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
