Jab Tak Hai Jaan was a very anticipated and a much awaited diwali release from the Yash Raj banner. It is the last directorial venture of Yash Chopra before his demise. Jab Tak Hai Jaan review…
A story of Samar Anand, his journey to love, heartbreak and more…
The story revolves aroundSamarAnand (Shah Rukh Khan) and Meera Thappar (Katrina Kaif). Samar is a very cheerful happy-go-lucky guy, lives inLondon, has a hand to mouth living by doing various small jobs, but what ever he does he always manages to charm the people he meets.
One day in a chance encounter he meets Meera Thappar, a beautiful rich young Indian ‘business’ girl born and bought up inLondon. She has undying faith and God and believes that in –“you have to loose in order to gain” policy. She believes that if you as for some thing from god, you have to give up on some thing else which is dear to you and hence keeps making “deals” with God.
Samar was living his life singing along Punjabi songs on Londonstreets when Meera sees him. She comes to him one day seeking help to teach her a nice Punjabi song so that she could sing on her father’s 50th birthday.Samar agrees but asks her to teach him “gentleman’s English” in return.
They both come to the agreement and begin learning form each other. One daySamartakes Meera for a wild night and realizes he has fallen in love with her and tells her how he feels. Meera is speechless at that moment but come later to tell him that she is marrying Roger as her father wants her to and she doesn’t want to go against his wishes as he is the only family she has and asks Samar to promise to God and her that they will never “cross the line” or else to be punished.
But soon Meera too realizes that she is in love with Samar and cant live without him and crosses all lines and submits toSamar.
They spend beautiful time with each other but a day comes whereSamarmeets with an accident and Meera feels that they have been punished and asks for forgiveness and pleads to god for his life in exchange for not being with him ever.
When Samar becomes aware of this, he is heart broken and challenges God for his love, decides to join the Indian Army’s bomb squad (and not to return to London), defusing all bombs without wearing a bomb suite so as to see how long will god keep him alive. He defuses all bombs with ease and comes to be known as –“the man who cannot die”.
Akira Rai (Anusha Sharma) a 21 year oldDelhigirl who comes to Ladakh as an intern with Discovery Channel, gets to know about Samar Anand’s story. She develops an instant interest in it and thinks it to be her big ticket to Discovery Channel as a film maker and hence decides to make a short film on his life.
Samaris annoyed with her in the start but soon realizes that she too like him is driven by a passion, his being Meera and her being this film. She falls in love with him even though she knows he will never reciprocate her love. She asks him to come toLondonas a favor for her film and he comes but meets with an accident again which puts him back to the shock of his previous accident and he looses his memory of the past 10 years.
Meera is asked to come back in his life unless he can handle the truth and regains his memory. Whether they unite or ifSamarget his memory back are the questions which unfold in the latter part of the film.
Jab Tak Hai Jaan is an out and out romantic film like all Yash Chopra films are. Shah Rukh is seen in this avatar after a really long time. A story about true love which is stronger than time and God itself.
A story about to people from opposite worlds madly in love with each other. Although the hype around the film was all about “a romantic film by Yash Chopra” but unlike his previous ventures, this love story lacks a meaningful story line.
Shah Rukh Khan is at his romantic best in this film which we see after a long time. He plays the eternal lover who loves the girl so deeply that he couldn’t care about himself. He is known as the “Baadshah of Romance” and stays true to his title. He is as always- charming and a delight to watch in a romantic film. The ultimate romantic actor indeed. Shah Rukh carries the role brilliantly as you can see him evolve as the character evolves, his variety as an actor is shown well.
Katrina as Meera is good. Her character is well written and its nice to see her in this film. She is beautiful, elegant and gracious just like the character is supposed to be. She shows off more of her acting skills in this film than we have seen in the past which is great news for all the Katrina lovers. She has looked her elegant best in this film.
Anushka Sharma as Akira. She plays the new age 21st century girl, the “instant make up and break up” generation. She is cheerful and chirpy but there is nothing new in her acting. There is a strong resemblance to her previous characters in Band Baaja Baarat and Badmaash Company – which is a let down.
This was Yash Chopra ‘s last film. He was known as the “king or epitome to romance”. Like all his films are, Jab Ta Hai Jaan too is a visually pleasing film. Although it lacks a good strong story, the narrative is good. The way the story is compiled is done well.
His direction is very strong. The way he manages to capture the beauty of the relationships persists in this one too. He has shown London Kashmir and Laadkh beautifully. The film does tend to be too long as it is of 3 hours length and is stretched as well and hence audiences tend to loose interest in various parts.
The music of this film is by AR Rehman and lyrics are by Gulzaar. The album hasn’t caught up yet but some songs have been appreciated.
All in all Jab Tak Hai Jaan has its plus and its minus’. Shah Rukh and Katrina fans are in for a treat as they look their best. The film is not upto the mark but is still pleasant to watch as Yash Chopra’s way of story telling is beautiful and the ability that he possessed of showing and capturing the essence of human relationships is portrayed very well in this film.
Cast of Jab Tak Hai Jaan:
Shah Rukh Khan – Samar Anand
Katrina Kaif – Meera Thapar
Anushka Sharma – Akira Rai
Kris Sommerville – Police Officer – BTP
Anupam Kher – Meera’s father
Rishi Kapoor – Imran
June Smith
Sarika
Credits of Jab Tak Hai Jaan:
Produced by Aditya Chopra
Directed by Yash Chopra
Executive Producer – Aashish Singh
Line Producer – Padam Bhushan
Original Music – A.R. Rahman
Cinematography – Anil Mehta
Film Editor – Namrata Rao
Production Design – Sharmishta Roy
Costume Designers – Manish Malhotra, Urvashi Shah,
Shiraz Siddique
Jab Tak Hai Jaan- movie review