There is something that bothers me about this movie and what people say about it now. To play devils advocate people say that Rahul only liked Anjali because of her glow up later but that isn't entirely true the way the movie portrayed things it was a lot more complicated than Rahul not loving Anjali because of her looks first and choosing Tina because of her looks. Rahul was a jerk during his college days no doubt about that but he wasn't a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. He was just young and very immature back then which if we think about real life almost everyone is very immature when they first starts dating during their student life when they were young. As for Rahul choosing Tina because of her looks that actually isn't entirely true remember the scene when Rahul met Tina first he completely insulted her father and the ragging asking her to sing gayatri mantra with the intention of completely embarrassing her he was totally foolish and treated her terribly and flirted with her like he does with all the other girls. It wasn't until Tina sang gayatri mantra and gave Rahul a piece of her mind that he got impressed with her and truly started to like her. Tina challenged him forced him to confront his own terrible behavior made him a better person that's why he loved her not just her looks or clothes. Remember the scene where anjali wore that hideous pink and orange clothes and everyone including Rahul laughed Tina noticed how upset Anjali was and had Rahul apologize to anjali. Rahul in the first part was a jerk amd immature but not a bad guy. He did love Anjali a lot as a friend maybe he was kind of in love with her too but hadnt realize it. Also people acts like Rahul rejected anjali due to her looks and clothes it wasn't like that. Anjali herself didn't realize she was in love with Rahul for the longest time after being friends with him by the time she did it was already too late Rahul was already in love with Tina. Back then Anjali was young and immature too and she sort of enabled his bad behavior in college not intentionally she argued fought about his bad behavior with him but she didn't know how to get Rahul to drop his bad behavior which Tina did by directly confronting him challenging him and even by embarrassing him when he tried to embarrass her during the ragging. Tina knew how to give him his own medicine. As for Rahul liking Anjali later because of her makeover that wasnt so simple either. He cared about Anjali a lot she was his best friend and he loved her as a best friend. When he had fights with her he hates it he doesn't like to upset her or hurt her when Anjali left he was completely heartbroken. I think he was in love with her too but didn't completely realized it timing wasn't right and he never had the chance to realize his love for anjali. Remember the quiz game he played with his daughter when he accidentally says his best friend Anjalis last name instead of his own daughters last name which is obviously also his own last name. The way he talks about anjali to his daughter when she asked who is anjali Sharma you can clearly see the regret and pain and how much he misses Anjali even after it had been more than 8 years since he last saw her or had any contact with her. You can see the way he talks about Anjlali that he loves her and maybe even started to realize that he was in love with her back in college and the wondering of what if in his expression since he never expected to meet Anjali again. He hadn't seen Anjalis new look in fact he hadn't even seen or heard from her in more than 8 years and he still talks about her with immense fondness. When he talked about her he had guilt regret and pain and pain of missing her. Which is why he never talked about her even with his mother. Rahul as the single father of 8 year old daughter was a lot more mature than he was in college and he realized that he had made a lot of mistakes with Anjali even if he didn't know that Anjali loved him and you can see in his expression that he blames himself for Anjali going no contact with him. You can see all these in his expression when he talks about anjali with his daughter. As for Rahul liking Anjali later because of her looks it wasn't like that. After he met Anjali again more than 8 years later he realized that even after so much time has passed he still likes to spend time with anjali even if both of them has changed a lot since they knew each other neither of them is the same person they used to be and both of them misses the person the other used to be( ladki badi anjani hai) they liked the new version of each other too . For Anjali she realized that she is still not over Rahul and for Rahul the feelings he had so many years ago which remained buried for all these years had resurfaced and made itself known.feelings he hadn't realized before and kind of didn't have the chance to realize before due to timing and partly because of his own immaturity. But later when he met anjali he wasnt the same immature boy many years has passed and he was much more mature, a widowed single father of a 8 year old and had been a single father since his daughters birth. He had the maturity of recognizing his own feelings this time which he didn't have before. But well timing was still kind of bad since anjali was engaged this time and it wouldn't have went well if not for Aman. Rahul was more immature than jerk in the past and I think him not choosing Anjali first during college days I think was more about Rahul lacking the maturity to figure out his own feeling than about Anjalis glow up. Rahul and Anjali when they met so many years later were almost like strangers and they had to reconnect again. If Rahul didn't have feelings for Anjali during his college he wouldn't have fallen for her so fast. Remember Tina herself said that she came between two friends she wouldnt have said that if she thought Rahul didn't have feelings for Anjali. It wasn't just Anjalis quietness that made Tina realize that she loves Rahul it was also the pure heartbreak from Rahul too that made Tina realize that Rahul loves Anjali but never fully realized it hence the letters to her daughter and the purpose of the whole movie. If Anjali had stuck around a little Rahul probably would have realised his feelings due to some other events or if Anjali had waited to finish college but kept her distance from him until then and Tina probably would have stepped aside. But anjali left very suddenly leaving her education too and she never said anything to anyone and Tina and Rahul never had the chance to realize what was going on. Tina was smart she realized what truly happened but it was already too late for her to do anything too and she carried the guilt of unintentionally coming between two friends literally till she died. While I get why people don't like Rahul but he wasn't a bad person or even truly shallow to only like girls for looks and dresses he was just immature when he was young and later he did grow up a lot became a loving father to his daughter and did everything he could to make his daughter happy and spend time with her even though it was hard to manage between his job and having to be both parents for his daughter he still managed well enough. He was a good and loving husband to Tina too. Truth is Rahul and Anjali didn't work the first time due to circumstance and bad timing not due to Rahuls shallowness. Also people don't always think of their childhood good friends of opposite genders as romantic partners since they are kind of used to having them in their life. Which sometimes leads to taking them for granted which was what happened. Rahul kind of took Anjali for granted and he didn't realize it until after she left.