For all the films that aged poorly, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kajol’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai would be amongst the top. Initially, it was with many people pointing out that Rahul was the problem.

This was because, for all the time that Anjali was in love with him, she was what many would see as the classic tomboy. Tina came into the picture, and she was feminine in every way that Anjali wasn’t. When Anjali got her makeover, he saw her in a completely different light. What if Rahul wasn’t the problem, Anjali was?

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai romanticises Anjali

Dharma Productions

Think of it from a realistic perspective, Anjali is a girl who is in love with her best friend. Another girl comes into the picture, and her best friend immediately falls for her. She knows that Rahul doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, but she continues to pine for him. Tina, the new girl, becomes a good friend of hers.

So much so that the two of them also became best friends. So, she is in love with her best friend (Rahul) and her close friend’s partner (Tina). That is highly problematic on its own. What happens after is but circumstantial. Upon Tina’s death, Rahul is living his own life as a single dad with his daughter, whom he named after his best friend.

Anjali was out of the picture because she couldn’t fathom that Rahul might not love her anytime soon and that his feelings for Tina were genuine. He wasn’t obligated to love his best friend just because she had feelings for him.

Anjali could not blame Rahul

Yes, Rahul fell in love with Anjali when he saw her again at the camp. However, what is to say that it cannot be ruled out as happenstance? He saw after years because she didn’t want him to contact her. The kind of genuine man that Rahul was, he would have done a lot to make sure he and Anjali never lost touch despite her leaving.

Seeing her again after years, she wasn’t just his college-going tomboy best friend. She was a grown person, a woman who was confident in her ways and, to an extent, mature. At the summer camp, there was another catalyst outside of Kajol’s Anjali, Rahul’s daughter.

She had acted as a wing woman for both of them, allowing Rahul to see his former best friend in a completely different light. So, before we jump to blame Rahul, we cannot rule out that Anjali wasn’t blameless either.

Lead and social image credits: Dharma Productions