On the one hand, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) has the
same plot as a thousand other Bollywood films. Boy meets girl. Boy
gets girl. Girl gets boy a job as an engineer, and he becomes
successful and sort of a jerk. On the other hand, Raju
includes a scene in which Shahrukh Khan is attacked by a gang of
knife-wielding lawyers, presumably from the firm of Dewey, Cuttem, and
Howe. The details make all the difference.
The boy in question is Raju (Shahrukh Khan), an ambitious young man who leaves his native village for Bombay in order to pursue a career in engineering. The man he’s supposed to be staying with has left without a forwarding address, but Raju is taken in by Jai (Nana Patekar), a street performer with the obligatory heart of gold. (Jai is, in essence, a freelance motivational speaker. He stands on a street corner and lectures about how to survive in Bombay, lectures which always seem to relate to the events in Raju’s life.) Raju is enthusiastically embraced by the entire neighborhood, and is literally embraced by the lovely Renu (Juhi Chawla).
Raju didn’t come to Bombay just to sing and dance with a girl, though. He wants a job, but he has no experience, so no one will hire him. Renu comes to the rescue, first helping him find a job at a library, and then landing him an interview at the construction company where she works as a receptionist. Thanks to her advice and his own engineering skills, he gets the job. Thanks to his innate honesty and understanding of what the common people actually want he is quickly promoted, and in the process catches the eye of his boss’s daughter, Sapna (Amrita Singh.)
That’s when the trouble starts. As he becomes more successful at work, Raju spends more and more time with Sapna and less and less with Renu. Renu tries to warn him about Sapna’s dowdy charms (I don’t know how Amrita Singh managed to piss off the costume department, but they can really hold a grudge), but Raju is too blinded by ambition to listen.
Raju climbs up the corporate ladder very quickly, and makes enemies along the way. The villainous Malhotra (Ajit Vachani) is particularly put out, both because Raju is overshadowing him, and because he wanted his son Deepak (Sameer Chitre) to marry Sapna. At first, Malhotra conspires with Sapna’s father (Navin Nischol) to ask Raju to compromise his ethics, hoping that he’ll quit, but Raju spoils their plan by, after much consideration, compromising his ethics. Malhotra is forced to take more drastic measures.
Apart from the knife-wielding lawyers, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman is standard Bollywood fare. It’s notable for two things; one is that it’s a perfect example of the populist subtext that often crops up in Bollywood. Poor people are good. Rich people are bad. The closer Raju gets to becoming rich, the worse he becomes.
The other notable feature of the film is Nana Patekar’s role as Jai. He serves as an effective Greek chorus for the movie, both through his ongoing street lectures and through the character’s awareness of Bollywood convention. And being Nana Patekar, the performance is naturally very good.
The boy in question is Raju (Shahrukh Khan), an ambitious young man who leaves his native village for Bombay in order to pursue a career in engineering. The man he’s supposed to be staying with has left without a forwarding address, but Raju is taken in by Jai (Nana Patekar), a street performer with the obligatory heart of gold. (Jai is, in essence, a freelance motivational speaker. He stands on a street corner and lectures about how to survive in Bombay, lectures which always seem to relate to the events in Raju’s life.) Raju is enthusiastically embraced by the entire neighborhood, and is literally embraced by the lovely Renu (Juhi Chawla).
Raju didn’t come to Bombay just to sing and dance with a girl, though. He wants a job, but he has no experience, so no one will hire him. Renu comes to the rescue, first helping him find a job at a library, and then landing him an interview at the construction company where she works as a receptionist. Thanks to her advice and his own engineering skills, he gets the job. Thanks to his innate honesty and understanding of what the common people actually want he is quickly promoted, and in the process catches the eye of his boss’s daughter, Sapna (Amrita Singh.)
That’s when the trouble starts. As he becomes more successful at work, Raju spends more and more time with Sapna and less and less with Renu. Renu tries to warn him about Sapna’s dowdy charms (I don’t know how Amrita Singh managed to piss off the costume department, but they can really hold a grudge), but Raju is too blinded by ambition to listen.
Raju climbs up the corporate ladder very quickly, and makes enemies along the way. The villainous Malhotra (Ajit Vachani) is particularly put out, both because Raju is overshadowing him, and because he wanted his son Deepak (Sameer Chitre) to marry Sapna. At first, Malhotra conspires with Sapna’s father (Navin Nischol) to ask Raju to compromise his ethics, hoping that he’ll quit, but Raju spoils their plan by, after much consideration, compromising his ethics. Malhotra is forced to take more drastic measures.
Apart from the knife-wielding lawyers, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman is standard Bollywood fare. It’s notable for two things; one is that it’s a perfect example of the populist subtext that often crops up in Bollywood. Poor people are good. Rich people are bad. The closer Raju gets to becoming rich, the worse he becomes.
The other notable feature of the film is Nana Patekar’s role as Jai. He serves as an effective Greek chorus for the movie, both through his ongoing street lectures and through the character’s awareness of Bollywood convention. And being Nana Patekar, the performance is naturally very good.
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