I am pushed to
write this post, after having read the one at Shobhaa De’s and another from
fellow blogger Sowmya. Here is one more to add to the one hundred and one
articles you've already read about YJHD – Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. It doesn’t matter
if you are a lover or a hater of it, but you cant just say that it wasn't entertaining.
When Deepika
started the journey through this movie as a nerd, she’d been wearing short
skirts and frocks, especially in a train where she had to climb an upper berth.
The bespectacled one, who cannot think outside her
textbook, ventures out on a trip with total strangers for trekking at Manali.
This was a scene where the inappropriate dressing of her character caught the
attention and criticism of the most amateur of movie goers. From then on, I
completely ignored her and focused on Aditi, the brilliant and yet understated
character portrayed by Kalki Koechlin. I cannot think of anyone else who could
get into the skin of that character the way she did, and her side of the story
kept the viewer guessing, because the future of the protagonists
Ranbir and Deepika was indeed the inevitable cliche. I
appreciate the writer of this movie who knowingly or not scripted that scene in
which Avi, played by Aditya Roy Kapoor cuddles with a random girl and Aditi
gets fiercely possessive. The part where she hides her feelings and chooses not
to talk about her love brought depth and reality to her character.
This character is a slice of real life. Because that is how it is for a
majority of girls.
Aditi is also
realistic. Her love, Avi, doesn't even consider the fact that she is a
girl. Neither did he look into her eyes even once. She was the quintessential
girl pal, the one who is wooden at heart, at least for him. So there was no
point in craving and waiting around, and she settles in life with the
potbellied rich guy, for the reason that he loved her. Not for his BMW or the
Antilla type home he probably lived in. And for this choice she made, we should
applaud her, because tomboys are realistic. They live in the present and not in
lacy dreams.
Why I am
vouching for this character is because once upon a time I was Aditi too. I had
those pretty girls for friends, and the boys asked me for their phone numbers.
I was a wooden bridge that connected them to a book of
phone numbers of pretty girls. However I was realistic too. We girls are born
attention seekers, so am I, and I got the attention, albeit in a different
light. That was when the tomboy in me was born. I am guessing that’s how
tomboys are born everywhere.
There are no
tomboys by choice. Tomboys are born when some level headed girls, who don’t think
that wearing nail polish and getting manicures is the sole objective of life. They
are the ones who dare to think beyond the men’s hostel. They are the ones who
are logical. That doesn't make us less feminine. That doesn't make us feminists
either.
At some level
Kalki was the Anjali from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Except that, Anjali ran away when
her feelings were not reciprocated, whereas Aditi was rock strong and dared to
choose her own life without any regrets.