Thursday, November 15, 2012

Jab Tak Hai Jaan - A Dull Fare




Yash Chopra (Late) has always been the name of romantic, passionate and dramatic cinema. From “Waqt” (as a director) and “Daagh” (as a producer) he has always shown the best attempt in terms of providing quality cinema; the main part of which has always been detailing. His last attempt “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” was unfortunately not as detailed as his movies like Deewar, Kabhie Kabhie, Silsila and Lamhe etc. Even in later years his movies like Dil toh Pagal hai, Kaabul Express and Hum Tum were worth watching again and again. But when it comes to “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”, no one will want to see this movie for a second time – unless they are diehard fans of Shahrukh Khan. 

JTHJ is a story of love and faith. The storyline is definitely something which audiences have seen many times before. JTHJ is a story about two love birds, Shahrukh Khan (Samar Anand) and Katrina Kaif (Meera) who meet in London and fell in love. Later, Meera leaves Samar for his well-being. Samar returns to India, joins Indian Army and becomes a Major in Bomb Defusing Squad. After 10 years of his service he meets Anushka Sharma (Akira), a budding TV reporter and she falls in love with him immediately. The story then moves on and takes a different route and Shahrukh and Katrina meet again. I won’t disclose the rest of the story. It’s not exactly a typical romantic triangle but even then it has its moments. 

Like all my reviews, I am never interested in the box office standing of any movie. Similarly, I am not concerned with the 15 – 17 crores earned by the movie every day after its release. What matters is the combination of a few factors like script, performances and music. As far as the music of the movie is concerned it’s not the usual A.R. Rahman thing. After “Rockstar”, fans of Rahman were expecting something much better. Ditto for Gulzar’s lyrics – something was quite amiss. 

As far as the performances are concerned, it is obvious that Katrina and Anushka stood out whereas the senior lead took the back seat. Katrina is a stealer; she is improving with every movie, undoubtedly. She has all the potential to lead the list of Yash Chopra’s “perfect women. She has both elegance and sensuality which is evident on screen. I am sure that in every scene where she shares screen with Shahrukh, the major audience could not keep their eyes off her and didn’t notice SRK. Anushka is a competent talent and has always proved to be a performer. In JTHJ she is lovable and performs amazingly well. All her scenes are worth watching. It’s a sure award winning performance – in “character actor’s category”. 

Let’s come to the so called “God of Love” SRK. If you have seen him in “Kal Ho Na Ho” and “Chak De India” then you can easily recall the repetition of his looks, acting style and role. As an actor he is still standing at the same place. Its time for SRK to take some serious roles which are performance oriented rather than oozing his boyish charms. He has already passed that age, ages ago. He really tries hard to look a young guy in JTHJ. He is sharing the same stage which Amitabh shared back in early 90’s and acted as “Young Angry Man” – in case of SRK its “Romantic Boy”. For those, who named SRK as “God of Love” have definitely missed Rajesh Khanna’s movies. 

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh in guest appearances mark their presence. Rishi (Chintu) still has screen presence and when he shared screen with SRK, with no dialogue of either, you can’t help but notice Rishi’s cuteness. Anupamkher is efficient and same for Sarika.

The technical drawbacks of the movie are listed as under – due to which it has lost the weight:
Shahrukh joined army at the age of 28 or 29 (technically) which is totally baseless. 27 is the maximum age to join Indian Army, even that in special cases (after passing some exams).

The moments shot between Anushka and SRK in Jammu were hard to believe as its not professionally possible for a serious officer / major to hug and get personal with a TV reporter. 

Within a few days SRK’s memory is back. Strange!

Rating: 3/5

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