Still watching Hart of Dixie which does really good love triangles, and it has inspired me to try and see what I can come up with as potential Indian film triangles. Not easy ones where it’s a choice between love and duty, but ones where there are two viable “love” options.

Shahrukh-Juhi-Aamir

Oh boy, middle-aged love drama with two competing all time classic jodis. Juhi is a sad spinster art teacher, but then her young perky niece helps her get on facebook and she connects with someone from her high school class, Aamir. He confesses he had a crush on her back then but was too shy to say anything. He’s still really shy with her, she has to push to even set up a video call, and the first time Aamir is so nervous his voice stops working and he just mouths things at the screen and then pretends his speakers went out. But Juhi talks enough for both of them and then he starts to laugh at her and relaxes and they both talk. Both of them have a cute little love song where they imagine the other one with them as they dance down the streets of their respective cities. Juhi gives herself a make-over, Aamir is finally brave enough to try his Italian at the bakery instead of just pointing to what he wants, they are both so happy. And then Aamir sends an email proposing, because they first connected through email, he wants to propose the same way. And Juhi gathers her courage and replies “yes!” And gets a bounced email. She can’t reach Aamir! He’s disappeared off the internet! She has to find him in real life.

But how can she find one man based on the clues in a series of emails? So she reaches out to the local travel agent, Shahrukh. He runs a little local office and sends people all over the world but has never traveled anywhere himself. Juhi is frustrated by him not being willing to help her, and once she challenges him and he figures out where Aamir must be, she yells at him when he refuses to help her book tickets and go there. It ends with Juhi offering to pay the money for both of them to go there and try to find Aamir. Lots of bickering, lots of traveling, lots of confusion. And along the way, Juhi finds little evidence of how much Aamir loved her, like a photo of her hidden inside his kitchen cupboards so he could see her face while he had his morning coffee, or their names scratched together on the wooden table at his coffee place just like he had scratched them on his desk in high school.

In the end, just as they finally find Aamir (hit by a car and in the hospital but recovering), Shahrukh tells her that he has fallen in love with her. WHO WILL SHE CHOOSE????

Deepika-Ranveer-Anushka

Ranveer is a cocky young advertising guy (it’s always advertising). He is assigned to work on a new campaign with the biggest best new model, Deepika. They start off on the wrong foot when her manager hands him a list of ridiculous demands. Ranveer rolls his eyes and ignores stuff like “nothing the color yellow”. She arrives on set and refuses to go on, Ranveer is nervous about his job and pulls out his own power play and threatens legal repercussions, she finally comes out and starts the shoot (despite the color yellow) but then there is a dog on set and she legitimately freaks out and goes to hide in a closet. Ranveer feels terrible and sits outside the closet door and talks to her. Deepika explains that she has a real phobia for animals, all the other crazy demands on her list are a smoke screen for that. Ranveer confesses he is afraid of heights, everyone has something. They have a real moment together, and she agrees to go back out and do the shoot, and Ranveer covers for her by claiming it is his idea to swap the dog for a small child. Ranveer wants to ask Deepika out on a date, but his friends tell him he is crazy, she is beautiful and famous and doesn’t care about him. Meanwhile, Deepika wants to call Ranveer but her friends tell her she shouldn’t look desperate. Lots of funny misunderstanding when Deepika calls up claiming that she lost a scarf on set, and then she has to spin a story about it being a very sentimental scarf, which is why she cares enough to want to come back and look for it herself, and maybe Ranveer can help? Ranveer finally gets her clues and asks her out and she says “yes!” before he can finish asking. They start a secret relationship, hiding from the press and stuff, and then Ranveer proposes and Deepika is thrilled and rushes home with his sad little ring on her finger (advertising doesn’t pay that well), to find her family waiting to announce that she has just received an amazing proposal. Next day, headlines saying that Deepika is engaged!

Enter Anushka, spunky wedding planner. Ranveer is determined to sneak into the wedding and end it, but Anushka is determined it will go off without a hitch. Lots of meta-jokes about how all her biggest weddings are always ruined when some poor idiot runs in at the last minute to declare his love. Turns into spy versus spy between the two of them, at one point Ranveer tells a lie that Anushka is his girlfriend to explain his presence and she goes along with it because it gives her a reason to keep him close and always be asking where he is. The night before the wedding, she handcuffs him to her to keep tabs on him, and they end up staying up all night talking, sharing deep secrets, and maybe falling in love a little bit. Come the wedding day, Ranveer rushes into the room and sees Deepika at the alter with Anushka standing next to her and says “I love you _____”.

WHO??? Who does he love??? Oh, and I should clarify, Deepika’s fiance is awesome and kind and hot and loving and there is a sweet scene where we see Deepika freak out about the dog his niece brings to the wedding where he takes care of her, and then gently tells his niece that she has to leave the dog at home. But still, WHO DOES RANVEER LOVE?????

Aditya Roy Kapoor-Parineeti-Sidharth Malhotra

Pari is a perky young woman who moves in to a shared young people apartment situation in the city for a job. And immediately notices the soulful drunken hot dude across the hall (ARK). Her roommates dismiss him, he’s some sad loser, but Pari thinks there is something more there. When her roommates are all working late one night, and she had a big day at work and made a big dinner just for herself, she perks her way across the hall and rapid talks her way into ARK’s apartment. She gives him dinner and talks about her exciting day, and he just silently eats and listens. They get into a rhythm, Pari is used to a big crowded house and lonely in the big city, her roommates are always working, Pari is always cooking big meals for no one and taking them across the hall to talk to ARK. And after weeks of this, she realizes she hates it. She hates her job, she hates her life here, the only good part is cooking the big meals and sharing them with ARK. She’s done, she’s going back home to get married and find her own family that she can cook for. And then the next night ARK knocks on HER door (for the first time), and asks to show her something. Her roommates are there and judgey, but Pari ignores them and goes with ARK. He takes her to an empty storefront and tells her he just rented it for her, this is her restaurant. If she loves cooking for people, she should do that, but do that here. Because if she left, ARK would miss her. Pari is touched, and tries to say “thank you”, but ARK avoids making eye contact, Pari reaches for his face so she can see him, and kisses his cheek. Somehow it turns into a lip to lip kiss, and they end up having sex on the floor of her empty restaurant. Afterwards, as they hold each other, ARK confesses that those evenings with Pari are the first time he has been happy ever in his life. His parents pressured him to get a high achieving job, now he has it and he hates it. And he kind of hates his parents for forcing him into this life, he hates everyone, except somehow Pari. She worked her way into his apartment, and then his heart, and now he can’t imagine ever being happy again without her.

Pari returns home, ecstatic, to find her mother waiting. Her family got her message about coming home and getting married, they have arranged everything, she just has to come home and meet the wonderful boy they have found. Pari asks for one minute, and runs across the hall to tell ARK that she is going to go home, tell everyone in person that she isn’t getting married and instead is quitting her job to open a restaurant, everything will be fine, she just needs a little time.

Meanwhile, Sid M is a sweet lonely NRI boy. His parents sent him a photo of Pari weeks ago and he has been dreaming of her. He learned she likes to cook, so he made over his kitchen. He learned her favorite color is green, so he painted the bedroom green. When they finally meet, he is so nervous, he put together a powerpoint on his laptop to help him remember everything he wanted to tell her and what he wanted to ask her. Pari is so overwhelmed by his earnestness, she just can’t tell him the truth. And of course things keep delaying her from saying anything, there’s relatives arriving from out of town, and she has to go to sari fittings, and so on. And she can’t seem to reach ARK on the phone and all the time in the city starts to feel like a dream.

But then on her wedding day, ARK suddenly arrives! Pari stands up in front of everybody and says, “I’m sorry, I love____”

WHO???? Who does she love???