Jab Tak Hai Jaan Hindi Movie
He breathed life in romance, he showed human emotions and their complexities in purest form, he captured boundless love, and he portrayed unconditional passion. Although, the legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra is not with us today but he definitely immortalized romance through his works; he immortalized himself through his works. Jab Tak Hai Jaan being his last directorial and also his posthumous work shall remain special to all cinema lovers. However, stripping ourselves off all attachments we give you the review of Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
Samar Anand, Major of the Indian Army's bomb squad, cheats death in the eye. He diffuses bomb sans any protection suit and lives to die each day. He meets the sprightly 21 year old documentary filmmaker Akira (Anushka Sharma) interning at the Discovery channel who somehow doesn't understand the hidden emotions behind Samar. She comes across his diary that has he documented his life since the first time he met Meera (Katrina Kaif). The film then goes onto a flashback into the story of Samar and Meera. Set against the backdrop of London, we are taken to the lives of the happy go lucky Samar who falls madly in love with the beautiful Meera. However, fate has it the other way and the two do not meet until Akira comes in Samar's life only to take him back by 10 years, into the life of Meera all over again.
With gazillion romantic films have made their way to the celluloid in the 100 years of Hindi cinema, it would be wrong to claim this film complete anew. There may be many times you would feel that it reminds you either of Dil Toh Pagal Hai or even Veer Zara. However, Yash Chopra brings about a certain new age freshness in his treatment of emotions which for a man his age to grasp is only but commendable. The way in which Samar casually reveals his feelings for Meera or even the way in which he commands her to depart after knowing they may have to part ways is are immensely laudable.
The first half is breezy, specially the romantic portions of Katrina Kaif and Shah Rukh Khan. Even the sequences of the stubble donned army officer Samar hold your attention. However, the crisis come in the second half where the film almost easily slips into predictable and cliched regions. The entire portion of amnesia is very '70s and done to death in Hindi cinema.
The length of the film is another major hindrance. Despite not having a saga like story, the duration of 3 hours given to the film is just too long. With the attention span of Indian audience diminishing with each passing film, a 3 hour long film only tests time. Some scenes could easily have been eliminated to make for a slick film especially the song Ishk Shava or the scene right before the interval.
However, the real strength of Jab Tak Hai Jaan comes in the basic root of the film. It's been a while since the audience has witness boundless romance and JTHJ serves just that. The passion and madness that comes with love gets captured well.
The biggest credit goes to Shah Rukh Khan who once again marks romance as his territory. The film rides completely on his shoulders. Katrina Kaif gets a very well written part which demands her to give a restrained performance completely covering her shortcomings. Anushka Sharma gets a chirpy and ebullient part however; she ends up overdoing a lot of it. Neetu Singh and Rishi Kapoor in guess appearance are endearing.
The power combo of A. R. Rahman, Gulzar and Yash Chopra doesn't quite work the magic in music for a lot of songs only adding up the run time, but it's Rahman's background score that adds tremendous value to the film. Cinematography by Anil Mehta is spellbinding. The sequences of Ladakh and London are beautifully shot.
To sum it up, Jab Tak Hai Jaan may not be a flawless film but it still makes for a decent love story. Yash Chopra may have gone, but he left romance in his works that shall be cherished forever; the man shall live forever!
MOVIE REVIEWS