Raja Hindustani (1996)

What a waste of my time!!!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Awesome movie. Nice music. Amir khan acted beautifully.. Karishma is OK OK... All over good movie..

I watched this because of its status as a Bollywood nostalgia film. However, there really is much more bad than good in this movie. I'll start with the pros. The last hour or so the plot gets more interesting as the family manipulation really kicks in and the climax and resolution arrive, the rest of the movie just kind of feels like slap-stick time-wasting nonsense. There are a few good songs thrown in, the classic being "Pardesi Pardesi." Thats where the good ends. Some spoilers may be ahead. Yikes! Where do I begin? The first thing is Karisma Kapoor's acting in the whole first half of the movie- its painful. She often does this laugh that sounds so fake and simply weird... the same laugh is usually reserved for villains in cheesy American movies. The laugh is also really out of place as she laughs at things Raja does that aren't even remotely funny. Most of the characters are painfully stupid and are really just there for slap-stick, like the servants and Raja's best friend. Some scenes with them are just bizarre. However, the part of this movie that leaves me the most baffled is Raja and why everyone treats his behavior as not that far out of the ordinary... if a little shameful in some circumstances. Besides being not that smart to begin with, he is a very violent person with an extremely short temper and very inflexible notions of pride that are really just founded in insecurity. He almost beats like 6 guys to death and has to be pulled off of a guy he's about to stab with a broken bottle...just because they catcalled the Karisma Kapoor's character (Aarti). Any normal woman would have ran for the hills if some guy did that, especially since they weren't even in a relationship. When they get married he freaks out at any notion of compromise and refuses to accept any gift from his wife's father. He doesn't even want to go to Mumbai to see her family until she convinces him to go for her birthday. This is the point that the movie starts to get interesting, but Raja's behavior is still grotesquely out of line. He creates a giant,drunken, violent scene at the birthday party because he believes his wife asked him to wear a suit because she's "ashamed of him" even though shes demonstrated a thousand times before throughout the rest of the movie that she doesn't see him being a "lowly cab driver" shameful at all and has defended him before at fairly high personal stakes. Yet, his own insecurity gets in the way and he ruins everyones night and becomes a publicly embarrassing spectacle over a trivial matter that could have been easily resolved if the situation involved a man with a temper thats not like a pile of dynamite about to explode. After that, most of their miscommunication and misfortune comes from Raja's pride and unfortunate circumstances on Aarti's end, as well as familial manipulation. Raja's baffling behavior progresses to kidnapping as he steps over the unconscious body of his wife, whom he is supposedly heart broken over, to steal his baby and run all the way back to his village, which is 3 hours away by car, with no clothes, blankets, or food for the baby. At this point, he really acts like a crazed animal more than a person, with wide crazy eyes, no speech, and roughly clutching the baby when his well-meaning family try to reason with him. After other events happen and the "miscommunications" are sorted out, everybody is happy like nothing happened. I was stunned... like... hey Aarti! You're still married to a crazy, ultra-violent, super-insecure guy who kidnapped and endangered your baby and you're just cool with that? Cause the rest of it was a misunderstanding? Very bizarre. Aarti often blames herself as well for her husband's over-reactions... like I said- bizarre. I have to say I feel very confused as to why this is a "classic." I would say if you're still dying to watch it, read a summary and then skip to an hour and ten minutes or so before the end. It will be more worth it that way.

Some may find Raja Hindustani as the same tired and worn out 90's plot... but I happen to love it. Aamir lights up the screen with a great character, Raja Hindustani, a poor villager who drives a taxi who falls in love with a rich girl from Mumbai.The rest of the story, I'm sure you can guess, as it is very predictable and nothing new. However, songs are really great, and story is captivating.I will say the ending is stupid and Johnny Lever is as annoying as ever this time as Raja's annoying sardar friend. Most of the film I wanted him to drop dead of heart attack. But he never does...But either way this is just a fun masala film with Aamir in the lead. It's not too serious, it's a great time pass and a good love story. If you don't get your hopes up for something mind blowing, you won't be let down.

This has got to be one of the greatest Indian movies you will ever see. Yes, some of the acting is over the top, the first 15 minutes of the film drag before the story kicks in and sure, some points are laboured for Western audiences. However, petty criticisms aside, I keep coming back to this flick year after year as my all time favourite Hindi language film (after Khuda Gawah perhaps). Karishma Kapoor in particular is a real treat to watch - beautiful and intelligent, and above all a very talented and convincing actress. I am genuinely curious that such a breathtakingly gorgeous lady did not make an effort to enter Hollywood or the English language movies at all. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the movie is the fantastic music. Catchy and hypnotic to the point where you cannot really ever forget the main motifs and themes. I can guarantee that even if you don't like the film that much the song & dance numbers will either enchant or entrance. You will never in your lifetime forget the gypsy dance number. Forget the art house stuff and enjoy pure Bollywood at its best.