Jaaneman – Fun Unlimited But Some Depth Too!!
Hi Folks,
Sajid “Jerry Bruckheimer of India” Nadiadwallah’s JAANEMAN hits the
theater today. Caught a media screening of that last night. This
film was shot almost entirely in NYC, had Anupam Kher playing the
role of a midget, for which he had to act on his knees for approx a
month, no mean task and finally it was the film which fetched the
highest gross amount in a distribution deal, at one time. This is
also arguably ADLABS biggest relase this year, comparable, if not
bigger than KRISSH.
When you consider the two male leads in the film, Salman Khan and
Akshay Kumar, you have two characters, who probably have a combined
IQ in real life of approx negative four, don’t take life too
seriously, have the ability to laugh at themselves and are, at the
end of the day, easy going individuals. This pretty much plays out
in this fun unabated film. Almost every scene has underlying humor
in it and even the more serious situations, have a light feel to it,
making it a truly “non life changing,” masala film to watch. The
grand sets, coupled with the beauty of NY and the electrifying
chemistry of the side kick actor (”but I only do leads”) Suhaan
Kapoor, essayed effortlessly by Salman and the more “allegedly
serious” albeit not bereft of “humor in being himself” Agastya Rao,
palyed to perfection by Akshay, along with the fun filled
performance by the “Bona but fiercely independent and fully capable
of taking care of himself” Anupam, light up the screen.
Priety’s plays her character with the maturity of someone who has
gone through a traumatic experience in life and yet has the optimism
that the surrounding of NYC instills in a person.
The story revolves around studly Suhaan’s training of “winning your
JAANEMAN” to geeky Akshay. The JAANEMAN in question being Priety.
But wait there is also that connection between Suhaan and Priety’s
character and the school connection between all three of the main
characters of this film, whihc is the driving force of one hilarious
situation leading to another.
It takes courage for a hero to play the geek and Akshay’s growth as
an actor is very evident in, of all things, his distinct laugh in
the film, which comes at all the appropriate times. Salman shows a
fine flair for comedy and even the fight sequence has an air of
humour as a cross dressed Salman, fights the goons away.
The direction by Shirish Kuder, dance director Farah Khan’s spouse,
shows promise. In most Sajid Nadiadwalla films, the creative element
in direction is devoid, here it is distinct and that would clearly
mean that Kunder has immense promise.
The music is peppy and blends right into the movie instead of taking
away from it.
The scenic highlights of the film….Salman beating out Rajesh
Khanna, Dilip Kumar and Amitabh to win the Filmfare awards
Akshay’s “geeky” Champu (his nickname in school) potrayal in school
Watch this for a good time and that laugh on the lookback years of
school, especially when we wonder what became of our
classmates…..how did they evolve into adulthood, given what they
were when we knew them in school.
OH AND ONE MORE THING…AS NOTICED BY THE FEMALE AUDIENCE LAST
NIGHT….LOOK OUT FOR SALMAN’s BELLYBUTTON!!!
Sincerely,
Vivek “enough serious stuff in the real life, so a welcome change in
reel life” Kumar
&
Ok Folks,
Despite talking about the fun element of Jaan E Man, the film had a
lot of depth and there was that one defining moment, which actually
not only “hit the nail”, on the character of Agastya Rao, but also
on Akshay’s real life development as an actor
I call it the “wash your face” moment or “what am I” moment.
It is that moment when Akshay realizes that he is probably going to
loose Priety again to Salman. Older films would have the “Second
lead” getting extra emotional,etc, etc.
But JAAN E MAN hit the nail… What does Akshay/Agastya do?
He goes to the restroom, washes his face and looks hard and good at
his own self in the mirror. He then decides to become “who he really
is and what he really is about.” Hence he becomes Agastya Rao and no
more someone else. He realizes that being “who he is not” but “who
Priety wants” is going to take everyone downhill. That hair being
redone, the redawning of the glasses and removal of the contacts,
becomes that one moment, that one, flicker, when you realize that
who you are and what you are about, is what it all is about…there
will be the things that you loose, but the comfort which comes from
being “oneself, consequences be dammed” is the most comforting
moment, after the trauma of losing one’s “unreal identity and the
people who buy it”
Kudos to the scriptwriter for writing that part and kudos to the
director for doing a wonderful job directing it. And of course kudos
to Akshay for enacting it to perfection.
SRK was impressed and was one of the first to congratulate Akshay on
his performance in JAAN E MAN.
I can almost picture Akshay having gone through that defining
moment, when he joined Bollywood from being a cook in Bangkok, to
his coming of age as a performer i.e. being himself.
Sincerely,
Vivek “SAAFA was created in one such moment” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
welcome to PFC vivek.. about damn time
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hey vivek …u make it sound as pretty watchable /entertaining ….
me gotta take the risk of watching it ….
shirish kunder brings in very good narrative style…just for that it is worth a watch…