards the hotel and Shahrukh told her know, the “bad guys” are that way. So they have to spend the night somewhere else. It’s a gorgeous setting, I can see why the location people picked it. But also, it fits with Shahrukh’s knowledge base. He would know about the nearby gorgeous tourist attraction that might be unlocked in the middle of the night. He would know about that before he would know about a 24 hour movie theater, or a dodgy hotel, or any of the other hide out options.
They reach the top and Shahrukh silently pulls down two hanging banners, tosses one on a bench and the other on the floor. Instead of seeing the banners as the interesting things to be described to his tour group, he sees them as potential objects to provide warmth to Anushka. His whole view of the world is changing.
And then there’s the moment when he throws his banner on the ground and hers on the bench. It’s so revealing. First, of course, that he sees himself as worthy only of sleeping on the ground, that fair beneath her, her faithful dog. Second, that he doesn’t want to sleep farther away. Surely there is another bench somewhere. But rather than look, he finds a place for her, than finds any old place for himself so long as it is nearby. To me, it feels like a combination of that same old “something is tying them together” issue, and that he feels like it is his job to be there in case she needs anything during the night, to always be ready to serve her.
Oh, I am going to get all the way to “Radha” today! Yay! Because I want it to get it’s very own post, and not have to do a little bit of set up before I get to the song.
Okay, back to here, and the last little pre-Radha bit. Anushka wakes in the middle of the night. The film does an excellent job of showing that scared middle of the night feeling. Her hair is kind of messed, the wind through the trees and the church bells sound too loud and kind of scary. And even the moon looks uncanny and strange. She stands up, barefoot, dragging her banner-blanket behind her, and walks over to where Shahrukh is sleeping, and curls up against his back.
Great image here. The bare feet, the way the banner is dragged behind her, and Anushka’s confused sleepy face, it all evokes a little girl, a scared little girl with a nightmare, only half awake, going to the person who will make her feel better. It’s not sexy, it’s not a come on, it’s natural loving instinct. Not romantic love, but something both more and less than that.
And then there’s Shahrukh’s reaction. He feels her behind him, turns, and for a second it looks like he is just going to squash her, but then he naturally arranges himself with his arm around her and she settles against his chest, over his heart (where his phone usually is. See?!?! The phone thing!). And we see little flashes of that black and white vision of the Punjab that we saw in “Safar”. Only this time, the black and white fades to color. Until he opens his eyes, gently pulls away from Anushka (who is doing a very realistic sleeping eye so we can see a bit of the eyeball and it’s kind of creepy), and walks away to be by himself. So far, it all works for me. Anushka sleeping trusting in his arms gives him back his past, his youth, his home, all of the things he was missing. And seeing that through the black and white fading to color in his memories is perfectly clear. And it makes sense that after this emotional catharsis of getting his home back, he would need to go off and breakdown for a second.
It’s the actual content of the breakdown that bothers me. I am sure this was a method thing, that Shahrukh spent a long time thinking about an emotional moment of his past (he has SO MANY) and then did what felt natural to him. But, it is a little much for the character. It’s not just crying, it’s like PTSD crying, not gentle cleansing tears but wracking sobs. And then he starts talking and it gets really PTSD-y. He says “it’s okay, it’s nothing, it’s okay”. Like you would to a little kid, not like he is self-soothing and trying to get himself to pull it together, but like he is somehow flashing back to something someone else said to him. Basically, it’s like Farhan’s break down in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Only, it’s just about being kind of homesick and suddenly regaining his sense of home, not about some massive human tragedy. So, yeah, kind of a poor acting decision. Should have gone more along the level of soulful staring into the distance and a few small tears and sniffles (think end of DDLJ), instead of the full Method.
But that’s the last bad part of this section! Or even “just okay” part. Everything here on it is pure brilliance and genius. And I will pick it up tomorrow, oh boy!
dontcallitbollywood 
Reading these scene by scene’s is almost as good as seeing the movie again. (And, true to my name, they are making it hard for me to get any work done, lol.)
I was put off by the intensity of Harry’s breakdown on the first watch, but on the second watch I went with it more. I think (partly based on experience), that if you’ve been so sad and hurt for so long, so long that you have forgotten/are denying that you are sad and hurt, then the breakthrough of deep feelings again would be indeed scary, intense, and a bit out of control. But that reading makes it pretty strange that he is able to pull himself together so quickly when he hears Sejal behind him. Hmmm.
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Maybe a slightly less intense but longer breakdown would have felt more real. Like if we had seen him start to sob as he stood up, keep crying as he walked, and then finally sit down and wail a little. And then take a second to pull himself together when Anushka arrived. This was just kind of odd, the implication being that he could keep it together long enough to get by himself, and then have this very strong reaction that was over in like 30 seconds. Maybe that’s what felt kind of “PTSD”y to me. As though this was something that happened routinely enough for him to be able to predict and control it a little. Only, that doesn’t fit with the plot AT ALL, it is clearly supposed to be something he has never felt before, something that Anushka drags out of him which helps him to heal, not something he is familiar with.
On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 10:14 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Pingback: Jab Harry Met Sejal Scene By Scene Index | dontcallitbollywood
I saw that scene differently. I thought the “its okay, it happens,” was something he said to the girl he lost. They were kids or at least very young so might have said it in the soothing mom kind of way. But I thought he was telling this probably very young girl that, “it happens” that girls are married off. He is also trying to soothe himself about his whole life. I bought the how quickly he pulled himself together because that is what he DOES, he changes gears instantly all the time for self protection. I think you view of what the bench/floor/tearing the banners down means is on the mark. I felt it but couldn’t have articulated it like that. I’m going to see it for the fifth time and am thrilled to have all your ideas with me. Thank you!!
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I guess I could see it, that he is talking to the girl he lost. But, for me, (and I’ll get into this at some point when I reach the beach scene), his lost love was just one small part of his whole lost identity as a Punjabi villager. His love story is supposed to be this bittersweet simple thing where they speak twice and he dreams about her. He was raised with that view of romance, that it is pure and innocent. And the shock of being thrown into a different world where romance is sex and smokey bars is all of a piece with being thrown in a place with no tractors or fields, no turbans, no everything else that made up his identity as a child.
I’ll put it another way, I don’t see his love story as being a lifelong heartache if he had stayed in the village. It would be a simple thing to look back on with nostalgia, like the first crush you have in kindergarten, but not painful. It wasn’t the great tragedy of his life, it was just one small piece of the tragedy.
Anyway, that’s what doesn’t work for me, that dialogue he picked, because it kind of works in a lot of ways (maybe it is what his other used to say to him when he was a little kid, maybe it is what he said to his girl before her wedding, maybe it is what he would say to a small child in his village), but you have to sort of wriggle it to make it fit. Whereas crying and saying something like, I don’t know, the “Ik Onkar”, would have been clearer.
On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 10:39 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I agree that reading this scene by scene is almost (almost!) as good as seeing the movie, which I haven’t had the chance to yet. It also gives me lots of things to think about when I finally do see it. The critics are saying SRK is too old for romance, but I disagree. I was divorced at 33, remarried to the love of my life and widowed at 54. Thought romance was over in my life but met my true soulmate at 61. I was widowed again at 69 but I can tell you the truth, the building may start to crumble but love lives young inside. Butterflies, the whole nine yards. I would like to see SRK do a movie like “Second Chance Harvey” or “Something’s Gotta Give” that shows that romance at any age is WONDERFUL!
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Not related to JHMS, but when I was in college one of our closest family friends got engaged after being a single mother and raising her kids alone. I told my roommate about this whose reaction was “oh, well at that age, it’s really just about companionship.” So yes, we apparently do need more movies that show romance at any age! Because there are little college girls out there who figure anyone over 40 getting married is just looking for someone to play cards with.
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Absolutely love your last sentence. Made me laugh!
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My roommate was desi, by the way, which is why I am thinking particular about Indian films. Because for me, this family friend woman along with plenty of other friends of my Mom’s had been married, divorced, dated, remarried, all kinds of things through their 30s and 40s and 50s while I was growing up. So her getting engaged to this guy that she had been dating for a while and we all really liked was wonderful, but not really unexpected.
However, I don’t know how common that is in Indian culture? To routinely see middle-aged single women with active romantic lives? Both because of the low divorce rate and the taboos against widow remarriage? Which is all just another reason that it would be great to see popular films sort of force an awareness on people by telling those stories. Oh, and if you haven’t already, check out Pyaar Main Twist, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Lmt, and Shirin To Farhad for some really nice middle-aged type romances. They are of varying quality, but all interesting in how they approach the topic (especially Honeymoon, the middle-aged couple is only one of many stories, but they kind of steal the film).
And if you feel like diving into Fanfic, here are my suggestions for middle-aged romances Rani could now star in:
And for Jaya Bachchan present day romances:
On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 12:42 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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*Correction: It’s not “Second Chance Harvey” it’s “Last Chance Harvey”. Sorry.
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Hi Nancy! What a turbulent emotional life you had till date! Yeah, love (physical included) has not to stop at a certain age…unfortunately don’t know it.
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Yes, Claudia, it’s been a hell of a ride but at the age of 71, I think I’m done with the butterflies…..UNLESS. Well, we’ll see.
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Yeah, meet ShahRukh!
wanted to write: unfortunately many don’t know it…because I do know ;.)
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Oh, good! Someone else in my age bracket! (68 here, still always up for a good love story.)
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Well at your age, I’m sure it’s mostly companionship 🙂
On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 3:54 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I also write fan fiction on planetsrk.com under user name jamaicalady.
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Now, as for your scene-by-scene, dear Margaret, I also feel like watching the movie again…intensely.
Coming to Harry’s breakdown first, I initially would have liked that Imtiaz didn’t show it…then, after rewatching the movie in my mind, I thought that it was a good move because it showed Harry’s vulnerability, his distress always ready to take over. I don’t think that it was the first time he cried because of his longing for where he would feel at home…I imagine him dreaming, waking up, being immensely sad and soothing himself multiple times…and putting up a front rather quickly if needed (because how he felt inside was nobody’s concern). It fits to his profession and it fits to the low self-esteem and loneliness he covers with seducing, clubbing, drinking and a fancy car.
I also think that he would not have cared the way he did for Sejal if she had not shown her innocent, naive childlike behaviour. Harry was a succesful womanizer…to be that you have to be emphatic even though you just use it to get the sex you want. But in front of a young woman who he sensed vulnerable in a way she herself didn’t realize, he couldn’t keep his distance, he couldn’t help getting emotionally involved…
Well, he tried to escape any responsibility for her by telling her in all honesty about his “cheap character” which simply backfired. No wonder that Sejal did not understand his qualms as he had just admitted a flaw and, gosh!, she knew how it was to be judged…so she did not judge.
I think this non-judgemental behaviour was very distinctly reciprocated by Harry in the second bar scene and the following chase. Btw, I don’t wonder that Sejal proposes (!) to him the following day to play his girlfriend because the night before he acted like a friend, not like a payed chaperon.
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Great point about how he acted like a friend the night before. He didn’t judge her, but he also felt free to yell at her when he got mad, not retreat to formal behavior.
On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 3:28 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I actually got a message from SRK on my twitter account last spring. Boy, was I excited, called my friends (who sadly aren’t fans) and they didn’t understand my excitement. Go figure!
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I’m always happy when ShahRukh posts messages to single fans or a fanclub, that he acknowledges their love for him. Oh yes, I can understand your excitement, Anonymous 🙂
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I’m not sure why the above post listed me as anonymous but it was actually me. I must have screwed up somehow, imagine that!
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With respect to Harry’s breakdown, I’m sort of a combination of procrastinatrix and mpollak711. I, too, think that Harry has been disconnected from or pushing off his sadness at all he has lost (partly explaining the drinking and the womanizing) and that Sejal has awakened these feelings in him. The breakdown was so intense because he has connected to what is essentially a trauma in his life (that’s the PTSD part you discuss). And I thought the focus for him in this reawakening of such deep feelings was the girl he fell in love with. Not that he’s been carrying a torch for her ever since, but that it was a real loss for him, along with the others. And maybe having Sejal sleeping in his arms brought him back to that particular pain.
I also think the quick recovery is something he’s used to doing. Maybe not in connection with an emotional breakdown like this, but on an everyday basis in his professional life in dealing with the people who are his clients.
I just want to add that I am looking forward to these posts every day–even more than waiting for Shah Rukh to tweet about something other than his cricket team’s victories and Independence Day in the most perfunctory way. I’m waiting for something along the lines of, you know, “I don’t want you to be my fan. I want you to be mine.” (One of my all time faves of his!) In the meantime, I’m happily living without any such tweets because I am just loving your posts on this movie.So thank you for that!
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I am so glad you are enjoying them so much!
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I’d love to second Carol’s post. Its so unfair for us to “miss” him after only a few days of relative silence, but there it is. Part is that we imagine he’s sad which may or may not be the case. He always says he takes a two hour shower, rinses the last movie off and moves on. He is preparing for TedTalks India so that is keeping him busy. Your JHMS posts have MOST certainly taken the edge off.
Now, back to the film. Have we talked much about the scene on the bridge where he grabs her? I think you said that he is trying to calm her down. I disagree; I think its the opposite. He is showing her the dangers of tangling with dangerous me which he claims to be. They can forcibly take over if you tempt too much. She has been flashing sex in his face. Now, he has laughed at it, but another man might not of and it could have gotten very sticky. She doesn’t think that much of it because she expects to be protected: by her family, her position and by him. He wants to alert her to the dangers she is courting but it doesn’t really work. That flashes ahead to the scene in the cafe with his German ex girlfriend. (I know you’ll get to this but while I’m thinking about it…)At the end, he pretends to be wrestling with her ‘against her will’ but they both know he is joking and she isn’t scared and he doesn’t mean to be scary. They are laughing when his friends walks in and thinking he is up to his old tricks yells at him.
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Hmm, you’ve got me thinking about the bridge again. There’s a lot of layers there. I don’t think he is consciously thinking “I’m going to scare her”, but it’s almost an instinctive leap to using his physical strength to overpower her. Because he can’t use his sexiness (that would be wrong) or another kind of power (he doesn’t have any) or even reason or logic (she is too upset). So he grabs her and holds her. I don’t know if I would say “danger” exactly, but more a reminder to them both that ultimately he does have this kind of physical power over her. On the other hand, I don’t think it is something he would have done with another client. Rather than crossing that line, he would have just let her go into other danger. He cares enough to grab her and hold her in place even if it means crossing some lines. And then of course they are both surprised by how “right” it feels.
Oh, and for twitter, the last time I remember him going silent for a while, it turned out to be when Karan’s twins were born, so maybe there’s a happy reason he is busy in the real world and can’t talk to us! Probably not, but maybe!
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mpollak, you have a point there because – if I remember right – at the beginning it seems that he wants to show her that she would not be able to fight an aggressor…and later she angrily says something like that he should not try to dominate her. However I think there is also a moment when he tries to soothen her while holding her tightly and then there is the moment when they get aware of the physical closeness.
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Still I think that he totally forgets that Sejal is his client feeling like she behaves like a stubborn teenage girl…
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And just like if he were with a teenage girl, he grabs her to keep her safe, and then feels guilty and confused when he feels himself just barely beginning to react to her as a woman. It’s that odd “taboo because her inside isn’t grown up even if her outside is” feeling that I keep getting from him with her.
On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 3:47 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, absolutely…and it gets a change in the Radha song, but only there at this early time…in their being together it’s fully – I felt – only during the Fado-song in Lisbon (after that the shouting to the east with doing the hand-wave with a new kind of affection – gives me still goosebumps only thinking of – then the – imo important – violent encounter with Gas & his gang, the tram-ride, the hotel…)
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I see it that they moved from being “boyfriend-girlfriend” to being “husband-wife” after Lisbon. There’s something new about how they are together after that, an extra closeness.
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Yes, absolutely! And it’s Harrys friend who is doing the matching remarks. But…but…
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Margaret, I agree with your analysis of this scene except I didn’t think Harry’s breakdown was too over the top. When you have built walls so thick around emotions you don’t want to deal with, when a crack appears in the dam you’re going to have a pretty explosive outburst. No one before, in all these years, has come into Harry’s life and touched his emotions. I think his reaction was very normal for the amount of baggage he carries about himself. Plus, the last 24 hours have been very unsettling for both of them. He’s been angry, amused, and scared because of this woman. Now he feels this protective husbandly vibe and doesn’t know how to handle it. Plus, an aside. Did anyone notice that when they were hiding on the boat, a long shot showed two white swans swim together on the left side of the screen? Swans mate for life. I wonder if it was just a coincidence or if Imtiaz planned it. Interesting\!
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Indeed interesting… I don’t remember them (I will look out for them).
I also didn’t find the breakdown exaggerated – the same reason you mention, Nancy (btw. so happy about your ‘input’ 🙂 ). And while I read your “husbandly”, I remember that I did not have this feeling but more that of an adult who protects a teenage kid from harm (the harm he had predicted on the bridge), tries continuously to make her shut up in the most gentle way possible, and comforts her the best possible way when in danger himself (more father than husband). I think the “husbandly” comes (haule, haule) when she sleeps on his arm – wants to be his Radha – flirts with him – ‘makes’ him her fiancé (give him the possibility to romance her for a brief moment which he enjoys in a way he did not anticipate)
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Thanks Claudia, after reading your reply I went back and rewatched that part and yes, you’re right. I don’t think the husband part started there. That’s what I love about this site, we all get to give our input and receive others that will bring a new perspective.
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I think what puts so much tension in the early part of the film is that he is conflicted between his feelings of protection for this much younger person, and reactions to her as an equal. He is angry and irritated with her in their first few scenes, while still feeling that sense that he really does have to help her out because she is so helpless. And then in the indemnity bond scene through to the Prague nightclub, there is this combination of “irritating little kid I have to babysit/worry about” and “woman whose body I am attracted to”.
And then, slowly, it starts to smooth out as he feels less like she is a child and can come to terms with his reactions to her as a woman. Just as she slowly starts to see him as more than just a servant who is taking care of her, and allows herself to care about him as a man.
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 8:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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As you wrote at the very beginning, Margaret, it’s Radha that brings a certain closure to the ‘teenage part’ and Harry being annoyed or irritated although Sejal’s desire to get a feedback for her own attraction has not diminished…and still Sejal calls the tune and Harry is a step further (or two, three…).
It’s so nice that we have really cheerful songs when they get to the next level at the same time.
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You know that talk about how the songs in Dil Se reflect the changing moods of love? I feel like that is equally, or even more, true here. The early songs are so dark, even Parinday has this kind of edge to it. And then Radha is the joyous flush of first love. Beech Beech Mein is the infatuation and excitement. And then we go into Yaadon Mein, the kind of deep love, and so on and so forth.
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SRK’s acting choices in the crying bit was the most problematic scene for his character. A more restrained choice would have served him better. It’s moments like these in his films when all of the acting cred and on-screen charisma seems like a big trick that he’s pulled on all of us. Narratively, the scene still does its job but the writing and acting are poor.
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Well, as I have witnessed more than once how it can be when men are desperate and cry, and try to stop it by mumbling to themselves or doing other things, I found it rather restrained…and short (as he noticed Sejal behind).
It was similar with Gaurav crying in the cell…some could relate, some couldn’t.
A charisma cannot be attained by a tric – it’s something people perceive or don’t perceive…I bet there are as much people who find ShahRukh charismatic as those who don’t.
Acting cred, too, is something, a spectator perceives…there are those who find his acting credible and those who don’t.
I don’t see your point.
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that’s what I thought! And after watching over and over, I still kind of think that. Not that Shahrukh’s performance is necessarily to blame on its own, but the combination of script and directing and the whole thing, it just wasn’t right.
On Sat, Sep 9, 2017 at 2:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Strangely I found it an important scene, just because it was the closeness of Sejal who behaved like a trusting kid which triggered this reaction. At this moment Harry didn’t have any defense mechanism…it’s like opening a door and letting out what was enclosed a long time…by daylight, not in dreams only.
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to add: I don’t think that Radha could have happened without this little scene…
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Claudia, I agree that charisma and acting talent are in the end in the eye of the beholder. I am still a SRK fan, no worries, just have never been a superfan. It’s just my opinion that his acting is often kind of awkward and this scene is a perfect example. Hrithik falls prey to the same thing. It’s the trembling/shaking = deep emotion that really puts me off. It’s a typical filmi hero style thing and I recognize that, but a much more restrained take on it would have been even better. The scene is definitely necessary and it still does its job as the set up for the rest of the film…just gave me that kind of embarrassed feeling you get when you see an actor not living up to his full potential.
Its in other films like Swades, Chak De India, Paheli, Dear Zindagi and even this year’s Raees that I feel his acting credentials have been earned.
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I understand. Also read your other post where you write about your impressions (I should have read the other before 😉 ).
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Yeah, out of context it sounded like I was just bashing his overall performance. I’m still processing the film because I just watched it for the first time today. I can see why you all loved it:)
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Living a dangerous situation and get out of it physically unscarthed does not imply that one remaines untouched emotionally…Harry, already intrigued by this straight-forward, but rather ‘unpractical’ woman-girl/girl-woman, switches to “Sejal” to advise her to leave – he’s such a mix of emotions that he has no force to debate and finally let her just follow him. Sejal? Well, Harry is somehow her hero now, the one who doesn’t only know the touristic stuff, the intellectual stuff, the women stuff, but also the adventure stuff, the danger stuff, the protecting stuff…I wonder what would have happened without Harry’s crying fit.
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Just a small difference of opinion about why Harry lies down on the ground. He positions himself as a watchman at the top of the stairs, where anyone who came after them would have to go through him. Then they use this position to interesting effect when Sejal comes to lie next to him. Once he wakes up he’s clearly having a strong reaction to her presence and he tries to scootch away, but the stairs are right there and there’s nowhere for him to go.
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Oh good catch! Really interesting. And it adds a new meaning to all those stairs, Shahrukh’s first thought for safety was to get to a high easily defensible area. And what the night before was a potential battlefield full of arduous climbing turned into a playground for them in the morning.
On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 8:06 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comments months later :). It’s lovely having a place to put these thoughts.
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I’m thrilled to get new inputs on one of my favourite movies with ShahRukh. Thanks for commenting even months later 🙂 I’ll rewatch this scene…
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I really like this movie too, in case that wasn’t obvious :). It’s a beautiful love story.
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SRK, with his hand on Anushka’s head, watching his reactions – that is the moment he consciously realizes he has feelings for this woman. He isn’t protecting her simply because it is his job, he actually wants to protect her. It is all there in his eyes. That’s the moment! And that is why he gets so mad later.
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Yes!!!! And that’s also what she subconsciously responds to and starts following him around like a little kitten. finally someone who just cares about her and wants her to feel safe and happy.
On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 10:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Damn, in the excitement of writing Part 6’s post I wound up putting some points that should have been in the Part 7 comment section there instead haha. And I love this buildup to Radha!!
1. Parallels: At the end of Butterfly, Harry touches Sejal’s head, as her lawfully wedded husband this time. And I know there has been enough discussion here on how they already behave like spouses, yet I see an element of that beginning here. With him unwittingly making his promises to protect her, and her choosing to lie down on the floor next to him, close to his heart. It’s almost like a quasi-engagement that is cemented with Sejal offering to be his girlfriend, then culminates into a sort of marriage with Hawayein and Beech Beech Mein.
2. In my previous comment I guessed that the number of times Harry asks Sejal to go back without the ring was 2…but now thinking of it I think it happens thrice. First I think is his company response, and it continues for most of the first day. Then at the museum…and over here it’s different because now it’s not just about convincing a stubborn client to return, it’s about his fear that he’s already getting too emotionally involved. And I think he doesn’t tell her to leave again until the Fight, by which time – ironically – everything he has feared has already come to pass.
I think after this sequence he doesn’t tell her to leave without the ring, but he does try to prepare himself and her for an eventual separation (like the dialogue at the end of Hawayein).
3. I love the “What You Are Seeking Is Seeking You” because it applies to both of them, and it also underlines that sometimes you don’t even know you’re searching for a specific thing. Internally Harry is searching for rootedness, and Sejal is searching for who she really is. They both can’t articulate that because they’re too afraid of their own vulnerabilities. It’s striking that the moment they bond together and are vulnerable to each other (Sejal about her insecurities and Harry about his feelings for her), they actually begin to find that in each other.
4. A thought that occurred to me on this rewatch: while Sejal is having her breakdown about her family and Rupen, Harry is doing three things. He’s watching out for sounds, trying to calm her and get her to be quiet, and also at one point listening and engaging with what she’s telling him (nodding his head in agreement, saying “bilkul” when she speaks about being called uncaring when she’s the one trying to find Rupen’s ring). So he’s both protector and confidant.
It’s especially striking once we realize that this was supposed to be Rupen’s position in Sejal’s life, yet it is Harry who is following through the duties of a husband with her. And it is Rupen who CHOOSES not to support her and in fact leave her vulnerable in a foreign country (also seriously, it’s Rupen’s family heirloom. That was easier to lose because he never fitted it to her finger. If it was so important why didn’t he bring his own ass back to Europe to find it!).
Similarly it’s Harry and his friend who play the role of a family for her, including her in things important to them and appreciating her care and love for them. Whereas all we see of her family is a preoccupied, bone-tired married sister who seems to be asking all the questions Sejal’s parents should be asking.
5. Love the body language Anushka and Shahrukh display on their way to the church/castle place where they sleep. Harry seems to walk and move with a sort of frenetic energy, and Sejal’s are jerky and awkward, kind of like an errant, chastised teen. There’s also this small moment where she see him take his position on the floor, tries to extend her hand towards him, thinks better of it and fists them before going to her bench. She’s already uncomfortable with the idea that she is required to sleep in more comfort than him. And after that she makes a practice of lying next to him rather than lying in comfort.
6. I also love how unthinking her movements towards Harry to sleep on the floor are. In her half-asleep state she faintly registers her sense of fear and there isn’t even a question in her mind about seeking Harry – she just does, and peaceful sleep follows as soon as she’s found him.
7. “Jee Ve Sohneya Jee” by the Nooran Sisters is such a poignant number! The way the song is placed in the film makes me feel like it’s a love song to Harry from his village in Nurmahal. That he may have exiled himself from his home and family, but they still miss him and love him and consider him worthy and would give anything to have him back. There are lines in it, esp in the second verse, about how the roads still have the imprint of the person’s feet.
8. Harry’s breakdown resonated with me but I feel they could have built it up a little more. It’s tricky because Harry’s characterization is such that he won’t consciously dare to bring up the memories of his home, and the narrative choice is clearly to tie Sejal to the full reviving of those memories. But I do think the power of his breakdown is meant to indicate that at least in his head, his position is more of an *exile* than an immigrant. He has no hope of ever seeing that home again and those memories are something that will haunt him his whole life. The exile is more mental than physical or legal, but it is still real for him. I think the combination of Sejal unknowingly giving him comfort by lying in his arms and the dream of his home being far more visceral than ever before puts him in a position where he can’t adequately mask the way he may have done before. Any defenses he may have would be too down by the time he went upstairs to cry.
While seeing this sequence I was immediately reminded of a Jhumpa Lahiri short story called Mrs Sen’s. That one is really about an expat housewife so it’s a very different context, but the title character’s pain is presented rather viscerally there. I think there is even a point where she yanks out saris from her cupboard in frustration to the little American boy she is looking after, saying these are the saris she brought from her home and she has nowhere to wear them, nor does she have pictures she can send back to her family because that is how miserable she is. There is a sense of displacement there that I think Harry’s outburst was meant to echo, but I do think they could have built it up a little better. Maybe more farming references. Maybe references to not having a home. I’m not sure…but I feel like that sequence would’ve hit better with more small indications of Harry’s anguish before this.
Then again to me this sequence hits different because I’m beginning to realize I see a lot of my father in Harry’s displacement. If he didn’t already have a family who was living and thriving there, and siblings and parents who would lead more comfortable lives with allowances from his high salary, I’m certain he would have gone back to Kerala and taken up farming again, a lot earlier. He loved his job and the life was comfortable – but the way he missed that life and those routines could be a bit intense sometimes. So much of his storytelling and memories revolved around farming and paddy fields and curd that his mother used to churn herself. Towards the end of his stay in Dubai, I think he grew a little bitter about the place and couldn’t wait to return (he’s thriving now, growing organic dragonfruit and stuff 😁).
9. Of particular interest to me ate the lines they chose to use for the dream sequence.
“Send a message to me about how you are faring sometime,
Perhaps, the seasons of the foreign land are taking care of you.
Here without you every season feels like autumn” (as opposed to spring or summer which are full of colour).
If narratively this is a song he has grown up on in his village I can kind of guess there is an additional layer of pain and guilt with these lines. There is a part of him that wants desperately, so desperately, to return. But there’s a part that is too ashamed to, and so he lives in self-imposed exile. And the woman who inexplicably brings colour to his faded memories of that home, is someone who cannot be his.
The song works on a smaller level for Harry and Sejal’s relationship too – that when she leaves, they will both love and miss each other, and only wish the best for them. But she is also in some ways going to be very deeply tied to his sense of home and belonging.
10. He was definitely remembering childhood and a parental figure. It’s in the way he uses his hands and purses his mouth as if to talk to a child, except that child who needed the comfort and soothing is really him.
11. Also I believe the building that’s shown at the beginning of the flashbacks is the Serai Nurmahal, which was commissioned by Emperor Jehangir’s wife Noor Jahan in the Mughal era. Interestingly, serais were built as resting places for travellers coming from caravans. In a story about travellers, learning this detail makes me wonder about the narrative choice to have Harry’s origins in Nurmahal, Jalandhar.
(Also I found an article about how much villagers from Nurmahal loved the film, and Harry in particular, and I’m crying happy tears now).
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Later in the film, Sejal refers to it as a “Honeymoon”, and that also sort of works, right? If you think of this as like an arranged marriage, a couple who doesn’t know each other well thrown together to figure things out. They are learning to be partners, to protect each other, support each other, all those sorts of things.
I just rewatched the end-end and there’s another 3 thing, SRK says she asked him 3 times what he wants. I think that’s in the final fight. But it’s interesting, he asks her 3 times to just go home, and she asks 3 times if he wants her to stay.
I really like the poetic idea of the “what you seek is seeking you” that comes back at the end in the proposal. The limit/emptiness within Harry is the place where Sejal belongs, she is seeking his empty place, and his empty place is seeking her. Sejal senses his lacks and confidently rushes in to fill them, and Harry is looking for someone to make him feel complete again.
YES! Harry is engaging with Sejal, listening to her, trying to understand her, which no one else seems to have ever done. And of course the opposite is also true, Harry has been caretaker for years as a tour guide, and now he has someone who is INSISTING on taking care of him. Heck, who is grateful for his care! Sejal starts out the usual unthinking uncaring client, but ends up being the first person who sees all he does and wants to pay it back.
The body language is also that of people who are fully emotionally wrung out. Compared to the cocky way they left the hotel, now they are just managing to put one foot in front of the other. It’s a great set-up for their night of sleep and the following morning, that sort of total emotional physical emptiness that can leave you feeling reborn when you wake up.
Yes! I was thinking it’s just because she is scared and lonely. But based on what we know of Sejal, I think this is the first time she’s felt comfortable enough with someone to actually go to them for comfort. She certainly isn’t talking to anyone, friends or family or fiance, about this whole terrifying situation she is in right now. She’s trying to fix it, to keep it to herself. Even asleep, she can sense that Harry is non-threatening, ready to comfort.
7/8. Interesting with the village calling out to Harry, and Harry’s deep missing, I hadn’t thought about the rural-urban divide before. He lives such an urban life now, and a rootless life. It’s the opposite of farming, being connected to the land. As I am sure you’ve read in our discussions, we had a lot of debate over whether Harry and Sejal would really be happy returning to the village forever. Your story makes me think that maybe they would, maybe Harry will find deep satisfaction in going back to the place he has been missing all along.
I also thought of that song as one he must have grown up with in the village. But I was thinking it also showed that he grew up with people leaving, and the pain of that for those left behind. He knows what happens when young men leave the village, how rarely they come back or even bother to send word. The guilt over causing the pain would make him afraid to return.
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The collapse scene is a mystery to me. In fact, I tried to look up translations to try to understand it. I think of this depressive man, emotionally blunted, where relationships are utilitarian, superficial, who suddenly finds himself asleep in the warmth of an embrace that feels -and evokes- home, love, and, upon awakening, his loss . It may be a translation problem, but in one I found he says something like “It will happen, I know. It’s okay. It doesn’t matter if it happens.” A kind of: “it will happen again, you know. That’s it.” And then Radha. ❤
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The words he says in this bit are “koi nai, Ranjhe, koi nai. Koi nai, main janta hoon, haunda hai, haunda hai”. Koi nai is a comforting way of telling someone it’s okay or that it doesn’t matter and all is fine…haunda hai I’ve always seen as present tense – at least when I hear it used in Punjabi it seems to be used in present tense rather than future.
So it felt to me like he was whispering “it’s okay, Ranjhe, it happens.” “It happens” being a way of saying “things like this happen, don’t let it hurt you”. It’s a very consoling, comforting type of monologue which is said with gestures that you could often see among elders of the family. So I always read it as him recalling his mother or some parent-figure comforting him, and trying to self-console using the same words and gestures because he’s so overcome with guilt and loss.
There is a possibility he is also remembering Kulwant, but I never really got the feeling that his loss of Kulwant affected him as much as his loss of Nurmahal did.
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Thank you very much for the translation! What you say makes sense to me. I also don’t think it’s “Kulwant” itself. I think it is home, which is linked to love, the homeland, the family. Thanks, again.
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