Chalte Chalte

Chalte Chalte (`Walk Along') is a mainstream Bollywood romance that goes one better. Instead of leaving you at the altar to assume that `they lived happily ever after', Chalte Chalte takes you inside the marriage after Boy meets Girl, Boy wins Girl, to experience Man faces the realities of life with Woman.

Start with Raj (Shah Rukh Khan), a middle class guy who owns a small transport company. Raj is messy, impulsive, quick tempered: a guy who acts in haste and repents at leisure. One day he bumps into Priya (Rani Mukerjee), a beautiful, sophisticated upper-class fashion designer born in Greece and raised in luxury. Priya is organized and efficient; passionate, but always proper. Also a bit of a snob, she assumes Raj is merely a truck driver and snubs him accordingly.

Love blossoms, but the road to happiness is never smooth in Bollywood: Priya becomes engaged to her childhood friend, Sameer, a wealthy businessman from Priya's world of money and privilege. Raj, not wanting to spend the rest of his life regretting `if only' follows Priya to Greece to convince her that he, not Sameer, is the man of her dreams. Not so amazingly, he manages to succeed.

Your typical Bolly romance would be running the end credits about now, but we're just at the interval. The rest of the film switches from sun and sea drenched beauty of Greece to the mundane colors of Mumbai, and Raj's messy apartment. Now daily life intrudes, and Raj is left trying to keep the grand promises he so easily made when Priya was a prize to be obtained.

Chalte Chalte provides a mature look into a marriage, not of two movie stars, but of Mr. and Mrs. Anybody. The charm, or the drawback, depending on how you view it, is that the film has no real plot, no villains, no heros. Just real people doing the best they can with what they have, and with whom they've chosen. The problems Raj and Priya face are problems that all married people the world over face every day: disapproving in-laws, money problems, personality clashes, and on and on. The film works best for me on its most mundane level: arguments over wet towels on the bed, shoes on the floor, appointments missed, arguments about anything and everything, and then the making up, the kissing and cooing and apologies before starting another round.

Most of the performances in Chalte are solid. The supporting players, including Satish Shah and Lilette Dubay are wonderful, and though a handful of new-comers intrude on the flow of the film from time to time, their presence helps develop the story and provide narration and a bit of comic relief. The usually shrill and obnoxious Johnny Lever shows some welcome restraint this time, and creates an endearingly poignant character who helps tell the story in yet another way.

Rani Mukerjee, in my opinion one of India's best actresses, is stunning, both in appearance and in her acting. She exudes a warmth, a naturalness and a realness that makes you want to be her best friend, or her lover. With her exotic amber eyes and husky voice she is spellbinding in all her scenes, an intriguing mixture of sexy sophistication and little girl charm rolled into one.

But this movie belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, and no mistake. Coming after the opulent success of Devdas, and the larger than life Asoka, Raj is Everyman, a regular guy with money problems, wife problems, ego problems, problems, problems, problems. Khan is brilliant, and totally believable as a middle class business owner, struggling to keep up with everyday life. Usually prone to bursts of hammy over-acting, in Chalte Chalte he is restrained and controlled in every scene. Even in those moments when Raj is rampaging over his wife's well-intentioned betrayal, or on his knees humiliating himself in a crowded airport in front of Priya's snooty relatives, begging her not to leave him, Khan never goes over the top in his acting. Gone is the bratty charmer of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: this Raj is a mature, sensitive lover, and a bumbling husband, willing in the end to sacrifice even his male Indian pride for his love. Shah Rukh Khan has a definite gift for creating complex characters who don't fall easily into good-guy, bad-guy categories, and Chalte Chalte's Raj is one of those characters. The story has a definite (and intentional) been-there-done-that feel, but Khan is the reason to watch it all one more time.

There are those who say the movie has no ending, no resolution, and at first viewing I was one of them. But on second viewing I came away feeling that both Raj and Priya had in fact learned important lessons about each other and themselves. Priya, coming from the upper classes does not at first understand the inner demons Raj has to grapple with, knowing he is from a lower class, and that however successful he might become, to Priya's snobbish Anna Aunty he will never be more than a truck driver. Raj has to learn to put aside his ego if he wishes to remain with Priya, and respect her feelings and attachments, even though they are uncomfortable for him. In the end they both realize that life goes on, you do your best and forgive each other's flaws and mistakes, and love will get you through. Chalte Chalte.

The music of Chalte Chalte is a good mix. There are a couple of catchy tunes that will grab you immediately, a couple of ballads that might have to grow on you, and a couple of poignant numbers that I found to be hauntingly evocative during the sadder moments of the film. At times the background score does become a bit loud and intrusive, but on the whole I found it to be quite beautiful. The choreography was nice, if not overly exuberant (perhaps due to Khan's highly publicized back problems), the cinematography is gorgeous, and there are some dialogues and scenes that will stay with you long after the film has ended.

There are a couple of scenes that I would have trimmed, most notably the climax which starts out very movingly, but then lags a bit because of length, and the fact that the entire cast are in danger of drowning in glycerine. But Chalte Chalte is a thoughtful offering that will leave you pondering after the closing credits.

ShahRukh Khan has come a long way from the "Bazigar" mold, I mean the gory scenes with histrionics that him dying in his mothers lap. Here he is a Truck driver who stalks a rich Greek born Indian lassie played by the round faced and raspy voiced Rani Mukherjee who is fresh form the throngs of a similar themed movie "Saathiya"; when she replaced Ash Rai. So Rani is in her native domain so to speak and she is even getting good at these roles depicting a newly married with better expectations and duelling to get it. The fast dialog helps to forefront the couple that have time to fight over mundane things that hard working couple would not have time for. The truck driver character fits Sharukh like a Glove, he is more believable than a Lover caught between two women (Devdas). He has flair for few things like when he erupts unexpectedly like a volcano than the emotional pleadings. A good story could be told well without innately intrusive comics and foreign locations, which have become integral part of the Hindi Movies these days. Some of the best movies like "Mr&Mrs Iyer", "Guide", did not have foreign locations or innately intrusive comics. This paranoia that is prevailing among the Filmmakers that the audience is starved for a comedy interludes has to stop. Other than few flaws I enjoyed this movie and one of the few movies I sincerely feel that Sharukh Khan has given his true potential instead of his head shaking histrionics that makes his audience shriek but does nothing to the coffers in the box office nor the audience whose choice and aesthetics is changing and it is changing for the better.

I quite like this film. It seems superficially like Saathiya but is also quite different. Shahrukh plays a self made small time transport business owner and is a very down to earth character. He meets a rich high society girl, played by Rani, and falls for her. He "misplaces" her and then after much searching finds her only to be told she is marrying an old friend in Greece. So off to Greece we go and by the end of the trip she is convinced she loves this man - she never did profess to love her childhood friend. They marry and then the story takes us into an inside look at the marriage between two opposites. Sparks fly, fights are followed by reconciliations until there is an irreconcilable misunderstanding over money and a major rift occurs. She goes off to her family, and he is left to pine... There is an inevitable happy ending, but do things resolve themselves as expected? Not really, and this is where I find Chalte Chalte most endearing. It is quite usual to show "reformed" characters, ideal solutions, in Hindi cinema. Chalte Chalte tells us that in relationships one must accept one's partner for what he or she is and not expect that they will magically be altered or reformed to fit our idealized version.

I found SRK's portrayal of Raj the transport biz owner very authentic. His romancing Priya (Rani) was sweet and never very over the top - yes I even liked the hokey feel of Gumshuda, and Suno Na Suno Na was divine in sound and picturization. The same old romantic dude? Perhaps, but much more vulnerable and real this time around. I liked his drunk act, his trashing the apartment. The one OTT moment was at the airport. Rani was fabulous as Priya, stunning in looks and in her conflicts with Raj. This movie was when I first felt that she was a serious actress. Taube Tumahre yeh Ishare - that was one sweet love ballad. Lillette Dubey was a little OTT but I like her so that was no big deal.

The music was good, and Prem Nagariya reminded me so much of Aisa Des hai mera (Veer Zaara) - but it came before!! Overall - I gave Chalte Chalte an 8 because I liked the story, the music, the acting and most of all the reality that it is hard for human beings to change what is their true nature.

What can I say about Chalte Chalte?

The cast was excellent as were their portrayal of the individual characters, with Rani shining out the most. She has come a long way from her days in Ghulam, and with her last few performances, she is sure to take the place that Kajol held. She looks classic, acts flawlessly in both emotional and comedic scenes and seems natural. SRK, what is there to say about him hat has not already been said - he is on par with his other performances.

The story is entertaining and patchily scripted with a few flaws and surprises. I have to say that I expected a lot out of this movie, but inevitably it was a concatenation of a other bollywood movies with storylines being nicked from movies such as Saathiya, DDLJ and Hum Tumhare Hai Sanam. Never the less, the songs were good, direction was professional and it was good to see other locations apart from Switzerland.

I had to issues with this though: 1 - why did they not use Johnny Lever to his full potential?

2 - why is it necessary to have a happy ending? Priyas own words were: even though you love each other it is sometimes not possible for a couple to be together. This is a way of live. With their excellent portrayal of married couple squabbles, it was unjust to say that they would forget everything and go back to being a happy couple? IF they had separated as couples do, it would have being a truly realistic movie and a step for bollywood in acknowledging that all things are not lubby-dubby.

After a long time here is a film which entertains,delights and leaves one gasping at the brilliant acting. There are brief tedious patches when Shahrukh Khan and Rani are not on screen but those are few and far between. The story is very everyday -boy meets girl, falls instantly in love and wooes successfully this girl who is bit out of his world. But the Shahrukh charm is such that one wonders how she could have contemplated even for a week the thought of marrying some other chap even if she knew him from childhood. Delightful wooing scenes, lovely songs, very charming and sexy marriage episodes followed by quarrels. These are so believable that the audience is left gasping at the audacity of the rows. Luckily a happy ending and one is left feeling good and satisfied. I shall be very disappointed if SRK does not win every award for this year's best acting. Cant wait to see other Shahrukh films due this year.