Movies are an obsession in India and most kids have grown up on a staple diet of films, dialogues of which, we can quote without stalling even for a minute. “Kitne aadmi the?” “Kuch kuch hota hai Anjali, tum nahi samjhogi” and “dosti mein no sorry, no thank you”; are lines most of us know and recite whenever the situation permits.
Sometimes I can’t believe I’m actually paid to write about something I love so much. But with so much love, there’s bound to be disappointment, right? That’s what I feel about certain storylines of a few popular Bollywood movies.
The criteria here is simple. These are films that are overall bearable in most ways, but some decisions made by the protagonists are just baffling, completely undoing all good things they’ve otherwise done in the movie.
Here’s a list of 6 such films –
1) Cocktail – the second half
Ugh, where do I even begin? Cocktail gave us one of the most remarkable female characters, only to take away all her awesomeness and make her ‘domestic’. All of this for a man.
A man who falls for her best friend, because he thinks she’ll make him ‘garam rotis‘ when he gets home after work. That’s literally the only reason he gets attracted to Meera, instead of his steady date Veronica. Cocktail as a movie still gets me so enraged, I wrote an entire blog about it.
2) Manu leaving Dattoo for Tanu
Tanu Weds Manu Returns was one of the rare sequels that was as entertaining as the original, if not more. But, but. How and why would Manu leave the best character in the movie? The intelligent, ambitious and brilliant Datto to go back to his erratic wife? Does that turn him on? Does he really think Tanu won’t get bored again and come back to Uttar Pradesh to get some validation from all her admirers?
I’m sorry, the ‘old school girl’ deserved better, much, much better. So did Jimmy Shergill. That poor babe.
3) Bunny coming back to Naina in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
I just don’t understand this coupling. Ranbir‘s character (who loves travelling so much, he made a career of it) – Bunny suddenly decides that he’s so madly in love with Naina that he’ll give up his life long dreams to be with her.
Granted that he says he’ll travel the world with her, instead of doing it alone. But like, what about Naina’s work? She’s a doctor for crying out loud! Why will she leave her important job to fulfill Bunny’s fantasies? What’s going on here exactly?
4) Anushka Sharma getting cancer in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Okay, I’m not a fan of this film, so it’s not like I loved the other parts, but the cancer card in the climax really pissed me off.
How much do you have to manipulate your audience to make them feel some empathy for a frankly unlikable character? Why can’t you just let the woman be the way she is? Why must she have to ‘suffer’ so that the audience is not alienated? Why does Ayan try to force himself on her when she’s about to die any day?
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil got mixed reviews, while some people didn’t like it at all, some people LOVED it. But the one thing both sides disliked was act three of this film.
5) Why would Tina make her 8-year-old child through that in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?
The poor kid is supposed to take in all that information one birthday at a time! She’s already dealing with being a motherless child, but no, burden her more with her father’s dating problems. Make her the person who has to fix her dad up with an old friend.
See how troubled she looks!
What if that the grown-up Anjali had moved on? Imagine the devastation smol Anjali would go through, seeing that the lady she was supposed to view as a caregiver is actually not interested in her college crush anymore. How many of us are anyway? This is not love Tina, this is wrong. Let Rahul make his own decisions, let Anjali have a normal childhood.
6) Hum Aapke Hai Koun – the entire misunderstanding
The entire climax of Hum Aapke Hain Koun is frankly ridiculous. Except my favourite bit where Tuffy is climbing down steps on the beats of Radhe Krishna Gopal Krishna, the whole ‘which brother will Nisha marry goof-up‘ was completely unnecessary.
I mean, firstly, they all have to be blind to not see Prem and Nisha make heart eyes to each other every second of the day. Secondly, when Nisha’s parents asked her if she’s ready to get married, she very happily agrees, thinking it’s Prem.
Now, as parents who have just lost their elder daughter, wouldn’t it be creepy to assume that Nisha would want to marry her dead sister’s husband? Also wouldn’t they be mildly surprised seeing how ready she is to marry above-mentioned dead sister’s husband?
Poor Nisha just thought her parents had common sense and they’d obviously want her to marry the man she’s singing songs to, but alas, it was left to Tuffy to save the day.
The moral of the story is that dogs are best jaan lo, baat yeh maan lo.
P.S.: The views are of the author only. Many others in Team MissMalini absolutely love some of these films and see no fault in them, at all.
Agree with some points? Disagree with most? Have something new to add? Feel free to tell us in the comments below!