Director Shakun Batra talks to Subhash K Jha as they take a look back at the quirky romantic comedy 2012’s Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, which starred the unique and brilliant jodi of Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor.
In 2012, within two weeks, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions gave us two diametrically opposite genres of cinema from two debutant directors. If Karan Malhotra’s Agneepath took us back to the grand formalistic revenge drama of the 1970s. Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu takes us into the future of Bollywood, where actors don’t have to sing. They don’t have to act. They just have to be as normal as people in love tend to be.
Shakun Batra’s interesting, though flawed, is comprised of a series of elegantly written, confident, but never in-your-face scenes about what happens when two opposites meet in a city as all-embracing as Las Vegas. Of course, sparks fly.
Well-‘neon’ facts, these. But neither Kareena Kapoor nor Imran Khan is in a hurry to set off a combustive fire. There is a whole lot of tranquility in the way the relationship between the firebrand and the nerd is built. The rough edges are largely sacrificed on the editing table. The progression of the relationship is seamless and smooth.
Neither Kareena nor Imran is in a hurry to hijack a single moment from one another. This is one of the most immaculately cast romantic comedies in recent times. Sure, Kareena has an edge. Her character is less passive than Imran’s, and she has some of the film’s best lines. The actress, back in form after two marginalized mammoth odes to machismo (Bodyguard, Ra.One), turns in a perfectly modulated performance. Her character is not so much a portrait of warmth and radiance as it is an illustration of perfect asymmetry. Here’s a woman who enjoys the chaos that she creates in her universe. She lives by her own rules. And before the film is done she teaches Imran Khan’s character how to tell your parents to buzz off before it’s too late. Rules be stuffed down the toilet.
Imran is good at playing the attentive, obedient, faithful boyfriend. He did the invisible-halo act effectively in Jaane Tu….Ya Jaane Na, Break Ke Baad and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. He does it even better here, probably because of the company he keeps in this film. There are episodes in this boy-meets-girl, girl-tweaks-boy’s-life saga that leaves you smiling for a very long time. Indeed, EMAET is a high-concept ever-grin mellow-drama. You just can’t stop grinning at the sparkling warmth and the cute quips shared by the lead pair.
Curiously, debutant director Shakun Batra opts for an open ending. Finally, we only know that someday Rahul might win the feisty Rihana over. But here’s the glimmer of hope. Even if he doesn’t win her over, he gets to keep her company for as long as they share a common ground.
Here is a film that doesn’t score high on ground-breaking ideas on romantic relationships. Instead, it weaves itself into commonplace ideas on love, romance, and commitment and comes up with vignettes of terrific sincerity. A lot of the film’s gently persuasive energy comes from the discernible respect that the lead pair has for each other’s space as actors. No one-upmanship here, thank you. Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah, too, are delightful as Imran’s la-di-dah parents. They reminded me of Pran and Sonia Sahni in Raj Kapoor’s Bobby. In comparison, Kareena’s Catholic family comes across as too casual to be real. This is a perceptibly urbane love story, told within a style shorn of gimmicks. There is no attempt to capture our attention. The narrative gets us watching without getting sweaty with anxiety.
A very chilled-out romcom indeed.
In an exclusive chat, Shakun Batra recalls, “I’m thinking less about the film but the people who gave me a chance to make my first film. I think it’s the single most important pivotal point for me to start this journey, and I can only think of how grateful I am to Karan Johar, Ayesha (my co-writer), Imran, Avantika, Kareena — who showed trust in me and made the film happen. I, at best, was a naive kid with ideas and a script, and all these people took a punt at me and gave me a career that I’m so, so thankful for. As for casting Kareena and Imran, it always felt right to me even then. It was the first two people we wanted as it was always meant to be an odd pairing for that ending to work, and I’m so thankful that they both agreed.”
