Kal Ho Naa Ho, Part 20

In his apartment, Rohit gingerly opens a box, which contains a red tie and a bad poem from Naina about red ties and something Buddhu. I have no idea what Buddhu means, but Rohit seems pleased, and goes looking for Aman. He finds Aman in his bedroom, tells him that he loves him, points in the general direction of his red tie/crotch, and tells Aman to look. For some reason, Aman doesn’t want to look at Rohit’s tie/crotch, even though five minutes ago, he was all about having sex with him in the elevator. Rohit explains that Naina gave him the red tie and a love letter, then he urges Aman to start working on his Six Days, A Girl in Your Face book. Meanwhile, Naina walks up to the doorway to Aman’s room and overhears their conversation, failing to be distracted by the giant framed picture of a professional wrestler hanging in the hallway. Aman sees Naina in the doorway and tries to cover by telling Rohit that he didn’t do anything, it was all Rohit’s idea. Rohit, oblivious, insists that it’s because of Aman that Naina is in his heart and his breath. Rohit had better watch out that Naina doesn’t suddenly sneak up on him in the realm of his eyes. And should maybe also see an oral hygiene specialist about the breath thing. Aman points out that Naina is in his room, then runs away to look out the window while Rohit and Naina exchange awkward stares. Naina throws her mini-backpack down in anger and storms out of the house.

Naina runs to the train station while Rohit chases after her. She turns around and tells Rohit that he and Aman should win an award for Six Days, A Girl in Your Face, but seems angered rather than pleased by this accomplishment. She says that Rohit was supposed to be her friend, but then he told Aman everything that Naina had confided in him, and was convinced by Aman that what he felt wasn’t friendship, but love. Rohit insists that he loves her, and that’s the truth, but Naina says that’s not the truth; the truth is that he has broken her heart and hurt her. Then she turns to Aman and tells him that even though her life sucked before, at least then she had a friend, but now she doesn’t even have that anymore. Aman tries to stop her from leaving as a multiracial crowd of Hindi speakers stands around and eavesdrops.

Naina tells Aman to leave her alone and walks away. Aman pulls the black diary out of Rohit’s pocket and starts reading aloud. He reads that Rohit wishes he could tell Naina how much he loves her. Then he reads, “I love you; I love you very much, Naina.” Naina turns around as Aman continues, “I love you and –" He turns the page, which is blank. Rohit’s pen must have run out. Aman decides to freestyle, saying that whenever he closes his eyes, he sees Naina, and then whenever he opens them, he longs to see her. And then whenever he stares for too long at a computer screen, sometimes Naina becomes a little blurry. Aman describes how he feels her presence everywhere, throws in some metaphors about his heart, and starts crying. He’s not even pretending to look at the diary anymore as he says that his love stands apart from all other loves because those loves didn’t involve Naina. As Aman and Naina gaze tearfully into each others’ eyes, Aman says that he will love her forever. He explains that everything he just said while maintaining unwavering and heartfelt eye contact with Naina is what Rohit wrote in his diary. Rather than sticking around to read some passages about Rohit’s red underwear as I had hoped he would, Aman walks away, while Rohit, Naina, and the multiracial Hindi speakers stand around, unsure what to do next.

Aman leans against a phone booth on the train platform, trying to compose himself. Rohit approaches him, worried about the fact that Aman just turned him into even more of a fraud than the fraud that Naina was initially angry with. Aman points out that Rohit would have said the same thing as Aman if his pen hadn’t run out right in the middle of “I love you and –" Aman assures Rohit that girls like it when people do this sort of thing, and tells him that he’s done it a lot. So when Aman likes a girl, sometimes he gets a friend to pull out his half-written diary and make up long, obviously fake monologues off the top of his head on Aman’s behalf? If this is the sort of dating advice that Aman plans to include in Six Days, A Girl in Your Face, well, I guess it probably can’t be any worse than most of what’s already out there. Aman excuses himself from talking to Rohit to go make a phone call, by which he means weep inconsolably about his unrealized love and impending death.

Naina goes to her special sobbing spot, the picnic table by the bridge, where her mother tracks her down. She tells Naina that a lifelong relationship requires both strength and love, and that her father loved them a lot, but was weak, which is why he left them all high and dry. Jennifer says that Rohit isn’t weak, and that he loves her a lot. Naina asks if it isn’t a sign of weakness that Rohit needed Aman’s help to obtain his love, but Jennifer responds that there’s nothing wrong with asking for help. She doesn’t express an opinion about the ethics of fake diary monologues, though. She says that the fact that Rohit is willing to accept Naina even though she’s in love with someone else is a sign of strength and love, and that if Naina rejects him, it will be a girl’s decision. Tomorrow when she repents it, it will be a woman’s regret. The hours between the girlish decision and the womanly regret might be a good time for Naina to sing that Britney song and make up some nice choreography, though.

Rohit zones out in his office, then gets a phone call from Naina. She says tentatively that she wants to talk to him, and that it’s “kind of private.” Cut to Sweetu, reading an envelope labeled “Private and Confidential, J. Kapur.” She thinks it must be from Frankie, and runs up to tell Jazz. Aman walks in, congratulates them on something, then looks at Jazz’s ass and declares it “fantastic.” Aman tells them that Naina wants to see Rohit for their first meeting, they gasp, then Sweetu tells them a few more times about the letter from Frankie and goes to open it. Aman steals the letter from her and starts to read it, but his face falls and he tells Sweetu that it’s not Frankie’s letter. He strides purposefully over to Jennifer’s house with the letter.

At Naina’s house everyone gathers downstairs as Jazz runs down the steps shouting that Naina’s coming. Naina, carrying a bouquet, walks downstairs in a not very attractive white dress as everyone claps and showers her with flower petals. Is Naina planning on squeezing in a quick marriage before her date with Rohit? As she leaves, Aman tells her to wait. He lets her hair down, and we get a helpful flashback to Rohit saying that he likes Naina’s hair down, in case we thought that Aman simply took a casual interest in Naina’s hair, and not that Naina’s hair was a metaphor for her shifting allegiances in a passionate love triangle.

Naina steps out of a limo and walks into a darkened concert hall. A spotlight suddenly illuminates Naina, then another reveals Rohit, dressed in a tux and holding some long-stemmed roses. He walks up to Naina and tells her that he knows that she doesn’t have love for him today, but that she will eventually. And since he knows that his love is enough for the both of them, he asks her to take the roses that he had hoped to give her so many fateful pages ago. He says, “Naina…Naina…Naina,” as a bell tolls and various concert hall lighting fixtures illuminate on cue. “Marry me!” he asks, as a chorus of women in gold dresses walk out onto the balcony and sing “WIIIILLL YOOOUUU MAAA-RRRYYY MEEEE?” accompanied by a small string orchestra. Rohit drops to one knee. Naina stares at him for a moment, then closes her eyes. I think she’s concerned about how casually Rohit’s taking things on their first date.

Part 19 Part 21