Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

JTYJN was a well-made film, but totally cliché-ridden. Except for the fantabulous Ratna Pathak Shah, everything else was predictable. In fact, the best moments in the film are the scenes between Shah and her real-life better-half, Naseeruddin Shah, who plays his role from a martyr Rajput’s photograph on the wall. The Shahs lend their inimitable style to these scenes and make you want more.
Hindi cinema has had a lot of western influence lately. The situational comedy, the clothes, the pets (I know no one who has a white mouse for a pet), the music, the style of acting, all remind you of those TV shows with more than six seasons, and running and rerunning reruns, and also of those romantic western movies. Well, good for Hindi cinema. Because as they say, it’s the “treatment” that matters, not the story.
The story, like I said, is full of clichés.
Like the good-looking, picture perfect, well-educated, well-placed-in-life dude who expresses his disagreement by punching in other people’s faces, even his girl’s. Such portrayals make you cringe when you see a model-like hunk anywhere (remember Dil Chahta Hai?).

Or the girl-boy-best friends cliché. Extrapolating Mr.Barjatya’s declaration, I believe that a girl and a boy cannot be best friends without at least one of them falling in love with the other. But no, these girls and boys seem to be immune to any number of rules. It has always struck me as highly weird when a girl and a guy are best friends, during college years (when their hormones must be running really high), and neither of them even thinks of the other in ‘that way’. Until it is too late, of course. I think society needs a better understanding of platonic relationships than this. I mean five years together and still not together? Like they say, give me a break.
One thing got me a bit confused. Was Paresh Rawal’s role supposed to give some more comic relief? I ask this because I could not find much to laugh during his appearances, rather I winced more than twice during his scenes, which were nastier than they were funny.
And what on earth were those two (can’t name them; I’d spoil the surprise) doing??

All that apart, one must truly applaud the style of the film-maker. Yes, I loved the interesting music, the new-age mom (who has already received rave reviews), certain symbols used in the story (like the horse-drawn carriages that seemed to frequent the empty streets of night-time Mumbai), the scene where the deceased Amar Singh Rathore does a jig in his pohotograph. I loved the airport scene where the hero gets back his girl. And yes, I loved Imran’s question mark look (by the way, doesn’t he look a lot like Jugal Hansraj?).
All in all, a thumbs-up, but I ended up remembering the film more for Mrs. Shah and for that very Maya Sarabhai-like “This is the limit!!”.