Aziz Mizra’s romantic drama Chalte Chalte was released 20 years ago today, on 13 June 2003. It was a risky movie because it came out in the two decades when Shah Rukh Khan cemented his persona as the King of Romance as Raj and Rahul. In Chalte Chalte, he played a jealous, insecure, toxic husband. He didn’t portray the hero that Indian women love him for – the one who holds out the promise of an impossible, unquestioning love as featured in the book Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh by Shrayana Bhattacharya (2021).
But Chalte Chalte was the fourth highest-grossing Hindi film that year. The movie wasn’t just a box office hit but was loved by critics and audiences alike.
The plot follows a couple, Raj played by Shah Rukh Khan and Priya played by Rani Mukerji, who cannot be less alike in their personalities. It shows us the story of the two falling in love, getting married, and negotiating their troublesome marriage.
So, has the film aged well two decades later? The answer is: absolutely not! On a rewatch, Chalte Chalte’s Raj seems to be an obvious precursor to the male children, who stalk and abuse their partners, as seen in movies like Kabir Singh and the atrocities Luv Ranjan calls films. Except, unlike in the recent works, Raj’s emotional immaturity and his ego is framed as a genuine problem harming Priya. The movie is self-aware that its male lead acts like an insolent, spoiled brat. However, it is far too keen to forgive him for all his faults, which include stalking Priya, weaponising incompetence, drunken drama of rage and verbal abuse, and countless moments of emotional manipulation.
“On the whole, Chalte Chalte has several aces in its kitty: the light and emotional moments, the performances, the deft execution of the subject that makes you fall in love with love,” said film critic Taran Adarsh when the movie was released. When asked about the mature nature of the character later, Shah Rukh Khan replied “It’s because Chalte Chalte is an adult love story.” Twenty years later we have to question this very premise. How can a story about an obsessive, incompetent husband be called a love story?
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Stalker turns ‘husband’
From the very beginning, Raj cannot seem to make up his mind about anything. But his heart is set on Priya. While one might forgive him for asking around about her after losing her number, doing that with five people including a police constable for 20 days should raise some eyebrows. The nail in the coffin is when he follows Priya around Greece after learning she is to be engaged, despite her repeated and explicit instructions to not do so. Even after she leaves him, he shows up at her aunt’s house, drunk out of his mind and throwing a tantrum. All of this stalking is portrayed as a romantic, idealistic thing to do to get your one true love.
Bollywood generally has a stalking problem. It also has a problem with women saying ‘no’. From Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin (1990) to Haseena Maan Jayegi (1999), Tere Naam (2003), Raanjhanaa (2013), Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), Kabir Singh (2019), the list of movies where women are stalked by the male lead till they ‘fall in love’ with him is seemingly endless.
Even movies about social issues such as Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) are plagued by this dangerous romanticisation. Lyrics like ‘Tera peecha karu, toh rokne ka nahi’ (‘If I stalk you, don’t stop me’), ‘Tu haan kar ya na kar…Hum tujh ko utha kar le jayenge’ (‘You can say yes or no…I will kidnap you anyway’), ‘Yeh uska style hoinga, hontho pe na dil me han hoinga’ (‘This will be her style, her lips will say no while her heart says yes’) have gripped Indian audiences for far too long without any substantial criticism. Women’s autonomy seems to be subject to how persuasive and intrusive the man can be. Rarely are we made to question the gendered power dynamics involved in these acts in real life.
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Not a romantic movie
Chalte Chalte suffers from aestheticisation of a criminal offense. The only issue with Raj’s stalking seems to be a logistical one of how he will finance himself. In fact, this trait of his is used to compensate for his otherwise disastrous personality as it proves that he will do anything and everything for love. Nobody questions whether it is appropriate to show up on a girl’s flight, hours after she has ended things with you. Nobody questions whether one should do anything and everything for love, even if it harms the one they supposedly love.
Because he is Shah Rukh Khan (whose magnetic charisma is the only thing keeping this movie from being one about a creep), he got away with it. Also, because it was an era in Bollywood before social media, Fourth Wave feminism and MeToo.
Let’s just say if Raj was one’s roommate, they’d be looking for a new place to live within the hour. It is nearly impossible to imagine how a grown man with a business has survived for this long on his own without knowing where to keep his shoes, his towels, washed utensils; how much vegetables cost; or anything about his own schedule. The differences in the two’s personalities, which serves as the driver of the movie’s plot, happen to be that Raj is an emotionally stunted and entirely reckless child while Priya is a mostly well-adjusted and responsible adult. Rani Mukherji’s character has to do the job of rescuing and raising the man – because, well, men will be men.
Raj is too proud and insecure to ask for any help from his wife, her family and friends. He verbally abuses his wife to the extent that she visibly breaks down. Raj’s behaviour is so tedious that even the movie had to acknowledge that he is not a good husband to Priya. When Priya comes back to Raj, their relationship seems less about love and more like a cycle of toxicity.
India, especially, has a long socio-cultural history of teaching girls that they can ‘fix him’. Angry, incompetent men are the norm here. In fact, they are celebrated. If the success of Kabir Singh and all the Pyaar Ka Punchnamas tells us anything, it’s that childishness and abuse from men is socially tolerated. It’s the female partners who have to step up. At least Chalte Chalte acknowledges that Priya was justified in leaving Raj. Preeti does not even reconsider her love for Kabir after he slaps her.
If the movie had ended with Priya leaving Raj for good, then it would have served as one of the most intriguing pieces of feminist media of the early aughts. But at the end of the day, Chalte Chalte despite its consciousness is yet another movie crystallising the social message that women should forgive men who insult and traumatise them in the name of love.
It is time to shift this perception of the ‘love-sick, young, angry men’ with Schrodinger’s alcoholism. Movies like Parched (2016), Thappad (2020), and Darlings (2022) do a good job of showing us the reality of drunk, obsessive, angry men who more often than not end up beating their wives. But these are movies about abuse. Movies such as Chalte Chalte should not be archived in the romance genre but under the tag of patriarchy and abuse.
Views are personal.
This article is part of a series called Beyond the Reel. You can read all the articles here.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)