Film Review: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

I finally managed to see Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na two days ago and I must say- this is probably the first time my prediction about a movie has gone wrong! When the whole Love Story 2050 vs Jaane Tu battle was on, I'd thought Love Story would do a lot better than Jaane Tu, not because it would be a brilliant film but because it would at least have a great deal of special effects (after all, 50 crores usi pe toh kharch kiye !!) and suitable eye-candy (read: the Baweja boy and his red haired girlfriend!) And from the looks of it (pun totally intended), these things do matter in the success of a film, regardless of the story. (Remember Om Shanti Om!?) And I'd thought Jaane Tu would be a copy of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with a predictable storyline and weird looking actors (this was before I heard Imran Khan give an interview- smart fella, I must say!)

Anyway, I haven't been able to muster the courage to watch Love Story yet and Jaane Tu is pretty much a predictable flick, but I love the way Abbas Tyrewala has managed to stay away from a lot of the cliches surrounding the "best friends falling in love" stereotype. His background as a scriptwriter definitely show in the dialogues. I specially loved the Bottoms-up-Coke and the whole Rathod from Ranjaur angle. This is probably the only film of Sohail Khan I've found tolerable!

I'm not going to go into a detailed film review coz there are obviously a lot of those doing the rounds. It's the story of a boy and girl who are best friends and are also secretly in love. Only catch- the whole world knows this except them! So basically the whole story revolves around how they find this out. One thing I don't get though- why do all girl-best-friends of guys have to be tomboys?! Is that coz a girly girl would be too attractive for a guy to be just friends with?! Also, why does a tomboy girl have to become a girly girl when she gets a boyfriend!? Like start wearing dresses and straighten the hair and all that jazz! (I take personal offence to the latter! ;-)) C'mon, guys aren't that shallow na!? Or are you!?

I liked the fact that none of the male characters were templates of those typisch stud-boys waiting to bash up the next person! Neither were the gals the crying-at-the-drop-of-a-hat variety! But again- since they've shown Aditi to be the kinda gal who doesn't think twice before slapping or swearing at a guy, then why doesn't she do the same to that dumbass boyfriend of hers when he slaps her!? After all, he's the philandering one! Or is that asking for too much from a pretty lass in a Bollywood film!?

Loved the airport sequence- very very Bollywood, but still manages to make you smile. And thank God they made Jai sing the Jaane Tu.. wala song himself- bad vocals notwithstanding. It's small things like these which make Jaane Tu a lot better than other films of its genre. Also liked the whole Boms-Rotlu thing. It's heartening to see that finally film makers are opening up to the idea of a partly balding, weepy, (albeit sweet) collegian falling in love with a (cute?) gal, without making a joke of it. Love seldom is of the knight-in-shining-armour variety na!

Brilliant supporting cast which actually contributes to the storyline. Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal are mind blowing as expected. Their characters have been etched out beautifully. I loved Meghna's character the best, but I'm going to reserve my thoughts on that for a later post.

And the whole boy-and-girl-can-never-be-just-friends bit?! The less I say on this, the better. Somehow the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I think of this topic is an evergreen dialogue from Maine Pyaar Kiya said by a raging Mohnish Behl to Mr. Khan. It goes thus-

Prem...ek ladka aur ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte! Yeh toh ek natak hai...natak! Dhadakte hue dilon ki bhadakti hui aag ko chupane ka...bujhane ka...!!

Not that I subscribe to the view, of course! Best friends falling in love is probably the most common and convenient of all reel love stories, but it definitely doesn't have to be the case every time in real life!