'Jaane tu ya jaane naa' could easily be a book. The kind of literature that the likes of Chetan Bhagat and Neelesh Mishra have been coming up with - modern Indian English literature.
The books that these guys have come up with over the years have certain common traits. Breakups and relationships at college are as common and periodic as semester-end exams. If a father offers a drink to the daughter's boyfriend, it's just a nice polite way of getting to know him.
And the climax of such books is often cinematic and humorously gripping. 'Jaane tu..' has a similar climax.
Overall, 'Jaane tu..' like these books is 'formula-based'. Romance, friendships, sibling relationships, parental pressure - the movie puts it all together.
Abbas Tyrewalla takes a pinch of 'Kuch kuch hota hai' (the scenes where Aditi gets jealous of Meghna and Jai), adds two spoons of 'Chalte chalte' (the presentation, the flashback to-and-fro is very Chalte Chalte-esque.) and garnishes it with 'Dil chahta hai' and 'Ishq Vishq'ish situations...
The film is most certainly entertaining - but you always keep thinking you've seen this somewhere.
The best part of the film is the natural performances by all the actors. (Except Sohail-Arbaaz Khan - whose loud acting will not help but remind you of 'Hello brother'. And the climax. Which many of us will find funny - I frankly didn't.) Genelia is good - she looks pretty throughout the film. Ratna Pathak-Shah, Naseruddin Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Paresh Rawal and Sohail-Arbaaz Khan are good. Prateik Babbar is very impressive - his resemblance to Smita Patil is just one reason.
Imran Khan - THE boy (who people think looks like me *grins* ) is VERY good. He did NOT remind me of Aamir Khan by the way!By the way, just a shallow comment but he needs needs needs to get his eyebrows shaped.
But hey! If 'Jaane tu...' were a book, the eyebrows wouldn't be much of a problem.
i have a different take... i feel teh film is quite original and though scenes like aditi feeling J were shot before... i still feel that here the depiction of the character was very grounded and believable.
ReplyDeleteregarding the movie. it is so very well edited. i mean, not the technicalities, but at not a single place did i feel that the film was unnecessarily dragged.
guenila, has acted well, very well. nut i wonder with a name like gunelia, hope she doesnt become a "guinea" pig and succumb to the bollywood matkas and jhatka's.
about aamir khan v/s immy: if you compare that with this new kid in the block, you can clearly make out that immy is very natural, true to life, no place did i feel that he was acting. i loved his comfort zone, he didn’t mind being teased by prateik, he was very cool about the fact that he had no physique and had a pencil thin figure, in fact thinner than guinea (ohh sorry) guniela i meant... and in fact he has been shown absolutely comfortable showing his invisible biceps, and in a scene showing off his bare chest. i mean, if you are comfortable playing yourself and could play without giving an impression that you are actually playing a character, it looks so cool. i also loved teh outline of immy's character, which had a lot of feelings, but also knew how to deal with them. he was shown a winner, not a loser.
another thing about immy, yes i agree with you, he needs to be gifted a pair of tweezers, i feel his eye brows make up for the hair that he has in the other parts of the body (that were exposed).
prateik, o m g, smita patil ka bhoot, he is such a fine actor, contrast to his half brother arya babbar and half sister juhi babbar, this guy knows his expertise, and will make it big slowly though, he will leave an indelible mark. there was a subtle hint in this movie about prateik being gay. but aamir must have intervened and asked abbas to not give an impression that losers and silent people are gay. infact kudos to aamir and abbass that they gave a message, again subtle, that gay men could be artistic.
i simply loved the gujju boy jigneess saah, very well crafted role na and rothdu, wao, some commonly used terms very intelligently imbibed in the script.
i also liked the positive attitude that the meghna, jai's girlfriend shows towards life. and again something that we all do, give meaning to abstract things. (remember lord ganpati doodh peeta hai episode, or something like mf hussains scribble that we choose to call modern art)
did u notice one thing, aamir khans lucky charm is the ghoda, every hit movie of his has a ghoda (exception dil).
ratna pathak and naseeruddin shah share an off-screen chemistry with imran. and that comfort shows well on screen. ratna, anuradha patel, and naseer have done too well. aamir in his starting days had worked with supriya pathak in a movie called raakh, after that it is now that he is working with her sister ratna, as the producer (read director) of the movie.
music by my favoritest ar rehman is not the usual music that he gives. very different. though i did feel that the song "dil kabhi gandha, kabhi hai nek bandha... nazrein churana..." that they sing while on the truck is a rehash of "yuhi chala chal rahi..." of swades. incidentally, that was also when shahrukh was driving a lorry.
the animal love (kitty funeral) thing wasnt funny to me , but laughter is contagious. i laughed too.
hmmm.......after reading it felt like incomplete.....not sure if message was taken in proper direction by me.......by the way...looking forward to read something on "Crow......." No doubt you can bring out some interesting faces of element on this one................
ReplyDelete@Aham:
ReplyDeleteWhere was Aamir's lucky charm horse in 'Taare zameen par'? Unless we decide to call Ishaan a lambi race ka ghoda. :)
An interesting read throughout...i certainly agree most performances were quite true to life. well scripted movie. aamirs got his act together..another feather in his hat..wonder y he had to get such a skinhead look 'suites good only coz its him'. hry comeon guys i dint c ne wrong with imrs eyebrows.. i hadnt ne issues if he had any other so called facial/physical inadequacies so forth he suited the character.. cinema shudnt abt cinestars but its about its characters.
ReplyDeletethe entire gang of friends and tht sibling all have added to the movie its watchable quotient.. quiet an entertainer..
wish i had time to watch it along with a sassy company.. most my movies i hv watched alone and this wasnt ne exception..;-) i went to watch it as it depicts nearly those two frnds of mine who are still in denial tht they are meant for eachother.. it was after their rare review i thought i wud go and c the movie.. Rs280 for a front seat at inox though exobirant went down well my budget for tht long fought weekender..
Well....I belong to that rare category of people who hasn't yet watched the movie....(Reasons....even i dont know...may be not getting time...)
ReplyDeleteAny ways....but after reading the review....no..no...actually "ReviewS"...I would certainly make it a point to have a "dekho" at this Aamir Khan promoted movie...
As a non viewer..I was thinking that the movie was being hyped a bit just because of the fabulous PR exercise....( Must say...Aamir has a great brand value....)
But now....it seems that the movie has some material in it too....
So hoping to contribute my version of the movie soon to this post....
But Aadi....thanks...
you are a marvelous writer....and a
very intelligent observer as well....!!!
:)