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Raanjhanaa

Normally I am not a big fan of Hindi movies. Often I find the entire story of a 3 hour Hindi Bollywood flick can be summarized in 3 minutes, but Raanjhanaa was a pleasant surprise. It is a very emotional, sad story of love across religion. Yet it surprisingly handles it in a very mature fashion, which is realistic and yet does not offend Hindus, Muslims (or both).
Life is complex and the humans in it even more. It is a love story about a hindu boy who is madly in love and a muslim girl who likes that boy (but as a friend). Unlike the typical No item songs, inappropriate scenes/dresses (but lot of curse words), or unnecessary gore.
Since the movie was released 18 months ago. I will talk about it with spoilers.
The worst part of the movie is the opening song in which Sonam Kapoor and Dhanush, both in their 30s or late 20s dress up as teens and think the world cannot tell the difference, but the movie recovers after that. It starts with a street urchin, Kundan (Dhanush), a son of a Varanasi Pandit (hindu priest) who is madly in love with Zoya, Sonam Kapoor, a daughter of a muslim professor. Sonam likes the attention but rejects his advances as she does not have feelings for him.
It has one of the best performances of Dhanush and a masterpiece script. The story shows him maturing subtly but dramatically from a carefree kid to a man filled with remorse and guilt. The way the movie portrays the complex human emotions is also remarkable.

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