We Made Jane Austen Watch ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ & She Said This...

“Her sari flew off! He must give her his name and marry her. What do you mean that’s now how it works anymore?”

(This story was first published on 28 July 2017. It has been reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark the birth anniversary of Jane Austen.)

We were wondering what Jane Austen would say if we made her watch Karan Johar’s mega hit Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Here’s how we think it would go:

1. How can it begin with a wedding? Is the beginning the ending? Is this Mr Johar an anti-Aristotelian?

2. Good god, three hours? Does it chronicle the fate of all families in the neighbourhood of Rahul, Tina, and Anjali?

(At this point, Ms Austen was told that the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has a runtime of nearly six hours. She was flabbergasted, but in a genteel, ladylike way.)

3. Letters! How wonderful! But they should not have killed the only letter-writer in this story. Are the rest illiterate?