Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla in Yes Boss The 90’s weren’t known for their subtlety or nuance, perhaps that’s why most of us enjoyed it with much gusto. During that era, Bollywood was loud, garishly colourful, with songs after every couple of minutes, effusive professions of love and caricatured villains, with twirling moustaches and slapstick comedy. It worked wonderfully, and films that could never see the light of day in 2022 were the blockbusters in that era. It’s during this enjoyably chaotic time, that the romantic comedy, Yes Boss, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Aditya Pancholi, released in 1997.
Yes Boss isn’t remembered for some profound life-changing comedy, romance or storytelling — it’s probably just remembered for SRK’s charm, wit and Juhi’s fresh innocence — a combo that guaranteed a blockbuster in the 90’s. While SRK and Kajol were hailed as Bollywood’s iconic on-screen couple and became the benchmark of romance, SRK and Juhi could bring out the comic best and the chaos in each other and perhaps that’s why most of their films together can be watched multiple times. There was always a sense of inexplicable realness about their chemistry, like two average Joes always tumbling into one scrape after the other.
There’s a sweetness (no other word for it) about their pairing that makes you forgive even the most flawed film, and Yes Boss was definitely one of them. The memorable part about Yes Boss was that it used SRK’s comic timing well and made his character seem more real and convincing than his ‘king of romance’ tag that even he, never wanted. To be honest, this Rahul was a more wholesome joy to watch than the other Rahuls and Raj that SRK played (perhaps barring K3G here). Give me this bumbling Rahul trying to set up an advertising agency over Dil Toh Paagal Hai’s Rahul, a man who doesn’t like it when a woman takes a tequila shot. SRK was a genius at comedy and slice-of-life films and that was a lot more enjoyable to watch than the romances with the dialogues on love.
Of course, this isn’t to say that Yes Boss didn’t adhere to the blatantly sexist tone of the 90’s where women were trophies to be won and fought over by men. The premise was simple and the triumvirate of Aditya, SRK and Juhi had basic ambitions and personalities, not intending to be layered or nuanced by any means. Aditya Pancholi plays rich boss Siddharth Choudhary, who is cheating on his wife Kashmera Shah. He falls for aspiring model Seema Bakshi, played by Juhi, who wants to live in the lap of luxury. Shah Rukh Khan plays Rahul, Siddharth’s employee, who also wants to climb the ladder of success. Shady Siddharth wants to lure Seema into his trap, and asks Rahul for help with a promise of his own advertising agency in return. Rahul is only too happy to help. Of course events spiral out of control, and to prevent Kashmera’s Sheela from finding out the truth, Rahul and Seema have to pretend they’re married. Seema gets full validation from Rahul because she is the perfect bahu to his mother. There’s a lot of prolonged comedy and punch lines and in true 90’s style the conclusion sees a fist fight and punches thrown, and a sweetheart won. Tada.
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Yes Boss wasn’t the best of the 90’s, and yet it doesn’t go out of public memory, you’ll still probably catch yourself humming the songs like cutesy Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaon, or the wistful Chand Taare and the peppy Jaata Hai Tu Kahaan.
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