SYNOPSIS - RAJA HINDUSTANI
("INDIAN KING")
- Aarti Sehgal and her dad, who adore each other,
have a joint birthday and thus a joint birthday party. Aarti's stepmother
Shalini doesn't like Aarti much.
- Later. Aarti announces her intentions to go
to the hill station Palankhet, where her dad and mom first met, in order
to be with her mother's memories. Her father tells her to forget her
dead mother, adding that Shalini's her mother now. Aarti, however, is
set on going. Since Mr. Sehgal is going to Germany, he arranges for
their servants Gulab and Kamal to accompany Aarti.
- At the airport. Upon arrival, there's no trace
of the taxi that Gulab was supposed to have arranged to meet them at
the airport. At Aarti's behest, Gulab and Kamal approach the only taxi
around and ask for a ride. The cab driver, a man named Raja Hindustani,
refuses to take them until he catches sight of Aarti, and is stricken
into agreement by her beauty. He makes Gulab and Kamal ride up top.
- In the cab. Raja says he's an orphan. Aarti
is unimpressed by either Western music or Hindi film hits, but she loves
Raja's voice.
- At the Taj Mahal Hotel. There's no record of
their reservation. Turns out that Gulab booked a room at the TM Hotel
in Agra (location of the actual TM). Since there's a convention in town,
the hotel is full. Raja offers to take them somewhere where, he claims,
no one is ever turned away.
- This promised land of hospitality turns out
to be the house where he lives with his aunt and uncle (no actual relation).
Aarti is warmly greeted. Gulab and Kamal are staunchly unimpressed.
- The next day. Raja shows Aarti around town.
He gets rid of Kamal and Gulab by pawning them off on his best friend,
Balwant Singh. When she makes a purchase at a shop he's taken her to,
he returns the commission to her (taxi-drivers often have agreements
with certain stores: they will get a slice of the inflated purchase
price if, after having taken their passengers to the shop, the passengers
actually buy something). Later, Aarti insists he take payment for showing
her around. He's very displeased at the idea that he is just a servant
to her, but can't come out and say that, so he finally relents and takes
the cash.
- Kamal and Gulab approch Raja to take them to
the market. He refuses, saying that he's in the pay of the memsahib,
not her servants. They threaten to tell Aarti, to which he replies that
he is unafraid of her. Gulab and Kamal decide to take a different approach
to getting revenge.
- They tell Raja that Aarti thinks he's very handsome
and talented, but, alas, lacks style. He accepts their offer to give
him a makeover. Naturally, they dress him in an utterly terrible get-up
and present him to Aarti, who laughs wildly.
- Realizing that she's hurt his feelings, Aarti
apologizes and tells him he's priceless for the very things he was trying
to change - his simple-hearted ingenuity. He realizes she's right, and
gives her a cash tip in thanks for the service she's rendered him -
thus leveling the playing field.
- Aarti buys a short red dress that Raja doesn't
like. She is harrassed for wearing it and Raja beats up her molestors
with overzealous force.
- Aarti rebukes Raja for making a scene. Asks
him if it's his job to personally correct every wrong he sees, as well
as what gives him the right to tell her he doesn't like her outfits.
He retorts that she's right. Neither of them has the right to
tell the other what to do. He storms out.
- Aarti finds Raja and apologizes (tugging on
one's ears is a sign of contrition). She asks him to show her all around
Palankhet.
- Raja tells her she's the most beautiful woman
he's ever seen. She doesn't believe him. During a rainstorm, they are
overwhelmed by passion and kiss. When Aarti comes to her senses, she
is panicked by what they've done and she runs back to the house.
- Her father has come to get her and take her
back to Mumbai. Raja drives them - still hasn't spoken a word to Aarti
since the kiss. A landslide halts their progress and they stop at a
nearby restaurant, where Raja's heartfelt singing breaks Aarti's will.
She goes to him - and exposes their love to the world.
- Aarti's dad is infuriated and refuses to countenance
a wedding between Raja and Aarti. Balwant and Kamal, who have been flirting
since they first met, armwrestle to decide whether the wedding will
take place. She cheats. They decide to wrestle. She loses, and agrees
to be a girl, as well as to marry him.
- Aarti's dad agrees, but only on the condition
that Raja return with them to Mumbai and mold himself in their ways.
Raja refuses, and Aarti agrees with his refusal, saying she will marry
him no matter what. She asks for her father's blessings anyway. He refuses,
and leaves.
- They are married.
- Aarti's father can't bring himself to disinherit
her. He visits her and gives her a house as a wedding gift, which Raja
is later furious to learn she has accepted. They fight. Finally he apologizes
but tells her he can't live in that house - he wants to be her sole
provider. She says she can sacrifice one hundred houses for his sake,
but if he ever talks of leaving her again she will kill herself. He
responds, "You love me that much?"
- At Aarti's stepmother's request, they go to
Mumbai to celebrate Aarti and her father's joint birthday. (Aarti's
stepmother is scheming to find a way to keep all the wealth in her own
hands.)
- Shalini tricks Aarti into giving Raja a tuxedo
and lying about where it came from (at Shalini's suggestion, she tells
Raja she saved up and bought it herself). Later, at the party, Shalini's
nephew tells Raja that it is actually his tuxedo, and Aarti gave
it to Raja because she didn't want to be shamed by his shabby clothing.
Raja gets drunk and embarrasses Aarti horribly, and then raises his
hand to her father, a slight which she cannot forgive and which leads
her to cast him out from her home. (Fun fact: Aamir Khan, who is not
in the habit of drinking, consumed almost a liter of vodka before the
filming of the song in this sequence, "Tere Ishq Mein Nachenge.")
- Raja does not come back. Aarti is heartbroken
and stays with her father. She finds out she's pregnant, and desperately
wants to return to Raja. Her stepmother offers to go in her place, and
bring Raja back. But what Shalini really does is proffer him divorce
papers, which she claims came from Aarti. He refuses to sign, saying
that in her world, marriage might be a game, but in his, it is an unbreakable
bond.
- Shalini gives Aarti divorce papers, saying they
came from Raja. She adds that he sends message to her to get an abortion.
Aarti is horrified, saying she'll neither divorce him nor get an abortion.
- Aarti has the child.
- Kamal and Balwant come to visit Mumbai. Shalini
won't let them see Aarti but they see her in the distance, holding her
child. They return to Palankhet with word that Raja is a father.
- Raja goes to Bombay and kidnaps his child. Shalini's
brother only pretends to call the police and inform them of the kidnapping;
in truth, he decides to track Raja and the baby down and kill them.
- Aarti and her family go to Palankhet, where
they meet Raja's aunt and uncle and the truth about the divorce papers
is exposed. Shalini admits everything and begs forgiveness.
- Next day: Raja returns home, but when he sees
Aarti, he flees. Shalini's brother and nephew catch up with him and
try to kill him. He almost dies, but Aarti's father saves him. Several
more fight sequences. Finally Balwant and company come and save the
day.
- After much begging and pleading on Aarti's part,
Raja yields and takes her back. Happy ever after, credits.
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