Manmarziyaan Mini Post #1 : Robbie, the third wheel?
So Manmarziyaan, as we all know is a retelling of the classic Bollywood love triangle, a woman's dilemma between excitement & stability. Anurag Kashyap doesn't go far enough for us to call this a subversion of the tropes. Yes, Rumi & Vicky are already in the middle of a steamy relationship. Although how the people around them react to it is pointedly different from what we expect from characters of that setting. They are against the relationship and do want to get Rumi married when they find out about the relationship but there is no drama about it.
In fact, they treat it more as a mere nuisance. In comes Robbie who makes up his mind the moment he sees a picture of Rumi. He discovers the existence of Vicky early on with a little social media investigation but it only seems to make him more interested in Rumi. Here's where things COULD get a lot more interesting. A lot of critics have been saying that Robbie's character is a natural descendant of Balraj from HDDCS & Dr. Anand from Woh Saat Din (which I unfortunately haven't watched yet). Robbie rather comes off as someone who has molded himself on those characters rather than someone who's inherently LIKE them.
He sees the intensity of Vicky's passion early on but decides to "remain an option" for Rumi. On the eve of their Marriage Rumi actually comes to break it off but he instead talks about contacting Vicky's parents to make them see sense. We don't see Robbie actually making the call but Vicky's parents do end up convincing him that all he'll do by marrying Rumi is ruin her life. Robbie then plays cute for some time, even giving Rumi an option to walk out of the marriage which she doesn't. He decides to end things himself when he finds out that things are yet not over between Vicky & Rumi. His breakdown seems a bit too sudden for someone who knew full well the extension to which Vicky & Rumi had been involved. There's of course, the explanation that what broke him was her refusal to answer Vicky's question about whether she sees Vicky with her eyes closed or Robbie with her eyes open when she made love with Robbie. Still doesn't make sense as Robbie should know full well that they haven't reached that level of physical intimacy in their relationship.
The writer seemed to have a change of heart about his character midway though the film. He does say at the end that he wanted to take advantage of Rumi's anger and that he thought he could easily deal with Vicky along the way. Rumi says that she manipulates people's emotions sometimes to get what she wants. But it seemed to me that it was Robbie who is the master manipulator all along. But the hints of such an intention become almost non-existent as the film progresses making Robbie an uninspiring imitation of the much famed & loved third-wheel.
In fact, they treat it more as a mere nuisance. In comes Robbie who makes up his mind the moment he sees a picture of Rumi. He discovers the existence of Vicky early on with a little social media investigation but it only seems to make him more interested in Rumi. Here's where things COULD get a lot more interesting. A lot of critics have been saying that Robbie's character is a natural descendant of Balraj from HDDCS & Dr. Anand from Woh Saat Din (which I unfortunately haven't watched yet). Robbie rather comes off as someone who has molded himself on those characters rather than someone who's inherently LIKE them.
He sees the intensity of Vicky's passion early on but decides to "remain an option" for Rumi. On the eve of their Marriage Rumi actually comes to break it off but he instead talks about contacting Vicky's parents to make them see sense. We don't see Robbie actually making the call but Vicky's parents do end up convincing him that all he'll do by marrying Rumi is ruin her life. Robbie then plays cute for some time, even giving Rumi an option to walk out of the marriage which she doesn't. He decides to end things himself when he finds out that things are yet not over between Vicky & Rumi. His breakdown seems a bit too sudden for someone who knew full well the extension to which Vicky & Rumi had been involved. There's of course, the explanation that what broke him was her refusal to answer Vicky's question about whether she sees Vicky with her eyes closed or Robbie with her eyes open when she made love with Robbie. Still doesn't make sense as Robbie should know full well that they haven't reached that level of physical intimacy in their relationship.
The writer seemed to have a change of heart about his character midway though the film. He does say at the end that he wanted to take advantage of Rumi's anger and that he thought he could easily deal with Vicky along the way. Rumi says that she manipulates people's emotions sometimes to get what she wants. But it seemed to me that it was Robbie who is the master manipulator all along. But the hints of such an intention become almost non-existent as the film progresses making Robbie an uninspiring imitation of the much famed & loved third-wheel.
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