"With certain people, things just seem better by spending time with them."
Hello everyone!
Tonight, we're taking a look at something ... a heck of a lot different from what I usually watch.
I mean, just look at the title!
But I've been meaning to slowly ease myself into the Bollywood scene for a long time now, and as I was chatting to one of my best friends, she suggested this should be my starting point.
I'd had other movies starring Deepika Padukone already lined up, but this one preceded the lot, so I thought to myself: well, why not?
I like starting from the earliest starting point, after all!
Turns out it was the best decision I've ever made, and I can see why this movie holds a practically cult status. I mean, how can it not?!
Enough chattering. Let's have a look at what in plain English would be called This Youth is Devoted, but originally stands as Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Considering this is the first Hindi language movie I've EVER seen, there's literally nothing for me to link down at the bottom of the page, but I'm hoping this can change at some point. Until then, we carry on!
YJHD is split into two parts (with an intermission that I totally wasn't expecting and goggled at as if it were the most alien thing I'd ever seen in my life): the first covers how our group of misfits meets during their school days, and the second their time as adults, trying to figure out this whole, making it in the world thing.
Naina (Padukone) is a med student who's always been top of her class, but for that to work she's had to sacrifice pretty much any semblance of a social life. Then she and her mother run into Aditi (Koechlin), an old school mate of hers, who leaves behind information about a trek she's going on.
Impulsively, Naina also signs up for the trek and shows up at the train station, where she meets Aditi's two best friends, Avi (Kapoor) and Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor).
Now, Bunny is the type of guy you either love or hate: loud, obnoxious, but the life of the party who tends to make everything a lot livelier, even though he has no filter on his mouth and thinks his flirting is the best thing since Buddha. Still, he's a good and loyal friend, and while he teases Naina quite a bit, he also helps her when she actually needs help.
It becomes clear that this whole social thing isn't something Naina's comfortable with, though she has a competitive streak a mile wild and wants to be the best at everything, causing her and Bunny to occasionally clash during the trek because HE wants to be the best (or pretend he is) to impress the other girls there.
He's also the one who finds Naina studying while everyone else is partying with another group of trekkers, and deduces that she'd love to join them all but doesn't know how.
So in true Bunny fashion, he just drags her over and slowly introduces her to a world she's never really interacted with before and didn't actually have the knowledge to do so, and through this the pair grow closer.
This is augmented further when they reach the end of their trek and their guide warns them of people disappearing if they went looking for a shrine on top of a mountain rising above them, which naturally Bunny needs to go see - he has an insatiable thirst for seeing new things and plans on travelling the world, never settling down.
And who joins him on this midnight trek? Naina, of course, because she's discovered that she really loves doing this kind of stuff.
They do in fact reach the top together (not finding the shrine, but who cares) and upon return to the town they initially started from (and where the idiot guys got themselves into a fight with what turned out to be the local mob or something, or at least the local guys took offense, so our four heroes needed a quick getaway, provided by Naina in the end) Naina puts in contact lenses, let's loose, and they all enjoy a celebratory festival followed by a concert.
By this point, Naina's in love with Bunny, but when Avi reveals he's found the acceptance letter to Northwestern University which Bunny will be leaving for soon, she decides against telling him, though the two have spent practically all their time together and shared things that only really good friends or lovers do.
Eight years later, Bunny has globe-hopped so much no one can keep up with him when he's told of a new show Fox will be airing of which they want him to be the host, and gets Aditi's wedding invitation.
This prompts him to return home for the first time in years, surprising everyone during the rehearsal dinner (I think it's the rehearsal, at least!) and reconnecting with his friends, though it immediately becomes obvious things aren't as easy as they used to be.
Avi seems to have a drinking and gambling problem (and the boys get into a fist-and-pillow fight later, actually), Aditi is too busy with the wedding to really party, and Naina?
Well, adult Naina has found her voice and can now go toe-to-toe with Bunny without him walking all over her with his brash personality like he used to do, which is actually really funny to watch through the duration of the destination wedding.
The friends have ups and downs and clashes and sorting-outs, of course, particularly Avi and Bunny who've probably drifted the furthest apart; Aditi never expects anything of Bunny so she isn't as disappointed when he doesn't show or doesn't pick up the phone.
He does, however, spend most of his time with Naina again during preparations, as well as drags her out to sight-see, unable to sit still for even two days, though she urges him to slow down and enjoy what he's seeing rather than hurry from one thing to the next. After all, life will pass you by at some point and you can't be EVERYWHERE, but you CAN find enjoyment even in the simplest of things.
Bunny also gets to meet Taran, Aditi's intended, who's a little weird, but rich and kind, and he has a heart-to-heart with her when he sees her supposedly arguing with him over Avi; he thinks it's because she still loves the other man, but Aditi explains it's because she wanted to confront him about losing so much money, which Taran prevented her to do AND paid off Avi's debt to boot.
Reconnecting with his best friend, Bunny apologies and promises monetary help if he ever needs it again, though Avi seems to be too proud to accept it.
Most importantly, however, through all the shenanigans and wedding prep (and Naina getting romantic messages from someone else, who turns out to be the photographer which makes Bunny insanely jealous), Naina and Bunny grow closer again.
She's found her center and is incredibly well-rounded, happy with her life and her choices, and doesn't feel the need to run away like Bunny constantly does. She's also the only one he can open up to, and he admits that he was out of range when his father died and missed his funeral rites, among other things.
Finally, she puts a stop to their bonding, tearfully explaining to him that she can't fall in love with him again because he won't - again.
Well, joke's on her, because Bunny DOES love her, but the problem is they live and want such wildly different lives that they'll never work together, and both of them realize it so they walk away from one another after seeing Aditi married - and listen, if you're not sobbing like a maniac over this, you've got to be dead inside.
BUT, this is where the turning point is. Bunny comes to the realization that seeing the world doesn't bring him as much joy anymore as spending time with Naina, so he finally returns home and repairs his relationship with his stepmother (again, bawl central station alert).
And on New Year's Eve, he pops on over to Naina's, proposes, and the two of them call Aditi and Avi to reveal the news.
And they live happily ever after, to the end of their days.
GAH! This movie! I'm your basic white girl, so my only experience is white people rom-coms; which are usually based off miscommunication, stupid misunderstandings, and drama for the sake of drama rather than the plot.
Here, though? Here, the drama that was added was subtle, it had to be there to further the plot, the misunderstanding was actually pretty realistic, and there was no miscommunication, a point of pleasure for me because I hate it with a passion. Not only that, but I thought it was remarkably clever how the visuals were put together, where in the first half of the movie Aditi, Avi and Bunny are often framed in one go, and then in the second half it's a lot of Aditi, Avi and Naina, signifying who's the island in the stream at each point in their lives.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story, from the trek in the first part to the wedding in the second one, maybe particularly the wedding because Indian weddings are GORGEOUS, ohmygosh.
The characters were incredibly lovable, and Naina might be one of my favourites ever, because unlike modern day heroines I'm used to, she doesn't snivel in a corner, feel sorry for herself, or assume things that don't make sense: she approaches things realistically, stands her own ground, and is eventually rewarded for that quiet perseverance.
Also, the music! Oh man, the music was wonderful, and there's a fair amount of musical numbers sprinkled throughout, combining singing and dancing both and looking absolutely magical, seamlessly blending traditional and modern.
So yeah, you can say I loved this movie. I can definitely see myself watching it again and again. If you have a spare evening with nothing to do, I'd say you could do a whole lot worse than this.
100/10 recommend!
xx
*images and video not mine
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