Jab We Met

              I was bored. I did not want to watch an English movie. I got a craving for a Hindi film. Do you know what it is to crave for one? It is as much of a potent craving as a desire to have ' bhel-puri' or a  ' paani-puri'. . No way, I do not want to eat a pizza, or a dough-nut, or a burger. I want the sweet-sour-hot combination of the street-food of Bombay, with the hint of rock-salt and that crunchy-munchy pungent flavor and  the hint of the sandy breeze of Juhu beach. And the Hindi movie which delights and waves you into the wonderful world of heady dreams and breezy song-numbers has to be just right. So I chose 'Jab we Met' and going by 'the bhel-puri as a metaphor for the perfect Hindi film' it was close. Too much date-chutney in the form of this absolutely accepting and tolerant punjabi family in Bhatinda living in this very unrealistic mansion. No one seemed to mind seeing a young girl coming back home with a guy. ( I had heard Indian cities had become progressive and modern etc. but wow ,people in Bhatinda seemed to have toured the moon )
                 Shahid Kapoor showed he could be subdued and good. Kareena was easy on the eye, stunning to look at but frankly, she was a bit too loud. What actually helped was the underplayed emoting on his part that balanced her acting. But she did have a hint of the Geeta Bali vibrance and the grace of  some of the old-timers and that was what helped the role. The characterisation was not great. And the wretched third wheel - Anshuman was such a let down. Why cannot they ever have the imagination to make 'the other guy' be a devastatingly attractive and debonair rake. Some of the sardars looked fake. The grandfather was okay. But hey, I was happy I got my bhel-puri.