Movie Review: Jab we met

Being as much the cinamchi ( Movie buff ) as I am, I went crazy reading how the internet world was split, debating which movie (OSO and Sawariya) would be the first to watch. Several polls were hung online and I checked out all of them and read about all the hype for both of them. At last, I decided to take a chill pill and put my money into 'Jab We Met'.

Whoa! What a pleasant surprise! Imtiaz Ali (Director) handled the simple love story with such elegance and the movie sets the scene so beautiful, such as a fresh morning drizzle. Pritam's music, grew more on me, while I watched the movie. If you are like me, who opens ears wider for the background scores, you will be mesmarized at this one. Certain scenes complimented with the apt background score remain in your memory for a longer time. The songs are placed at appropriate times in the movie and the lyrics are written with much thought. "Manzil se behtar lagne lage yeh raastein....." for a journey that would take two people to different destinations. ( temporarily of course, we like happy endings, don't we? ) Watch for the lyrics in "Aaoge jab tum". Lyricist Irshad Kamil takes you to the 'Chitchor-esque' lands with that song.

The cast themselves did a stupendous job. Imtiaz Ali perhaps brought the best out of Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. While Kareena's role is of a bubbly Basanti, Shahid's role is of a calm and composed lad with some brooding shades. Aditya Kashyap's (Shahid) character is a typical Rahul of our cinema, which any Shah Rukh and the likes would have easily given their 100% of "overacting" skills. However, Shahid Kapoor gave only as much as any shot required him to. It is perhaps one of his finest performances. Even the hotelia at hotel 'Decent' gives you a 3-mintute laughter ride with his excellent expressions.

If there is someone you could like after Basanti (of Sholay fame), that would be Geet (Kareena) in this film. The lass is a loud chatterbox but, will keep you rolling in laughter. Her obsession with shaadi and trains provide the perfect comic timing and emotion. Her train missing scene for the second time, is absolutely hilarious.

This is a young and vibrant film. The dialogues are like any day mumbaikar's, chitchat, "How do you like me, tell me know"??? The plot is simple. Girl is going home to Bhatinda from Mumbai with a later plan to elope with her boyfriend. Stumbles upon the the lost rich boy in the train and after a series of incidents and missing trains, the two end up travelling together, to get her home, help her elope with her boyfriend. Boy returns to his empire and starts pulling his cards together while the girl gets rejected by the boyfriend and disappears being heartbroken.

Girl's family whines to the boy and boy sets out to find her and the boyfriend to bring them back home. The confusion at the end is quite hilarious which sets the right stage for the ending. Watch out for the boyfriend's frustration over the sugarcane field tour. Its hilarious.

So, what exactly is my point, in writing this review 3 weeks after its release? One, I happened to watch it only now and two, to urge you to see this wonderful tale at least now, if you have not seen it so far. I assure you that it is way better entertainment than OSO or Sawariya. In the last weekend in week, I saw this movie 6 times, jee haan, 5 times on a DVD that was a bad copy and finally went to the theatre for the 6th time to get the original sound and also to see Shahid Kapoor magnified..........but then, I started this review telling you how much of a cinamchi I am, didn't I?

Peopls said that this is an out and out Kareena Kapoor film, while I agree to some extent, Shahid Kapoor did an awesome job as well and I wanted to watch Shahid Kapoor's expressions more than hers. Her chatter and his expressions set the perfect chemistry and comic timing. Shahid Kapoor dances like a dream, after all, he is trained at Shiamak Davar's and sports it to good use, enough to leave me drooling. After I saw this movie, I rented Shahid Kapoor's Ishk Vishk and Vivah again. Could not get enough of him and patiently waiting for his next releases. A few underdeveloped sub plots might bother few picky viewers but, you will not complain for long.

The movie gets my **** stars. I cut one star for a few silly scenes with screens and toy train and toy car.  Adios !