Cliched, but the perfect description for shahrukh khan’s scene stealing performance in josh.
the awe inspiring show by king khan is the best part of the movie. he’s been subjecting us to all that passionate lover’s mumbo jumbo for way too long. in josh, mansoor khan managed to make good sense prevail upon him and srk got his act together to deliver a radiant performance that establishes him, as an actor, brilliant in every sense of the word.... especially by breaking the monotony we’ve been seeing in his acting for many years. he proves that his repertoire is not limited to saying k-k-k-kiran or dishing out an over-dramatic, hypersenti, rhetorical piece of dialogue. the only recent performance i’ve seen that can match this one is aamir khan’s portrayal of dil nawaz in 1947:earth.
coming to the rest of the movie, the art directors have done a good job of putting up the sets .. ash, chandrachur and sharad kapoor do well in their respective roles…...the music complements the movie very well. Josh looks jaded because of that long span of time it took in being made but the cinematography (dunno who did it) is very good. almost everything else works well for josh but the story. there isnt much to write about it. added to that, I think mansoor khan lost the movie somewhere midway but unlike aditya chopra for mohabbatein, he was able to pull it back together with some help from the life of the movie, shahrukh. suggestions pop up that shorter length and fewer songs could have made the movie better. josh gets swayed away to somewhat boring pastures at times but soon gets back on the track. where mohabbatein tripped, josh just about managed to balance itself.
In a rather bleak first year of the millennium for bollywood, this was the only movie that I saw twinkling with aplomb in an otherwise pitch-black sky (of course, there was that little faint glow of mohabbatein). That’s why josh is my favourite hindi movie of the year 2000 and though not a must-see, also not mansoor khan’s best, its good to watch...especially if you havent seen a better hindi movie since a year.