Main Hoon Na
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"Hey, this was in 'The Matrick'?" |
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Main Hoon Na is a 2004 Bollywood film set in modern-day India and starring Shah Rukh Khan. It starts off with a supersoldier named Ram (SRK) foiling an assassination attempt on an Indian general by an anti-Pakistan terrorist. Ram's father is killed in the attack, but not before revealing that Ram has a long-lost half-brother named Lakshman who is still in college. The General then tasks Ram with protecting his daughter, who by coincidence attends the same college as Lakshman.
So Ram goes back to college, where he discovers that his brother, known to everyone as Lucky, is the Big Man on Campus who regularly leads the rest of the student body in cheerful Crowd Songs. Even more fun, the General's daugther Ram is tasked to protect, is a rebellious tomboy who is the BBF and Dogged Nice Girl to Lucky. Hilarity Ensues.
The resulting three hour Cliché Storm is half-Die Hard, half-High School Musical, rolled into a Bollywood song-and-dance epic. Whether it was intentional or not, comes off as a brilliant parody of multiple Western genres. The sharp-eyed viewer will also note that the plot loosely follows the story of the Ramayan (as is lampshaded by the character names), which occupies a similar place in Asian cultures as the King Arthur stories do in the West. Well worth a hardcore Troper's time.
The director, Farrah Khan, went on to do several other Trope Overdosed films, among them Om Shanti Om and Happy New Year.
Main Hoon Na is Hindi for "I am here."
- Almost Kiss: Happens many times, with sexy results.
- Anvilicious: The otherwise completely silly plot is punctuated by moments of deadly serious political commentary regarding Indo-Pakistani relations, as well as some instances of violence that aren't over the-top-at all.
- Back to School: Ram's cover at the college.
- Big Bad: Raghavan.
- Bullet Time: In a memorable example, Ram takes a page from The Matrix not to dodge bullets, but a teacher's flying spittle. Other teachers lampshade this in the above quote.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Ram just keeps outdoing himself. First he almost single-handedly rescues General Bakshi from a squad of gunmen, then he chases down the bad guy's car using a borrowed bicycle taxi, then he kills Raghavan with his own grenade, which also sets off the bombs in the gymnasium. Lucky also gets a mention for his helicopter rescue.
- Destination Defenestration: taken Up to Eleven in the opening, as every single window the main characters touch during the fight scene shatters, even one that Ram lightly puts his foot on once
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: In India!
- Everything Is Better With Explosions: Just for good measure during the climax.
- Fan Service: Lots.
- High School Rocks: Technically they're supposed to be at a college, but otherwise fits this trope to a T.
- Hot for Teacher: After fawning over each other at length, Ram and his chemistry teacher, Miss Chandni, are very implied to have done it offscreen. Justified by Ram actually being older than her.
- Lampshading: Ram tells Raghavan that in stories the bad guy always dies at the end, just before escaping by helicopter as Raghavan is blown up by his own grenade.
- Lucky entering the library for the first time is lampshaded by a particular traditional fanfare used in Bollywood movies to indicate a king entering into battle.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Ram, who is otherwise a stoic action hero, becomes a complete dork whenever Miss Chandni comes onscreen.
- Meaningful Name : Ram and Lucky, whose real name is Lakshman, are loyal brothers in the Ramayana. Word of God also adds that the villain's name, Raghavan, was the closest they could get to Ravan, who is the Big Bad of the Ramayana.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: A non-Latin example.
- Power Walk
- Punny Name: When Ram first sees Miss Chandni, he bursts into a song comparing her to moonlight. "Chandra" is the Hindi for "moon." The horrified students watching lampshade this.
- Rearrange the Song: The scoring for this movie is equally trope-overdosed, with suspiciously-familiar sounding music. In particular, one track is uncannily reminiscent of the |Mission Impossible theme, and another is very similar to the Austin Powers theme.
- Redemption Equals Death: Khan.
- Relationship Upgrade: Sanju and Lucky.
- Sadist Teacher: Professor Rasai, with his spittle of death.
- Sibling Team: Lucky and Ram for the second half of the movie.
- Shout-Out : Half the movie is a series of these, from Sholay to The Ramayana, mostly in the action scenes.
- Slow Motion, Slow Motion Drop, and Slow Motion Fall: A major factor in this movie's 178-minute length.
- Shutting Up Now : Happens to Ram around Chandni, all the time. Usually preceded by a major Digging Yourself Deeper.
- Stealth Parody : Die-hard Hindi movie buffs will recognise most of the more Anvilicious lines of dialogue from classic movies.
- Trope Overdosed: A shining example of how to cram as many tropes as possible into an enjoyable movie.