Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, the 20-years old movie that we all grew up watching is anything but perfect. Even Dia Mirza agreed that the movie was sexist. And so I sat down to watch the film and pick it apart, elaborating on all the red flags that Reena (Dia Mirza) should have seen right from the start, when it came to Maddy (Madhavan).
1. His introduction scene is him sitting with his friends – man-spreading, ditching classes and talking about how their teacher regularly visits a bar.
2. He stalks her, turns up at her house and confesses to her – not to mention tells her exactly how much money he spent on the flowers. Classy.
3. He also pretends to be someone else – her soon to be husband. That’s an honest, loyal guy right there.
4. He is hella rude to the auto-wala uncle, so we all know how he feels about working class people.
5. He is surrounded by toxic friends, who perpetuate his behaviour and tell him it’s okay to lie for ‘love’ and she has to understand why he did it!
6. He fights when he’s caught and justifies his behaviour – but do we hear him apologising? Not until the very end, right before he picks a physical fight.
7. The audacity to yell at Reena when he is chasing her around the hotel to ‘apologise’ is what has me shook. “Itni kaunsi badi galti kar di maine, 5 days tum merey saath thi, agar main chahta na toh unn paanch din main main tumaharey saath kuch bhi kar sakta tha.” Girl, you better run because this man is toxic AF.
8. When his friends find out he is heartbroken, they say, “marr dete hain usko.” This guy and the company he keeps, she really should have stayed away.
9. Okay I give up, because clearly every man in this film is a douche. Why is Saif’s character ‘giving away’ Reena to Maddy? She’s nobody’s property, neither of the boys deserve her.
Is this why every millennial’s idea of love is so warped? Because we grew up thinking this is what romance looked like?