Jab We Met

Director: Imtiaz Ali
Writer: Imtiaz Ali
Stars: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Tarun Arora

Aditya Kashyap (Shahid Kapoor) is the most despondent person that one can encounter – a millionaire with a tumultuous life. Hailing from a broken family and after his father’s death, he is running a failing business and the icing – he has just been jilted by the “love of hislife”. Geet (Kareena Kapoor), ‘Bhatinda’s Sikhani’ is the curious, playful and annoyingly upbeat and chatty chick. She is returning home to Bhatinda, after her doing her degree in Mumbai, to a very large, loving and protective Punjabi family. The two meet on an unexpectedly when a hopeless Adi is on a train, heading nowhere. Geet’s fiery and cheery persona at first annoys Adi to the point of insanity but when he looks much closer he sees that there is a lot to be learnt from Geet. In her nosy yet helpful manner, Geet, stupidly misses her train back to Bhatinda. The blame goes to Adi and thus Geet swears that she will not let him escape until Aditya, himself, drops her home. Geet is going to meet her family before putting her genius plan into action – which is to elope with her non-Sikh boyfriend.

The story is not something out of the ordinary. Many such scripts have been subjects of experimentation but not until this film, has a director succeeded in finally capturing the essence of such a love story.JWM stands for everything Indian cinema has long forgotten – simple story lines crafted with an Indian backdrop, soul and essence. It’s a refreshing experience to take a journey with characters so Indian and most importantly a journey that’s in India, which has decreased with the new flock of ‘filmmakers’.
The script remains flawless with no ‘out there’ features. If you had to scrutinise the screenplay, the only flaw would be that the songs, “Aaoge Jab Tum” and “Yeh Ishq Hai” should have had less screen time.

Almost every scene has something outstanding about it – from cinematography to dialogue to performances. However if you had to pinpoint scenes then it would be two of Shahid’s scenes. The first would be his introductory dialogue scene with Kareena on the train when they first meet and the second, where Shahid meets Kareena after nine months apart.Usually it’s the cast and director who receive all the accolades but there are two people who should be applauded for making JWM such a fantastic movie.

The first would be Imtiaz Ali, the multi-talented writer-director-screenwriter and second, Aarti Kashyap, the amazing editor. The two managed to make the impossible possible – climax that is not a bore. Usually in such stories climaxes are full of tears, embraces, slow motion shots and prolonged melodramatic dialogues that when the actors finish delivering, audiences are fast asleep. As the story unfolds, one would think that this too will have an extended climax. But it doesn’t. It’s sweet, simple and you leave the cinema satisfied, if not on a high. NB: Despite being an appropriate climax, it isn’t a rushed or a haphazard climax and answers any questions asked.

Cinematographer, S Natarajan Subramaniam, needs to be congratulated for creating a movie that is absolutely ‘real’. The cinematography is a perfect combination of classy yet realistic. It doesn’t look cheap or opulent. Not many movies are so perfectly captured. For JWM this style of cinematography was a necessity, as it worked conjunction with the style of storytelling and characters.

And at last we get to the performances. Where to begin? Let’s start with the show-stealer – Shahid Kapoor. Saying that he has grown from strength-to-strength is an understatement. The actor simply blows you away. Dialogues delivered flawlessly, expressions that are priceless and with a fresh mature look that is to die for (especially in the ‘Mauja Mauja’ song sequence). It’s hard to believe that such a knock-out performance was delivered by someone who is only 4 yrs old in the film industry. JWM is his best work to date. This is, hopefully, a reflection of what is to come.

Kareena Kapoor appears in an unseen persona. Sure, she has been the “crazy” girl in many of her previous films but never has she made transitions between a “crazy” and “normal” girl so beautifully. She just might be the saving grace of Bollywood at a time when there is a shortage of actresses, in the true sense of the word. The only flaw in her performance would be the slight overacting in one or two scene. However, like Shahid, Kareena has also performed one of her most memorable roles to date.

Best Scene from Jab We Met