A beautiful swan song which is slightly out of tune

Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) 
Director: Yash Chopra
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Over the past one year, the release of ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ has been an eagerly awaited affair for a multitude of reasons, be it Yash Chopra’s announcement of this being his last film & the subsequent unfortunate demise of this legendary filmmaker, Shah Rukh Khan’s return to a genre which he has defined over the past two decades and AR Rahman & Gulzar’s maiden partnership to bring to life the music of the film. The marketing of the film has been wonderfully planned and executed by Yash Raj Films with the title of the film invoking curiosity, trailers & the song promos generating unprecedented views on YouTube and a lot of pre-release talk on Social Media.

There are certain things you can be sure of when Yash Chopra weaves a film. You would be teleported to a poetic world of goodness where people may be flawed but never villainous, where destiny or fate makes improbable occurrences happen believably, where love is idealistic and flaming with passion. ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ encompasses itself within these contours and expresses itself in a contemporary manner. 

 *PLOT SPOILERS BEGIN *

The plot gets off to a splendid start as we’re introduced to a rugged looking SRK clad in an Army uniform. He plays Samar Anand, a Major in the Bomb Disposal squad of the Indian Army. Samar diffuses bombs with the ease of changing a light bulb. Around this character is an air of mystery and reticence as the film goes into a flashback (10 years back) to establish his roots. 

The flashback wonderfully establishes the unlikely love affair between Samar and Meera, played by Katrina. They are from two different worlds. He waits on tables, speaks ludicrous English and is a street singer. She is the daughter of a well to do businessman in London, has some parental issues and seeks God with a childlike earnestness. Circumstances make them meet and spend time with each other. They find this passion & completeness together and end up falling in love. But an unfathomable plot premise centering on the faith in the divine of a woman vs. the ego of a man seeps in. They part ways. Samar loses his zest for life and leaves London to join the Indian Army.

We’re back to present day Ladakh where Major Samar Anand meets Akira, a newbie filmmaker working with Discovery Channel. While working on a documentary on Samar, Akira falls for his maturity & intensity. Samar, after the initial phase of being guarded and uptight becomes fond of her, relearning how to smile & dance. They become friends. Just when you think he might be confronted with a decision to decide between clinging to his past or moving on, comes a very contrived plot twist which makes the story come a full circle. What follows is a deliberate attempt to take the safest route to underline the message that “every love has its time to fulfill its destiny”.

 *PLOT SPOILERS END *

Jab Tak Hai Jaan, despite it’s over stretched runtime of 180 minutes and the two disruptive plot twists which are seemingly dichotomous to the contemporary approach of the film, holds together, remains watchable and succeeds thanks to the Director at the helm of affairs. Yash Chopra has honed his craft better than anyone in the business. He knows how and when to bring about the beauty of human emotions on screen.

The performances are the single most redeeming factor of the film. JTHJ has vintage SRK in prime form doing what he does best! He brings in oodles of charm, energy, intensity, passion and a certain degree of restraint to embody the different layers of his character. Just his sheer presence, mannerisms and dialog delivery breathes magic into some mundane scenes. 

Katrina really emerges as the surprise package of the film and probably gives her career best performance. Despite the shackles put on Katrina’s character by the script, she plays the part of the ethereal, sensuous & unattainable Yash Raj heroine with a lot of panache. Her first time pairing with SRK certainly has sparks flying. Anushka plays a pivotal part in guiding the film to its conclusion. She is a livewire who manages to outdo even SRK’s energy in some scenes. 

With YRF, the production values are excellent as expected. The cinematography adds so much life to the film.  London makes for a young, refreshing background for the love story between SRK and Katrina and lends itself to the contemporary appeal of the film. The barren and haunting beauty of Ladakh & Kashmir respectively is in perfect sync with the state of mind of SRK’s reticent army guy act. A.R. Rahman’s soundtrack for the film has been very polarizing. Nevertheless, Challa, Ishq Shava & Saans play their own special part to guide the film along.

The film’s appeal will primarily lie with a generation of viewers for whom romance has been defined by classical films like 'Silisla', 'Kabhie Kabhie', 'Aradhana' & 'Lamhe' to name a few. Today’s youth, who barring ‘Jab We Met’ haven’t seen a true blue good romanctic film in recent times might find JTHJ farfetched. A couple of intelligent tweaks in the script and this had the potential to be a colossal movie going experience which it unfortunately falls short of.

All said and done, JTHJ has a soul and a strong identity unlike most Rs 100 crore grossing mainstream and commercial films coming out of Bollywood pitched as “Masala entertainment”. The film is an apt farewell to one of Hindi Cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers and his unique & magical style of film-making.

The Prognosticator

“What are my chances?” (of my ending up with you) asks a geeky character called Lloyd played by Jim Carrey in ‘Dumb and Dumber’ to the pretty heroine who replies “I’d say more like one out of a million.” Lloyd says, “Oh, so you’re telling me that I have a chance!” Cut towards the end of the film and yes, Lloyd does get the girl. This is the sense of optimism that the movies instill in us. They make us believe that we can have that happy ending, come out of a chronic disease, fall in love in an idyllic world and yes perhaps even win a lottery! It turns out that one such incident happened in my life last week and this post is about one such one in a million event coming true.

My love for the movies burns with an intense passion. Over the past decade, this passion continues to feed itself by watching some of the best cinema from around the world and its appetite keeps getting larger. Every year, it is most hungry when the Golden Globes nominations are announced and the road to the Oscars officially starts. For this is the time when some of the year’s best movies are churned out and compete for glory at the biggest stage of recognition that showbiz has to offer – the Oscars.

The annual ritual involves the quest to see all the nominated movies as far as possible. Some are truly brilliant while others leave you dumb founded thinking “What was so great about that?” Since 2010, the Academy has gone back to nominating 10 films in the ‘Best Film’ category, which gives a chance for movie lovers to see more number of films which they might have over looked.

The nominees for the 84^th Academy Awards were an interesting mix. Very few films end up being a tribute to the movies. Last year we had two in 'The Artist' & 'Hugo'. They were just the kind of films that aficionados have been waiting since the masterpiece ‘Nuovo Cinema Paradiso’ came out in 1988. Then there was ‘The Descendants’ which was a fine example of subtle film-making. This family drama set in Hawaii was dipped in reality, never screamed at the viewer or entered the larger than life/ melodramatic territory. Brad Pitt’s ‘Moneyball’, with Baseball/Sports Management as an analogy served as a case study on defining and changing the rules of what you do in life. Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’ which looked at the origin and meaning of life was a little too abstract and indulgent for my liking. The seasoned Woody Allen came up with the charming ‘Midnight in Paris’. ‘The Help’ was an incredible story of empowerment, a witty take on an uncomfortable time for American society. Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’ not amongst his best was nevertheless an entertaining film though you could argue that films like '50-50’ and ‘Drive’ more than deserved a nomination.

On the basis of the above analysis, personal favorites were arrived at. 'The Artist' is exactly the kind of movie which makes me the movie fanatic that I am. A masterfully executed film in today's age of blockbuster entertainment which reminds us of a golden era of cinema. ‘Hugo’ was its closest competitor but the ‘The Artist’ excelled in the screenplay, direction and acting department while Scorsese's rich canvas ‘Hugo’ excelled in technical categories like Cinematography & Art Direction. ‘The Artist’ was going to be my favorite for the ‘Best Film’, ‘Best Achievement in Directing’ and ‘Best Actor” category. Jean Dujardin’s showmanship in ‘The Artist’ was for me a level above Clooney’s nuanced performance in ‘The Descendants’. Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher was feisty and full of conviction. It was a performance which made an average movie watchable. That was going to be my pick for ‘Best Actress’.

Analysis done and favorites arrived at, the annual ritual would be complete when I would wake up early to watch the telecast on Star Movies and that would be it. Only that there was another script in store for me, one where I’d play the protagonist in this film which could be called ‘The Prognosticator’. A few days before the awards, I went to the Star Movies India website to check for the exact timings of the Oscar telecast. There I saw this Predict & Win contest on their website, clicked on it and made my six key predictions without any contemplation. This for me was an activity to kill time on a lazy weekend. Come the telecast day, another question was asked which I replied via SMS thinking of this as a game of Roulette. After all what were the odds? Over 5.5 lac followers of the Star Movies India Facebook page could participate in this contest. Then there is the entire scenario of getting all predictions spot on. Oscars can be highly unpredictable. Glaring examples which come to mind are ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ which never won a single award in 1994 and in recent times, the tale of Mickey Rourke who was robbed off the ‘Best Actor’ award in 2009 when his gut wrenching performance in ‘The Wrestler’ was overlooked. Therefore, all odds taken into consideration I just relaxed, sat back and enjoyed watching the telecast. Turned out that all my predictions were right, but I told myself that there was nothing to be euphoric about! At least not just as yet…

This script was going to reach its climax soon enough. On a busy work day, I got a call from the channel telling me that I was “shortlisted” and that one lucky winner will get a fully sponsored trip to watch the Oscars in February, 2013 in LA. Big deal, I thought that they must have shortlisted many people, surely I wasn’t going to get that lucky. Finally, earlier this week, I was informed that the grand prize was mine. It really couldn’t sink in. My reaction ranged from being happy to being incredulous! My friends were probably more excited than me to hear this news.

It is a long wait to next year’s Oscar but the countdown to the voyage to the mecca of Entertainment, the city of Angels has begun. Seeing an Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and/or a Dustin Hoffman walking in flesh and blood on the red carpet would be a truly divine experience. It would certainly be one item off the bucket list!

Alas, it would seem that ‘The Prognosticator’ gave one unintentionally remarkable performance and had the ‘one in a million’ odds going his way! Apni Hindi picture ka famous dialogue goes “Kehte hai, agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh poori kaainaat tumhein usse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai” ;)

Feels good to write here after a long time. More later!