Jo B. Paoletti
  • Home
  • Books
  • Poetry
  • Flash Fiction
  • Gender Mystique
  • Contact
  • Home

SRK Quest: Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! (1995)

10/13/2016

0 Comments

 
Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! gets my enthusiastic vote for the most underrated Shah Rukh Khan film. It was released in SRK's most prolific year, on the same day as Guddu, and about two months before Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayange, his career-changing hit. It was a commercial failure, but a critical success. I rented it online, watched it twice and then bought it. 
Synopsis. This was an unusual film for its time. It uses familiar -- even clichéd -- Hindi movie conventions to spin a satirical fable about contemporary Indian political and social corruption. Most of the main characters have titles, not names: Miss India, the President, Prince, Hero (Shah Rukh Khan). It helps to be somewhat familiar with Hindi films, as there are constant references to songs, characters, and dialogs from other movies. It reminded me of Doctor Strangelove​ or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire, with the very Indian addition of romance.
With watching for: An amazing performance by Amrish Puri as the villainous Don Quixote, who is plotting to kidnap the President, install a look-alike in his place, and auction off India to the highest bidder. My favorite Amrish Puri role ever, and it looks like he had a ball doing it. They even manage to poke fun at his acting, when he is asked at one point "Don't you ever blink?" No, he doesn't, and that's why his eyes are so scary! Anupam Kher is wonderful as the President and his many lookalikes, and Javed Jaffrey is both frightening and sympathetic as Prince, Don Quixote's heir. And "the fountain scene" in this musical number is as sexy as anything Shah Rukh Khan as done.
Want to watch? It is a reasonably priced rental on YouTube and iTunes. You might even decide to buy it!
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All
    ALLtheHolidays
    Blog Recycling
    Ethical Consumption
    Fiction
    First Dates
    Indian Film
    Leisure
    Mortality
    News
    North Platte
    Personal
    Poems
    Retirement
    Ruminations
    Social Justice
    Srk
    SRK Quest
    Story A Day
    Teaching
    Unitarian Universalism
    Writing

    RSS Feed

"It is a better joy to teach than to be taught" - Alfred North Whitehead

  • Home
  • Books
  • Poetry
  • Flash Fiction
  • Gender Mystique
  • Contact
  • Home