Today, I went to watch the much-hyped movie, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na.. There two reasons for watching the movie:
- It was a movie that had Aamir Khan's name associated with it AND
- I'd got engaged and needed a nice romatic movie to take my fiance to..
The movie's about love – or rather when do you know that you are in love as against being “just friends”. It delivers on the promise of being a college romance flick with not much serious overtones. However, if somehow fails to evoke any empathy for the actors. Somehow, you don't feel the passion of the love, nor the pain of seperation that the confused souls face when you are in that situation where you don't know if you are in love or not..
The movie has its positives. Imran comes across as a nice college teen flick actor. So does his gang of friends. Mr and Mrs Naseruddin Shah are as at their best. However the main heroine, Genelia comes across as someone who just fails to talk in Hindi. Her dialogue delivery is to be fair is like someone taking a Hindi orals in a South Indian school. It better when she doesn't talk.
The best part about the move were the hilarious moments when Mr & Mrs Naseruddin Shah speak to each other. As against melodrama of a widow who's lost her husband, in this movie, there is no sympathy asked nor needed towards the widowed mother of the hero. Instead, the father is always shown to be present as a living potrait – and someone who does not just give fatherly advise but dances and jumps around with joy about his son.
Paresh Rawal as his typical Marathi speaking police officer is quite nice. You sort of expect his Hindi to be Marthi mixed so not too much of a surprise there.
One place where the movie seems a bit far fetched is its portrayal of friendship. Somehow, it seems like the movie is not based in India at all. Guys and girls are shown as friends with guys hanging in their girl student friends' homes even after 12 at night. After being engaged I'm not allowed to meet my fiance beyond the time when sun goes down. In a society with these rules, the behaviour in the movie seems to be a bit too over the top.
The sad part of the movie is the heart of what it should have been about – the quandry of “''Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na..” ''That is when in a deep relationship how do you know that you are in love. Here's where I was expecting the “Aakash” style of confusion from Dil Chahta Hai. The pain, confusion, anguish that Aamir Khan portrays in that movie evokes a sense of deep empathy in you in that movie. However in this movie, Imraan is shown hanging around with his own girlfriend Meghna while Gnelia is shown hanging around with another guy. Sure there are some sparks but, you just don't feel that sense of confusion at all. Even the break up scene of Imran where his current girl friend just comes to him one fine morning and with no tears or confusion breaks up – that is a bit too unrealistic to believe, if they were in as deep a relationship that they are shown to be in. The only redeeming thing is the beautiful songs by AR Rehman. "Kabhi kabhi" sort of haunts you all along.. Again, the nice music is wasted on untimely songs and at times bad picturization. Somehow the songs don't seem to fit in.. The nice lyrics of "Kabhi kabhi Aditi.." is for cheering Aditi over a dead cat. Somehow that doesn't gell well!
Overall, the movie is worth a watch for the humour content. It does make you laugh and the comedu is decent. But, if you are expecting a movie that makes your heart cry out for the tender love of the two people on screen, be prepared to be let down. Its a nice fun movie with no message and nothing that evokes any sympathy but a nice bit of laughter, especially if you've gone to the theatre with your own sweet heart around.
