After my 10th or 11th viewing of Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na, I just couldn't help but dedicate a few words to that supremely affable and cute character played by Imraan Khan in his debut role - Jai Singh Rathore. Apart from his bloody brilliant looks (seriously, despite being a proper guy, even I was quite smitten by Imraan's absolutely chocolatey-boy looks. After a long time, we have a genuinely good-looking chocolate-boy hero who can act, well, at least Imraan did a wonderful job in Jaane Tu. The last time we had something similar happening was this. But anyways, chocolate heroes aren't my focus. Jai Singh Rathore - that ever-so-polite "Ranjore-ka-Rathore" with such a sweet and delightful non-violent character whose instincts get provoked into action on an attack on his mom or his love/girlfriend. Amit (Aditi's brother in the movie) brilliantly described it when he said - "Jai Singh Rathore, har waqt itna sweet, itna polite? Tum apne aap se bore nahin hote ho?" Probably because the contrast is so stark, I was driven to think of myself, looking at Jai's character.
(It's an entirely different issue that struck me on different lines - why we always try to see ourselves as the protagonists. In this movie especially, barring Sushant Modi [Aditi's fiance] and to a much lesser extent, Mala [Jiggy's girlfriend, the airhostess to whom the story is narrated], all the characters were very very endearing. Personally, Jai and I are as different as thakkaali thokku and keera koottu, still, I, like most others I am sure, tried to relate myself to Jai, though each of the other characters is as good as him. Self importance does irritate me sometimes [:(].
Note: But this is not the reason why I was compelled to think of myself on looking at Jai.)
I Will not comment much on the "endearing" part - there definitely is a minority to which (I think) I am that (endearing), but to an overwhelming majority, I probably am somewhere between avoidable and nothing special (for various reasons). Nevertheless, one of the most earth-shattering differences was in how patient, calm and collected Jai was compared to the "ticking time bomb waiting to explode"+"rabid dog" that my best friend 1.1 described me to be. Well, he probably wasn't entirely right, but there are easily-mentionable instances when I have been exactly what he said. I was going to write a blog post a few months back titled - "Depression Waxing, Tolerance Waning" or something on those lines, primarily describing how increasingly irritated I am becoming here, in Chicago, being away from home and familiar faces/territory, despite it being a good 2+ years since I came here. Even if this homesickness and pointlessness is the reason for all my "intolerance" and easily ignitable temper, it's still a weak justification for being rude to and snapping at people. I mean there are people who deserve rudeness and scorn, but what's the point? Jokes apart, I find it more irritating to remain dumbly non-reactive and quiet as opposed to saying what you feel, assuming of course that it is "absolutely" right. My problem was/is that sometimes, I felt the wrong thing (misplaced anger?) and more so, conveying what you feel must also be done to the right people, well, at least, not-the-wrong-ones.
Still, Jai is supremely gifted. He wasn't dumb, he wasn't a jada-prabhu. Among my friends, there are some who come close to possessing many of the attributes like patience/politeness/calmness/non-anger that Jai possesses. Keshav, would be the foremost, but no - though he is affable and easily liked owing to (apart from his drop-dead-gorgeous-looks) his calm demeanour and oh-so-polite nature, he is exceptionally slothy. There can never be an energy about him or a spring in his step - he can either amble along or walk. If he is enthu about something, and tries to have a spring in his step, he ends up doing something which becomes a cross between bouncing and bobbing (awkwardly). But the main difference between him and Jai is that Keshav is more brotherly than boyfriendily. Jai was caring and concerned, still, he was also boyfriendily. No harm in being anna, but if you become "engal anna" for everyone, then how will you become "yennaa..." for someone? Talking about which, another person who is closer to Jai than Keshav is Anand - my classmate from DAV and one of my really really good friends. Though I never realized it in school, he seems to have been this typical Jai'ish character, though there were no suitable Aditi's around (Loo isn't Kaali Billi :D), nor was there a very wonderful circle of boy-girl friends. My mom probably was one of the first to enlighten me in this regard (that too, thanks to akka, courtesy loo, I guess), and after that, I have really realized that side of him. Quite definitely good looking (maybe not in the league of Jai, still belonging to the top league of good-looking guys) Very non-committal without being aloof, caring & concerned without being loud & imposing (aka me), gentle, calm, etcetera.
Typical Example: Another of those intense conversations between (main group) me, Karthik, Keshav, Tejaswi, (sub-group) Suresh and Anand about kalaachaara azhivu, hypocrisy, pseudo-religionists, pseudo-Brahmins, blah blah -
On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 3:18 PM, cowmaaawrote: This hawkeye guy (***'s cousin) is seriously getting onto my nerves. Tejaswi, see the comments and tell me how else hypocrisy would be defined?
On Thu 9/11/2008 4:42 PM, Anand Balakrishnanwrote: yevan yepdi irindha yenna da...
Though I was rotfl when Tejaswi said - "Ivan enna da Dr.Rajashekar padam range'lareact panraan - Evana irundha enakkena, andha maadhiri irukku!", Anand's penchant for avoiding unnecessary perturbation/controversy was evident, in his own cute way (I am told girls luvv this :P). Recently, our man has had a totally unexpected fan on his blog asking him when he is going to post next, based on 1-2 blog posts [:D]. Adhaan Anand.
There's another DAV-best-buddy - Suresh, who is more or less similarly likable (especially to gals) without being this eternally calm smile-on-the-face guy, he does be animated many times, still is more than quite compatible and his-company-is-enjoyable-to-a-lot-of-people character. Coming to think of it, Suresh is as fair as Jai, and definitely comparably good-looking.
Which brings me back to the villain of this whole post - yours truly (No, I am seriously not seeking public sympathy {though I could do with some ;)}, just trying to critique myself objectively and honestly). Sometimes, I feel foolish because I have an opinion on a lot of things in life. Most often, I take things seriously, and just cannot bear to see them happen. That doesn't mean to say that I am a very good samaritan or a wonderful human being (I might be one, I don't know :P). But it sort of becomes a problem when the perturbation shows in me - it could either be my anger, sorrow, depression or simply feeling bad/upset about stuff, but I show it, and take things to heart - even stuff totally not personal to me, some Brahmin boy somewhere in the world might be eating cow dung's perpetrator or some Muslim guy might be marrying a Christian girl. Which is not Jai. Jai is a good guy, he does lots of things for his friends, like going to the hospital at 5 in the morning because his friend's cat died (No, unlike others, I think he would've done this for Rothlu, Shaleen, Bombs or Jiggy too, only with Aditi - it's personal, that's the difference). But he is cool and patient. I just am not. :(
Just yesterday, I had to sound off myself to this poor creature because she childishly did something brilliantly dumb like pasting a needless-yet-potentially-controversial YM chat in my scrapbook. Period.
Yes, that might be my "individuality" or whatever you call it. But, sometimes, it's better being something not-unpreferable (calm/cool/composed/patient/tolerant) to what you are sometimes better off not being (even if it gives you your identity and people like you for this not-so-preferable trait), if it is not going to have any substantially positive effect.
Bah, I just adore Jai Singh Rathore.
Open Question to anyone who watched Jaane Tu..: In that awesome scene when Jai walks into his house whistling and with a spring in his step which his "The-Beauty-Myth-by-Naomi-Wolf"-reading mom classically captures ("Jai Singh Rathore, honton pe seethi, chaal mein ujhal, maajra kya hai?"), to which Jai says he has a girl-friend, his mom then lists her correct observations about the romantic tangle in his group (Jai:Aditi + Rothlu->Aditi + Boms->Jai => Boms:Rothlu), Jai (with a cute wave of his hand :D) says in an exasperated tone, "Mom...good night". Does that mean Jai thinks what his mom says is wrong/absurd, or does he know what she says has a semblance of truth, but doesn't want to consider it?
