Jab We Met**.....a delightful comedy about love, life and adventure.
Imtiaz Ali scores yet again and how.
Story:
Aditya Kashyap(Shahid Kapur) is a wealthy industrialist who is low on luck in life. His company is doing badly, his girlfriend gets married to someone else and he has nothing to look forward to. In a state of depression and frustration he boards a train to Delhi. In the train he meets Geet(Kareena Kapoor) who irritates Aditya to the point of getting him to leave the train. As she tries to get him back on the train, she ends up missing it and the two find themselves stranded on a desolate station with no luggage or money. Two strangers on a journey through northern India. What happens next?
Performances:
Kudos to Imtiaz for casting Shahid and Kareena for the lead roles. I don’t think anyone could’ve given more justice to their respective roles. I didn’t think I would ever like Kareena Kapoor but ‘Jab We Met’ has just made me rethink. She is wonderful in an author backed role….absolutely fantastic. The expressions, the body language, the dialogue delivery….even dance. She sure was a revelation. Shahid Kapur is no less. The young lad holds his ground and delivers a knock-out performance from the word Go. Pawan Malhotra as Kareena’s uncle does a fine job….no overacting…just fine. Dara Singh is alright. Tarun Arora and Saumya Tandon are adequate.
Pros:
Lots of them….
1) Casting….biggest positive of ‘Jab We Met’. The leads Shahid and Kareena were just excellent.
2) Direction….Imtiaz handles the light moments and the intense ones with such a lot of finesse that its tough to believe that ‘Jab We Met’ is only his second film. Truly a master storyteller.
3) Dialogues….superb dialogues. Imtiaz deserves a Filmfare for dialogues alone…leave alone direction. Most sequences have amazing dialogues which make you roll in the aisles.
4) Songs….yep….finally a hindi film in which songs are a big plus point. Songs have been choreographed and shot exceedingly well. The music too is good. And no song seems forced for a pleasant change. Even ‘Socha Na Tha’(Imtiaz’s directorial debut) had wonderful songs.
5) Costumes….unlike the overtly colourful and garish costumes we see these days(read Jhoom Barabar Jhoom) the costumes for ‘Jab We Met’ have been thought out. They go with the character’s personality and do not look like clothes made for a fashion show.
6) Length….‘Jab We Met’ is a mere 2 hours 25 minutes. No time to get bored.
Cons: *
Yes…it has its faults as well…
1) Why does Shahid’s girlfriend marry someone else? Why does his business have problems (which by the way becomes an overnight success when Shahid returns to Bombay)? No explanations offered.
2) How does Shahid find Anshuman whom he’s never met? Unexplained.
3) Both leads seem to have no friends since there never is a mention of even one. Really strange. Usually when in problems related to family everyone talks to their friends.
4) The song ‘Mauja Hi Mauja’ at the end of the movie was most unnecessary. Its been put just for commercial success…it does not contribute to the story any which way. Really silly.
*My Verdict:
*‘Jab We Met’ is an ordinary story told through extraordinary performances, superb dialogues and with a ‘hatke’ style. A strong recommendation for all movie-goers.