Karan Johar’s directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai turned 25 on Monday (16 October) and over the years, the film has both attained a cult status and been criticised for some of the scenes having not aged well. From giving the world the iconic Rahul-Anjali pair to multiple dialogues becoming iconic memes, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has cemented its place in the Bollywood romance library.
For context, Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) falls in love with Tina (Rani Mukerji) which also leads to him losing touch with his best friend Anjali (Kajol) who has been in love with him all along.
As Johar himself admitted, “The first film that I made, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I firmly believe that the gender politics of that film was all wrong. It is propagating incorrect gender politics, there is a lot of surfacesness in that film. Of course, there is nostalgia so you love it, but you don’t scratch the surface of the film and see that what Rahul is doing is actually not what I would want all the Rahuls in the audience, or all the boys in general, to do.”
And since a rewatch to celebrate 25 years of the film was inevitable, here are some KKHH scenes that definitely haven’t aged well.
What was wrong with just letting Anjali dress the way she wants?
From constantly saying she was "like a man" because she wore comparatively masculine clothes to Rahul falling for her after she started wearing sarees (and of course, lost at basketball for some reason), what really was the problem with letting Anjali dress however she liked?
Forget Rahul, everyone in this college was into moral policing the women around them. Aapse ye expect nahi kiya tha Rifat bi.
Nothing about Mr. Malhotra's character has aged well, let's be honest. But the scene where he's chastising girls (and a colleague) for wearing 'short skits to excite boys' is in a league of its own. At least we can admit that Ms. Braganza had the makings of an icon.
Is she "not like other girls"?
The "not like other girls" is a trope that is as old as time. We often see people say phrases like this and "Oh, she's like one of the guys" as a backhanded compliment — to suggest that someone is 'better than' other girls because they're less feminine.
Anjali internalises the phenomenon to an extent where she starts to believe that changing herself to be more like Tina (the more feminine woman in the love triangle) will get her Rahul's attention.
So far, *checks notes* Anjali isn't attractive because she isn't feminine and other girls are 'stupid' because they are feminine.
I mean, what else can we expect from a guy who views the idea of a 'beautiful and intelligent' woman as an alien concept?
Let the Anjalis live!
After Tina's passing (this is not a spoiler, it's been 25 years), Rahul becomes uber-dependent on his daughter. Not that it's wrong for a parent to be close to their child, they absolutely should be.
But at some point, we need to set up some boundaries. Why is this eight year old doing this much emotional labour for this adult man? This is before she must go on a mission to set her father up with his estranged best friend.
Multiple red flags around; the Anjalis need to form a coalition
I always find myself coming back to the scene where Rahul's mother complains she doesn't have a daughter-in-law to complain about while all her friends are having their crib sesh.
But again, let's be honest, maybe Rahul was a slightly better option than whatever is going on here...
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