Whenever SRK plays an average joe, he scores. Surinder Sahni is all set to be one of his most loved parts—his Punjabi ‘leheja’ and his quiet bashfulnesss is pitch-perfect. But superstars can’t be made to appear ill-dressed wimps who don’t know how to keep their women in the kitchen, when, of course, they are not being meek and pliant in the bedroom.

SRK’s double role arrives in the guise of Raj, and this version is very up to the Amritsar minute—skintight tee, ripped jeans, spiked hair. And there you have it, another creaky nostrum—dull office-going Surinder, or boisterous, brash Raj, what’s a Taani to do?

Anushka makes a confident debut, but there’s only so much they can do to keep us engaged for a long 2 hours 40 minutes. The rest of it is same old.

Yashraj set the gold standard for youthful romance back in 1995: ‘DDLJ’ retrieved the kind of lover that Hindi movies had lost to lust and violence. What we get in ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ (I doubt if it will ever be shortened to ‘RNBDJ’), like in their inflated movies of the past couple of years, is a flurry of the ideas that have worked in the past. ‘Aap toh Dhoom 3 ho, ji’, says Raj, applauding Taani’s motorbike-riding skills.

And you cannot get more self-referential than having your hero say ‘yeh dilwala apni dulhaniya le hi jayega’: that’s seriously scraping the barrel.

‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ has some sparkling moments, featuring Surinderji Sahni. The rest is done that, seen this. Are there any new ideas left in the Yashraj chest? Now is the time to delve deep.