Raja Hindustani

Raja Hindustani -- King of India (also the main character's name)

MAIN CAST:
Aamir Khan -- Raja
Karisma Kapoor -- Aarti

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:
An updated version of Phool Khile, Raja Hindustani tells the tale of the titular character, a cab driver, who falls in love with the wealthy Aarti. As can be expected, their love is littered with a variety of problems, and the couple must persevere through everything from a wicked stepmother to major class differences.

FILM -- 2.5/5
Instead of trying to draw you in with a catchy opening sequence, Raja Hindustani opens with 4 minutes of credits, displayed in plain red text over dreary grey backgrounds. Fastfoward to the opening scene, and the real film finally begins...unfortunately, as Aarti and her father sing to each other in extremely off-key voices. Couldn't they have used playback singers for that?! Another downside that is immediately apparent: like many 90s flicks, Raja Hindustani was obviously filmed on a low budget, and the sound and video quality are smudgy and uneven. The costumes are unusually nice, though, with very few eyesores and a lot of character-suited pieces. The script is somewhere in-between in that it really is standard masala fair. The fight scenes are absolutely RIDICULOUS. (If Deewaar had such good fight scenes in the 70s, why couldn't 90s Bollywood films manage to have decent fight scenes?!) There's also a slightly aggrivating scene where a bunch of men sleeze on Aarti while she wears a sexy dress, and the implication is that wearing said dress means she deserves that sort of attention. Again, this is an aspect of Indian culture that you don't have to agree with (and I don't), but it's still something you should try to understand. And I promise: Raja's quick R.E.S.P.E.C.T speech after the aforementioned fight makes up for it a bit, and also shows us that the fight was initiated more out of his character's tempermental personality than out of "cultural decency."

CHARACTERS -- 2.5/5
Karisma, like so many masala heroines before her, plays the wholesome girl who wants to please her family and follow her dreams at the same time. She'll never win any awards for best actress in my book, she constantly makes little "hmm" noises that make her sound like she's experiencing post-coital bliss, and her laugh borders on the edge of "harpy's shriek," but I'm really starting to love her charisma and her fluid dancing. And her legs. Can somebody point me to a movie where Aamir Khan has sucked? Because so far, I've seen the man make gold out of some of the most "could-be-awful" characters EVER! Even though the characters in this movie are typical masala fodder that rarely manage to interest you, I really believed it when Raja fell madly in lust with Aarti the second he saw her. (I say lust because he only focuses on her facial features at first. The love part comes later, I assure you!) It's a testament to Aamir's ability to craft interesting and well-developed characters just with his body language. The Aamir/Karisma chemistry isn't my absolute favorite, but it isn't the worst I've seen, either; they look comfortable with each other and themselves**. Johnny Lever appears as a rather stereotypical (but still moderately funny) Sikh taxi driver, and the pair who play Aarti's bodyguards help add to the slapstick nature of the film. Farida Jalal makes an appearance, so brownie points to the casting director!

SOUNDTRACK -- 5/5
Raja Hindustani is best remembered for its soundtrack, and there's a reason for that: Udit Narayan. I usually whine when he sings for anybody other than Shahrukh Khan, since the two are linked in my mind, but I've been known to make an exception for Aamir Khan. "Aaye Ho Meri Zindagi Mein" opens up the soundtrack with an unique beat to it, but while Udit's voice is as clear and melodious as ever, he takes a lot of gasping breaths throughout the track, which I found slightly disconcerting. "Kitna Pyara" makes up for it with its powerful, clean vocals and cute lyrics. "Pardesi Pardesi" sticks out with its twangy sitar melody and pseudo-drunk singing (I mean that in the nicest way possible), and one of the two item girls reminds me of Madhubala***. It also has several equally beautiful refrains. "Puchho Jaara Puchho" is sexy, even with its synthesized 80s-ish background beat, and it's one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack. The picturization on "Kyaa Raat Aayee Hai" is sometimes stupid, sometimes silly, but the song itself makes the best of its salsa beat. There's a tiny bit of track-blending, but if you listen to the soundtrack more than once, you'll easily be able to pick the songs out.

OVERALL -- 2.5/5
Raja Hindustani is very masala: it has slapstick comedy, melodrama, archetypical heroes who sing like nightengales and heroines who wake up with all of their make-up on, Johnny Lever, a first half that is much better than the second half, and a good soundtrack that the movie as a whole tends to lean on like a crutch. Yet there's some charm secreted away in this film's depths, a unique flavor that kept me watching even when certain aspects of the script really agitated me. Like Duplicate, its a movie you have to relax in to and just enjoy for what it is, and like Aashiqui, it's a soundtrack-driven romance that blissfully meanders with no real meaning for long periods of time. Take that for what you will, but I did enjoy 3/4 of Raja Hindustani, and I know I'll watch it once in a while in the future.

TOTAL SCORE -- 12.5/20 (okay)




** This movie also features the infamous Aamir/Karisma kiss-on-the-mouth. There's no tongue, but it's a deep kiss that goes on for more than 10 seconds. Ooo, scandalous!

*** If memory serves me, the tattooed woman's name is Kalpana, and she was in a lot of movies in the 90s as a dancer. Sort of the "Helen Queen of the Naach Girls" of the 90s! I recently edited this note to add that the item girl who reminds me of Madhubala is apparently named Pratibha Sinha--thanks, Ajnabi!