These aren’t right, or true. But they kind of fit and I find it really interesting to sometimes think about theories that kind of fit.
- Jab Harry Met Sejal
Anushka is a detective hired by the ex-fiance of a woman Shahrukh seduced. That is the man she calls her fiance and feels obligated towards, that is why she is obsessive about calling him to give reports (or his assistant who she pretends is her sister), that is why she keeps looking for an angle into his life. She thinks she has found it with the “girlfriend” idea, but somehow she stops pretending to be this innocent girl in order to gain his trust and becomes more and more her true self, a confident female detective, and truly falls in love with him. She wants to keep the farce going, to avoid revealing the truth to him, but he forces her away. She knew she had the ring all along, that was her pretext for being with him and her escape route whenever she needed it. That is what she is telling him at the end. When he shows up for the wedding, it isn’t her wedding, because she was never engaged, she was never who he thought she was at all.
2. Asoka
What if Kareena is a guilty hallucination of Shahrukh, a projection of himself? Another royal who is not truly the child of the king and queen, another warrior, another person who has one younger sibling to protect. The ending is truly about Shahrukh confronting “himself”.
3. Paheli
What if Ghost Shahrukh is literally created by Rani? What if her hearts wish at the well brings him into existence? He isn’t a ghost who falls for a human woman, he is the fantasy creation of a human woman’s wish. And, as Rani matures in her understanding of the world and of marriage, she wants more. Therefore as she is giving birth to her dream baby, her mind forces reality to change again and bring forth her “real” husband and merge him with her fantasy.
4. Chak De! India
Is Shahrukh in love with his goalie? Is this the story of a man who fights his own heart in order to be a fair coach? And then he must watch her go away, back to her husband who does not appreciate her.
5. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
What if Anushka falls in love with Shahrukh at first sight just as he falls for her? Her guilt and denial of her feelings are what leads her to make the extreme statement that her heart is dead and she will never love again. She grabs at the possibility of love with “Raj” because it is safer and less guilt inducing to pretend she grew to care for this stranger than that she fell in love at first sight before the corpse of her fiance was even cold. And the end is not about falling in love, but accepting, guiltless, that she has been in love all along.
6. Ra.One
The robot is not a robot, but a ghost. Real SRK’s spirit at the moment of death leapt into the artificial intelligence chamber. It is still him, just without the memories of his former life. If they can find a way to restore his memories, he will truly be the same man but in a new body.
7. Yes Boss
What if Shahrukh had an affair with his boss’s wife? That is why he is so guilt ridden and loyal, he feels he must make up for his sin. And that is why he waits so long before interfering in another romance of his boss.
8. Fan
What if Aryan Khanna has a split personality? Fame has driven him insane, he has started stalking and threatening himself. Alternatively, the initial Gaurav interaction is real, but after they face each other in jail everything is is Aryan torturing himself. At the end, he sees Gaurav in the crowd because that madness is still there.
9. Pardes
What if Shahrukh is the villain and his adopted brother is the hero? His brother is torn apart from the girlfriend he loves and agrees to do the right thing and marry the girl his father picked out. But whenever they start to get close, his jealous servant Shahrukh interferes and drives a wedge between them. At the end, not only has he lost the woman he learned to love, he also loses his relationship with his father when Shahrukh takes that too.
10. Mohabbatein
What if all the boys are rapists? Shahrukh is encouraging them to go out and take what they desire, while Amitabh is encouraging morality, ethics, restraint. It is order and civilization versus chaos and male desire.
11. Main Hoon Na
What if Shahrukh is really in love with Amrita? It is her photo that drives him to the campus, and he makes an instant connection with her. However when he learns she is in love with his little brother, he sacrifices his love and instead settles for a more appropriate woman partly because she seems like she will be a good mentor for Amrita. It’s all for Amrita.
12. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
What if Rani never died. She knew Shahrukh would not remarry and knew their marriage was doomed, so she faked her own death. Heck, what if she never wanted a baby (remember she says Shahrukh was the one who wanted it?) and decided that to make up for running out on her marriage, she will first give him the child he desires. At the end, that is a real vision of Rani that Little Anjali sees at the wedding, she has reappeared just this once to see the happy ending and then will disappear again.
13. Dear Zindagi
What if Aditya Roy Kapoor is Shahrukh’s son? Shahrukh was grooming Alia to be his daughter-in-law all along, that is why he took this job of intensive therapy for a random young woman, that is why he used the love=chair metaphor to begin with (knowing his son was a chair designer), and that is why Aditya shows up with no explanation at the end, his father sent him.
14. Jab Harry Met Sejal
What if Shahrukh has a daughter Anushka’s age? That is the reason he fled India, that is why he feels so guilty, and that is why he is so protective and conflicted about his feelings for Anushka. His redemption through her allows him to return to the home village at last and meet the mother of his daughter (the woman at the end). It is his daughter who has been singing to him all along.
15. Chalte Chalte
What if Rani is pregnant and the film never tells us that but the characters know? That is why Shahrukh is so money focused, that is why Rani is so emotional, that is why Shahrukh sends his blessings with her (and their unborn child). What if the whole film is not the story of a couple, but rather the origin story of a baby.
16. Chennai Express
What if Deepika’s family wanted Shahrukh to marry her all along? They followed this wealthy single man and then made sure to chase her onto his train carriage. Everything was a set up to force the two of them to spend time together, to fall in love, and finally for Shahrukh to fight for her. Her father sent her outside of the village to be educated, she is his only child, perhaps he wants something better for her but also understands that she will reject anything offered directly from him, just as Shahrukh would not appreciate a woman handed to him.
17. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
Shahrukh is Kajol’s brother. Amitabh objects to their marriage because he fears incest, being the only one who knows the truth of where Shahrukh came from. Once the marriage has happened, he throws them out of the house fearing he will not be able to hide the truth from them and wanting to protect them. But when he learns that there is already a child of the marriage, a child who might deal with issues related to his genetic background in future, Amitabh struggles within himself and finally decides to invite them into his home but always keep this secret from them.
18. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayange
Shahrukh was lying, they did actually have sex. He played the joke in the morning expecting her to laugh at how serious he is being about a fun night, only to learn that she has convinced herself it didn’t really happen because she can’t handle the reality. Not only that, he fears she is pregnant. He is desperate to find her again, and marry her ASAP before she realizes that she is pregnant and what must have happened. He is further terrified at the thought of his child being raised by an abusive husband, or at the very least the abusive husband realizing his wife was not a virgin on their wedding night. Kajol’s strange restlessness and fantasies are a result of her pregnancy hormones going out of control. This is also why she faints during Karva Chauth, and why Shahrukh is so worried about it. Her grandmother figures out the truth and fakes her illness in order to force the wedding date to move up for fear others will find out. Farida does as well and that is why she wants Kajol and Shahrukh to elope, rather than waiting for the wedding that may come too late (at least, too late for Kajol to stay in ignorance).
19. Dil To Pagal Hai
Shahrukh and Karisma are siblings (I know! So much incest!). That is why she and Shahrukh are so close and yet nothing romantic has ever happened, and why Shahrukh is so shocked at the idea. Karisma throws herself carelessly into admitting her romantic love, but Shahrukh is conflicted and torn up about it. He falls in love with the first “safe” woman to come by as a way of running from Karisma’s unhealthy feelings. In the end, Karisma arranges for Madhuri and Shahrukh to be together because she also fears what her emotions may do and needs Madhuri in place as a human shield.
20. Don
Don is actually Vijay. But Vijay, with no prior training or understanding of undercover work, lost himself in the character. His dance abilities made him a good fighter, and his living on the streets wit helped him take over the gang. But living in this world, wearing those clothes, living in those rooms, turned him evil. He came to truly believe he was Don and forgot he was ever Vijay. Priyanka was the last person who was able to bring the real “Vijay” out in him and thus he both fears her and craves her.
Okay, which is your favorite?
dontcallitbollywood 
Relevant to your interests
https://twitter.com/IndianCinema_AR/status/1183481400491741184
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Oh gosh, I saw the length of the whole article and thought I have to skip it until the moment I’ve the time to read it.
I just read the first and I’m spellbound because in my mind – without telling it – I felt that Imtiaz had at least one other reading of the movie in mind while shooting it. (If I remember, I even alluded to it in the JHMS comments). There had been only the need to do some shots with slightly other facial expression/body language/dialogue/placing in the narrative and you have the movie you just imagined.
And I even would bet upon that your version would have been more success!
Well, now I’ll try to continue the reading…sooooooo much stuff, especially ShahRukh related stuff…ufffff!
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I bet it would have been more commercial too! But less good. The big complaint was that nothing “happened”. Putting in a reveal that Anushka was lying about who she was, that the feeling of an impossibly naive young woman with flashes of maturity was her real self flashing through, that would have made something “happen”. Especially if Shahrukh finds out the truth before she tells him and it turns into a game of trying to make her say it. But then we wouldn’t have the deep internal psychological film it was.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 6:00 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Absolutely…that’s why I admire Imtiaz’ (and ShahRukh’s?) decision of being honest to the depth of the movie they apparently wanted to make.
They only had to made it more clear during the promotion, I feel.
I now have read all your propositions and will do another comment.
Your 2nd proposition for JHMS would have needed more changes in the movie. Although I like the idea it would have changed the psychology of the movie and would not have given Anushka’s character the evolution that makes this movie so special.
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JHMS could have been a really fascinating (and even less popular) movie if it was about Shahrukh having inappropriate relationships with young women on his tours, meaning he was overly protective, concerned, and generally “fatherly”. Like, punching someone in the face for making a comment, or confronting their own “real” fathers (or husbands) when they are insulting or dismissive. That is why he avoids traveling with Anushka, afraid he will cross the line again and she will break his heart. But she forces him to see her as a woman, not a daughter. And through that whole complicated relationship he is able to let go of the idea of a “fantasy” daughter, and be brave enough to return home and finally meet his real one.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 7:08 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Honestly, I think, a guide like that would be fired promptly….and hello??? a “fatherly” super-sexy ShahRukh falling in love with a substitute of his daughter??? (very incestuous idea….) And where is evolving Anushka in this???
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That’s the beauty of it, evolving Anushka is even more important! Because of her unconscious unknown desires, she rejects from the start the idea of Shahrukh being overly fatherly to her. Same indemnity bond scene, except this time he explains that he gets too protective and cares to much and she says it won’t happen. And then the push-pull of the film is Anushka trying to grow up super fast so she can make Shahrukh see her as a woman and not a daughter.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 8:06 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Mmmmh, yes, a tempting thought.
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I like the 2nd JHMS idea, but wouldn’t that made SRK a villain? Abandoning pregant girl in Punjab could end very bad for the girl. But all the rest: his feeling guilty, the song he hears etc fit perfectly.
I also think the DDLJ idea is perfect.
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Yep, it would make ShahRukh a rather shoddy character…in both these movies (although I like the DDLJ one, too).
Respective to JHMS, he should be much younger than even the age he was supposed to have in the movie. The flashes give the feeling that he was deeply in love with a girl there…why would he leave her after getting her pregnant. It makes more sense that he leaves because she was given to another man…and who would – in rural Punjab – marry a pregnant woman or a woman with an illegitimate baby?
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Yes, exactly what I was thinking! If they were in love at 16 and she got pregnant, they would have had the choice of eloping and taking their chances, or her marrying someone safe and settled who could support her and the baby. Then Shahrukh would have run away and his daughter would now be 22. So he would see her in every teen/young woman on his tours. When he started his daughter was 10 and it wasn’t a problem for this tour guide to be so friendly and great with kids. But now that he is seeing her in rebellious young women and teenage girls, he is increasingly protective and confrontational. Also brings in the whole idea of how young Indian girls are encouraged to be smart and outspoken and adventorous, but their families become far more strict once they hit puberty. Shahrukh encouraging them to rebel, to dream of careers, to fall in love with whoever they want, would not be okay.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 8:16 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But if it is his ex-girlfriend, he stayed long enough to see her married to someone else. So it wasn’t abandoning her in a bad situation, it was just a bad situation all around. If he was too young to get married and support a family, she had to marry someone else ASAP, now that other man is raising his daughter and he is missing her more and more. And the reveal at the end could be both that the husband was a kind good father and husband (so Shahrukh made the right choice in leaving and should not have punished himself all those years with terrible fears and guilt), and that the daughter was told the truth by her mother and has wanted to meet her “real” father this whole time.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 7:44 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Makes sense for m e but would it also make sense for Indians???
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Asoka – If Asoka is already inherently somebody turned to peace, this suppressed desire could indeed stir a hallucination. But then again, it would not be a movie about Asoka; somehow it would make his wife’s character and attested influence redundant. And if he would be so in love with the hallucinated woman, wouldn’t it demand the death of this woman, too, to force him to confront himself. I truly would have liked to get an Asoka, who more and more falls in love with his wife and it’s her influence that gives way to his regressed aversion for violence.
Paheli – I could do with a dream husband (the ghost himself says, that he is the desire that resides in a woman’s heart…so this idea isn’t really far fetched), but then, Rani has always to be present when her ghost-husband is with other people because he only exists through her imagination. I would skip the baby but give her an imagined pregnancy with some health issues so that her in-laws call the husband back (who already longed for his beautiful wife).
And then – with all what the ghost gave her – she could try to influence her husband (i.e. by speaking about her desires) to be more the caring and loving husband than the skilled and shy trader…and make him stand up against his father, too.
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There are so many good ideas that I can’t choose a favourite. If you don’t mind, I try to more of them.
More than once ShahRukh spoke of himself as a “schizophrenic on the loose”. That reflects in your propositions.
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Oh, I like that idea! That Rani now has the confidence and know-how to turn her boring husband into the partner she wants. The first night she was shy and unclear in her desires, and he didn’t know what she wanted. And that also feels more true to life, say Rani was only 16-18 at marriage, if her husband left for 2 years and she lived in his house, talked to Juhi and other married women about the “secrets of the bedroom” and so on, when he came back she would be far more confident and able to say “this is what I want from our marriage”. And we, the audience, see that journey through her imagination that starts with a perfect dream lover and eventually merges in to something like what a real husband would be, but better,
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 8:17 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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ChakDe – Like it (although I prefer that he doesn’t fall in love with one of the girls…it would still be a movie about love)
As the goalkeeper lady doesn’t return with the wish to marry her fiancé (she says no at the airport and that is filmed by reporters), he may see this in the news and could now go to meet her and declare his love…
RabNe – Interesting idea but I think, for the whole movie, the guilt for falling in love with ShahRukh’s Suri while her fiancé, on the way to her, dies in an accident would have been as much questioned as Katrina’s decision to not be with ShahRukh in JTHJ if he survives the accident.
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Ra.One – My logic tells me that G.One should have the same qualities than Ra.One…and the merging of Evil and Goodness at the end is fabulous for me.
I’ve always imagined a following movie where the boy – after having reactivated the remains – will indeed create something/someone who is more humanly flawed because it/he now includes both sides.
Yes Boss – As I’m an admirer of Jack Lemmon’s and Shirley MacLaine’s “Appartment”, I found this idea of someone who wants to please his boss for realizing his own dreams so good that I would not like Yes Boss having another interpretation.
Yours is a good one but it would demand some real changes in the movie…because why should he be the lover of the wife when it is obvious that he gets no advantage for himself for being her lover?
Fan – The reason that fame has driven him insane is not enough as a reason for me to create a young fan who has a great similarity with him but does stuff he can’t do the way it is shown in the movie. The young man has parents, lives in a community where he is well known. There are situations that could support your theory because he could himself disguise (like with his colleague or at the wedding). But the scene at the police station also makes clear that there are two different persons and not one who is both in the same person.
So, that would have to be a new movie, I think.
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With Fan, I would love for it to be a slightly different movie, but with the ending explaining that Shahrukh imagined the whole life of “Gaurav” because secretly it is what he most desires. Parents who love him, a girlfriend to crush on, lots of neighbors and community around him, to be “average” again.
There is a Kannada film that was remade in Tamil that deals with this idea, and it’s beautiful. Two sets of characters played by the same actors, and you think it is an average man dreaming of being a movie star, but at the end you learn it was the opposite, the movie star is lonely and depressed and just wishes he had a beautiful normal life.
And oh my gosh your Ra.One idea is so great! The robot comes back but with the desires, selfishness, and jealousy that is part of the human experience added in to him. I don’t want him to be a villain, but I want to think about how he can be less than perfect just like a human.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 10:11 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Okay that there could be this young self/fan in his head, the average person shipping a megastar (he did with Amitji). Okay that Aryan Khanna could imagine the things this young man does when he is involved, too. Okay that he can – when the outer world is involved – disguise himself when it’s only Gaurav doing bad things….so, in the end, all the plots involving Gaurav are imagined…or acted out in disguise. What about the phone calls as he gets called? Will he talk rubbish to someone else on the line (or only imagination?) Okay, the message of the laptop he wrote himself and had the confrontation at the police station only in his head. The scene in the library also is only in his head or is he in disguise?.
But what would you take away as essence of the movie? It would have nothing to do anymore with fans as such because Gaurav would not exist in the film reality. It would be only a movie about a schizophrenic superstar – without being connected to his fans.Or not?
Does it mean that his schizophrenic disorder is only there to make clear to him that he should stop to utter a meaningless “I owe my stardom to my fans” and see them as people who deserve to get loved and cared for? Or is it the wish to destroy the worshipped starpersona so that he can become an actor who could met himself in the thinking and acting of another person and is admired for that? Is the sense of the movie the wish to not being the superstar Aryan Khanna anymore? Then the only scenes that make sense not being imagined or in disguise would be when he is with Gauri and the kids and at the end when greeting his fans.
You know what, Margaret, we should send this to ShahRukh and just ask him. It’s such an exciting interpretation of the movie…
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What if the jail confrontation is “real”, and then every Gaurav scene after that is followed by a quick shot of Aryan waking up and someone telling him “you are working too hard” or “you keep falling asleep in the middle of meetings”?
That’s all that is missing, I think. Culminating in Shahrukh jumping off a building in Delhi and waking up from a coma and realizing he imagined everything after he said good-bye to his wife. The molestation at the wedding, the attack on his study and his wife, freaking out the kids, that was all actually Shahrukh, working out a subconscious desire to destroy everything in his life because he felt unworthy. It could end with the “real” Gaurav coming to see him and explaining that after that night in jail, he went home and changed his life and is now a happy “normal” person, Shahrukh has been doing this all to himself ever since then.
The underlying meaning would be about the self-destructive impulse, the way at a certain point fame and success and even a happy family begins to feel more like a burden than a blessing.
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Yep.
However would this be as much as interesting for the/his audience than maybe having a double focus? Selfdestruction and at the same time also ponder about his relation to his fans?
I am really curious what others would think about all this…
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MainHoonNa – I would miss all the wind&music&his boyish adoration.
KKHH – I’m okay with Rani (who says at Koffee with Karan that she would jump out of the plane) having the idea of giving ShahRukh the opportunity to rekindle with Kajol…but I would detest that she makes her kid think that she is dead!
DearZindagi – I like the idea of the son, but not the “grooming” part. I would not like such a good therapist having ulterior motives.
ChalteChalte – Don’t you think that when the characters know it, the audience should know it, too?
CE – Would that not make Deepika the playball of his father? Would it not take away some of this wonderful “I stand up for myself” CE is trying to convey?
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Maybe with Dear Zindagi he had it in his head but didn’t want to act on it, maybe we see a conversation with his son saying “I just met the perfect girl for you, but I can’t do anything about it. If it is fate, you will meet”. And then we jump a year forward and see them meeting, like fate.
With Chennai Express, what has always bothered me about it is that ultimate it IS all her father’s plan! When she first showed up with Shahrukh and lied that they were in love, her father said “fine, if he fights your fiance and wins you have my blessing”. And then they run around for 2 hours, and at the end he fights the fiance and wins. So long as her father is controlling everything any way, I’d rather that he also wants Dips to marry a different smart urban type of guy.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 12:30 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I skip some but Don tempts me very much, too.
It’s a great idea I think (better than a bedridden Don transporting a man through the hospital’s corridors) because it would make a kind of character-changing-study. Maybe Vijay is not only a kind man but has also a wish for power in himself.
You really play with ShahRukh’s multiple personalities (*grin*)
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The Don story came up because I had a friend who saw Don 2 before she saw Don 1. So she was watching Don 1, knowing he would be “evil” at the end, and her theory was that Vijay would slowly turn into Don.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 2:14 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I like some of these, and some of them make me feel a bit nauseous. I don’t like the Chak De theory because he has so much respect and affection for Vidya, but it is clear that it is non-romantic. A rare combo in any movie industry.
I like the Yes Boss theory because it would mean that poor wife got to have a little bit of fun. Man, I dislike her story arc, the little one she has. Even better would be if they tacked on a little over the credits scene of her and her new man coming to Shah Rukh and Juhi’s wedding.
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I was hoping for the wife to show up and offer to fund Shahrukh’s agency, because she knew he would run the business better than her stupid husband, and treat her more respectfully.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 3:31 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I like that too! Taking control of her life and kicking her weird brother (cousin?) to the curb at the same time.
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I would SCREAM if the KKHH one became canon and CRY if the Dear Zindagi one did. I get the ending to that movie was necessary, but wouldn’t Kaira be so happy and fulfilled if Jug was still in her life? Ugh, she deserves it.
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And then Jug could have grandkids! That would make him so happy.
On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 6:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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