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iView Author:
ADESH PRASAD , India

EMAIL:
prasad_adesh [at] yahoo.co.in

After watching Jab we met the first thing that I could think, which could be associated with the film was, a loose elastic. And that made me very sad.

Although I think it has great dialogues. Smart dialogues to be precise. They are very funny, infact continuously funny like the situations. Humour is neither over the top nor its cheap, its just classy and charming. The scenes are realistically handled and the most amazing part is the kind of timing and restraint it exhibits. The scenes are handled the way you’d expect from any good film from any corner of the world.

Kareena Kapoor is surprisingly fabulous. I am amazed with the ease and maturity (with which as an actor) she handles her character. Suddenly she is an actor now. And that’s a very pleasant discovery or may be transformation is the word.

Shahid Kapoor ! Thank god he was asked to behave normal like a boy of his age would and not like a HERO like in his other films like Fida, Vivah, Ishq Vishq.
(It feels so nice to see actors behave like a normal person in films these days)

And together they are just wonderful.

Dara singh’s scenes, Kareena’s intro, the following conversation between her and Shahid kapur, the hotel decent scene, the scene in which they elope, the scene in the second half when they talk about hotel decent, when she abuses her boyfriend on phone… the list of the memorable and smartly written scenes is just too long. And now when I think of it I feel the power of immense potential I sense and hopes I have from Imtiaz Ali, the director and Imtiaz Ali, the writer.

And as for music, Pritam has done it again. I think he is one of the better music composers present today. I love him. I love his style. I think his music is here to stay for very long. As an album, Jab We Met works big time.

But inspite of so many things going for the film, I felt, it fell short of becoming the best romantic comedy of hindi film industry.

Everything was going fine in the film till the moment the first song comes in the film, and to top it we see that it’s a lip sync song, it just crashes all the interest, pace and realism it had established till now. That song is so distracting. So useless. Why was it there? How I wish it wasn’t there! If that part of the film was treated like a montage with some more dialogues thrown in between and using a nice music in the background (may be tumse hi’s instrument version) it would have done wonders. It would have been amazing.

May be that song was kept to show that Shahid’s character loves music and he can sing but there are ten better ways to establish that than break into an inconsequential song. It breaks the mood of the film. It just distracts.

And this is what I feel for other songs too. Nagada still works because its very good looking and is very well shot and choreographed but even then it also doesn’t serve any purpose in particular.

And what about the song they sing when they elope. Theres a fade out when they elope, that point could be the interval point, not a reason to break into another song. It just stops the narrative and gives a lame reason to the actors to dance. And that mauja mauja in the climax is too arbit and pointless. That’s ok you want to be fun and maintain that mood throughout the film but then you’ve already shown other and better ways to maintain the rhythm of the film than use songs just for the sake of having them.

Why cant we just stay away from them if they are not required? And what that lip sync is all about? Lip sync is passé, it can work if you’re making a musical. Jab we met isn’t a musical. And this conflict between realism and breaking into a song just doesn’t work. A film like Devil wears prada, school of rock, Dazed and confused, Chakde India, Khosla ka ghosla etc. use music as part of their narrative and it works really well the way they do it.

Its fine to use songs to market films but atleast weave them in the film intelligently. And that’s not asking for too much from a director/writer who can otherwise come up with such brilliant set of dialogues and scenes.

Apart from the songs…whats that duration of the film is all about? I think it was a perfect 90-120 minute film. It was not required to stretch it to 2 and a half hours.

Just imagine the most famous and most entertaining romantic comedies like pretty woman, sleepless in Seattle, music and lyrics, when Harry met Sally, Notting Hill being stretched to two and a half hours with songs and lip sync. How tasteless they’ll be that way. That’s what I feel happened to Jab we met. It overstays on screen and that’s not a good news for any film.

Either you have enough content to justify your duration or just let the film have the duration it deserves. Its sad to see how much it got carried away with its own charm.

That’s why the first thing came to my mind, which I could associate with the film, was a loose elastic. I felt it required a lot of editing at the writing stage and demanded a little bit of more time with it’s writers, so that the overall character arcs could be improvised further and all the loose ends could be tied in a better fashion.

Art direction could be better too. The office looks quite fake. It looks like a studio. It doesnt work. The background score is really nice. perfect timing and thank god its not loud it works with the mood. The concept of train is nice too.

But certainly, even after the two major complaints I have, I feel it’s the next best commercial film after Chak De India. It might not be the best romantic comedy made in hindi film industry but definitely it’s the most promising and the smartest one.

Whats Hum tum and all ?

Heres a new beginning.