In films or in Hindi cinema at least the odds are stacked against the bad guy. More often than not it is the good bloke who gets the girl, the best scenes and the songs. The recent spate of films like Race and Tashan that have negative characters take the lead may have a following but it is still the good man, the wronged hero or the underdog that tugs at our heartstrings. Speaking of which, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, from what one has seen, may turn out to be this year’s favourite romance.

After all, it is the extraordinary story of an ordinary man named Surinder Sahni who holds a mundane job and eventually how he impresses his young wife. In times when the films reek of a sensibility that is distinctly urban, Rab Ne…, if the film is everything that it promises to be could be a winner with the aam aadmi who has for some time been feeling rather left out. This point was best articulated at Screen’s Big Picture anniversary edition by Javed Akhtar. The man who along with Salim Khan gave Hindi cinema its famous angry young man pointed out that films no longer have heroes who worked for a living. I would rephrase that a bit - films no longer have heroes who work for a living. For the most part everybody gets away looking dishy in stylised attire that bears little relevance to the role they play. There are exceptions - but few and far between. The cinema of plenty and affluence is selective and exclusive. Sure there is a huge audience with social aspirations that buys into it but there is another India that does not. An India where the Bollywood potboiler of yore would work. Somewhere down the line India has fallen off the map for a majority of filmmakers it comprises of the have-nots or at least those who have a lot less. The that India that lives in villages and mofussil towns and still gets shocked at miniscule western attires. It is an audience that still squirms in its seat when they witness a liplock. The family drama auds who loved Baghban or Hum Apke Hain Koun!...