Rab Ne Bana Di Superman

I remember watching Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Aditya Chopra, 2007) and completely enjoying the experience. I also remember most of my friends trashing the movie. They just couldn't figure out why Tanni (Anushka Sharma) fails to recognise Raj as her husband Surinder (both played by Shah Rukh Khan). How much of a difference can a missing moustache really make? Although I'm not the most credulous person, I bought it. And so did thousands of other people, which is why Aditya Chopra's come-back vehicle was a resounding success. Perhaps it's because when it comes to films, I'm always more willing to suspend my disbelief.

But the intention of writing this piece was not to defend Rab Ne.... The film does have its weak moments, which are not a few. Maybe the film would have been more acceptable to my friends if they had only shifted their logic of perception.

For me, the film was not a love story set in "authentic" Amritsar, depicting "realistic" people of small-town India. This film was simply a fairytale - a superhero film, if I may say so - where all Suri has to do to change his personality, to go from zero to hero is to remove his shirt.

I'll explain my point with an analogy. We readily undergo the transformation that Superman undergoes in all his films. So there are no qualms about seeing a geeky, bespectacled Brandon Routh (or the old school Christopher Reeves) change into the beefy, handsome man who can fly. I see Suri's transformation in the same light.

He removes his spectacles, only to be bestowed with superpowers. So the shy, reticent Suri transforms into the loud and brash Raj - the eternal Romantic film hero. There is also a moment in the film (a scene in the song 'Haule Haule') that shows SRK take a flying pose as hedons a cape.

In real life, this sudden switch is hard to believe, yes. But then this film is really not realistic. Then what is trying to say? In my opinion, the film is about:

• aspiration, the grass always seeming to be greener on the other side.
• the alter ego, which we try and keep from others, but which escapes our hold in moments of weakness.
• the age old adage that clothes maketh the man.

And interestingly, our desi Lois Lane does not fall for the dashing superhero. Instead she falls for the humble Suri. So perhaps the film also advocates simplicity as a virtue.

Viewing the film from this perspective may just make it easier to take in. And probably, this is the film's greatest weakness - it pitches realism, where it should have pitched fantasy.