Jab We Met

Rating: 9/10

I wasnt at all keen on watching Jab We Met, because first thing, I dislike Kareena Kapoor, and second, I hadnt felt like finishing Imtiaz Alis debut film, Socha Na Tha. So I first of all would like to dedicate this review to Madhushruti Bordoloi, who strongly recommended that I watch it. If it werent for her, Id have missed a really delightful movie. It helped that I watched it along with a lady friend on her birthday. Now that I finally have, Id like to say that Jab We Met will definitely be on my list of top 10 films of the year. No wonder a hard-boiled no-nonsense guy like Anurag Kashyap liked it. (If you want to see Anurag Kashyaps views, click here)

The first 2-3 minutes show a highly despondent Shahid Kapur walking out of his companys board meeting and driving to his girlfriends marriage to some other guy, then boarding the first train he can lay his hands on. As expected, the girl who lands up in the seat with him is Geet (Kareena Kapoor). Geet is an A1 chatterbox the kind of girl whom Id have fallen in love with 9-10 years ago, but not anymore, because now I know better J . Silent types like me are attracted to chatterboxes, but after the initial attraction wears off, they begin to grate on one anothers nerves. The chatterboxes end up saying Why dont you ever say anything? and the silent types say Could you just stop talking for a little while?

I guess thats why I found Kareenas character very irritating at first. In fact, Im highly prejudiced against her, because of all the snooty oversmart stuck-up nose-in-the-air characters shes played in a gazillion movies like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Yaadein, Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Fida, etc etc. I havent seen Dev, and she was surprisingly good in Chameli and Omkara, but my first reaction to her character was Oh no, heres a verbal diarrhea version of Poo again. Anyway, I gradually started taking a liking to her. If I were actually stuck with a girl like that, though, Im sure Id get a headache after about half an hour.

So whats happening is that Geet is going to her hometown Bhatinda, from where she plans to elope and join her boyfriend Angshuman (Tarun Arora) in Manali. Unfortunately, thanks to Shahid, they miss their train at a station late at night. From there, their adventures begin. How they get to Bhatinda is the first act, the second act is located in Geets home in Bhatinda, and the third well, Id be giving away too much of the story.

My first big laugh came when an exasperated Shahid Kapur tells Kareena to shut up because he doesnt want to hear any more of her life story whether her hometowns Bhatinda or Banaras or whether she lived in a hostel or a brothel. Many more fantastic, laugh-aloud moments followed. Imtiaz Ali has demonstrated one very vital thing here you dont have to go for loud jokes or situations copied from a collage of English movies to get solid laughs out of your audience. An immediate comparison that comes to mind is Dhamaal, which was okay in its own way, but Jab We Met is really funny without resorting to any low-brow humour. I laughed much more than I did while watching Dhol, which was supposed to be a full-on comedy but was more of a pain in one side of the head.

Rediffs review had this to say in the thumbs down segment: Irrelevant second half. What an absolutely dumb comment! For a few minutes in the second half, I did think the film might go that way, but then the story took a very nice emotional turn, without heres a major point without resorting to the Indra Kumar formula of first half total comedy, second half total tragedy. Even the second half was loaded with laugh-out-loud humour. Good. It would have been painful otherwise.

I really dont give two hoots about whos seeing whom in Bollywood. But the rate at which were inundated with unnecessary filmy news everywhere leaves me no choice but to know that Shahid and Kareena were a couple and they recently broke up. Fine. Thats their personal business. On screen, Id say their chemistry was a little short of perfect. In my humble opinion, thats because Shahids acting has become a bit predictable. He needs to sometimes break out of his own personality and adopt new mannerisms and inflections. And who better to show as an example of this art than his very own dad, the great Pankaj Kapur, who becomes a totally different person with each performance. Off the top of my head, I can mention his characters in Office Office, The Blue Umbrella, Maqbool and Dus (which I didnt finish) as instances. With such genes in Shahid, Im sure hell get there someday.

Kareena heh heh heh. Ive already mentioned that she was near the top of my list of cant-stand actresses, but with Chameli, I had to grudgingly admit that shes got the goods. Omkara also gave her a more meaningful role after many years of playing bimbo prom queen types. I have no idea how Kareena is in real life, but I suspect she was channelising a lot of her own personality into her character, and she did it extremely well, I must admit. This performance will easily bring her quite a few well-deserved nominations next year. Never thought Id be saying this about Kareena Kapoor. God!

When the year is over, Ill be putting up lists of my own top 5 films and performances etc. In the actress category, Kareena will be joining Tabu forCheeni Kum and Shefali Shah for Gandhi, My Father.

I usually dont talk about the music of a film unless its really good or really bad. Really bad instantly brings to mind RGV Ki Aag , whose songs were full-bloodied assaults on every ounce of ones aesthetic sense. Jab We Met has music by Pritam Chakraborty, whos my kind of musician, since hes a rock guitarist. The songs are really nice, which is a big one coming from me, as I rarely like songs at the first listen. A lot of times, songs simply break the pace, but that doesnt happen with Jab We Met. Theyre placed at moments which by themselves demand songs. Even a Hollywood film would have had background songs at the points where Imtiaz Alis placed his songs. I dont watch TV, so Id never heard them before. In fact, if Id seen the item number at the end of the film on TV, wild horses wouldnt have been able to drag me to watch it. Im really sick of seeing firang babes twirling and winding their butts and bellies in fetishist two-piece nothingamijings. This last item number feels so very out of place with the rest of the films beautiful sensibilities that I suspect it was thrust upon Imtiaz Ali by some producer.

One last word about the music: even the Punjabi number was fun instead of being grating on the ears, but Shahid Kapur needs to learn that you cant lip-sync so casually to a song with high notes. And somebody please teach our Hindi film heroes to at least hold ONE guitar chord properly!

The supporting cast is also great, with one exception. Dara Singh and Pawan Malhotra play Kareenas dadaji and chachaji. Pawan Malhotra already has my vote for this years best actor awards for Black Friday . Jab We Met doesnt tax his immense abilities, but its a fine demonstration of his versatility.

The one exception I mentioned is Tarun Arora, who plays Kareenas boyfriend. He does get a few laughs, but there are a lot of times when its obvious that hes acting. As I walked out of the theatre, I had this wild idea that Shah Rukh Khan would have been great for that role. It would be a great change for him, and the lines and expressions needed would be just the kind that Shah Rukh could pull off to maximum effect.

Imtiaz Alis taken a lot of care with the script it shows in the wonderful lines hes written and the situations hes created, and I cant think of any scenes where he used obvious cliches. His directions also been splendid. Theres much more energy than there was in what little I saw of Socha Na Tha, and the characters hes created are fresh, interesting people whore at the same time grounded in reality. I doff my hat to Imtiaz Ali, then, for giving us one of the best love stories in a looooonnngg time.

Bottomline

You might like this film if you liked: When Harry Met Sally, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Namastey London, My Sassy Girl

You might not like this film if: You think only Ram Gopal Verma kind of films are worth watching

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