Jab Tak Hai Jaan: The good, the bad and the ugly

Spoiler alert: A plot full of loopholes, stellar performances and soothing melodies.

KARACHI:

A poor Indian boy meets a rich British-Indian girl in London and takes her on a reality-check trip. In the process of realising who she actually is, they both fall in love — that’s the primary plot of Jab Tak Hai Jaan (JTHJ).

The story is full of romance, fury and flimsy twists, yet still manages to grip the audience — but then again, aren’t all Yash Chopra’s films similar? Without much difference from his previous productions, JTHJ is also based on the escapist formula of the typical Yash Chopra films, with an overwritten screenplay and stone-age expository techniques.

The good

Outstanding performances by the lead cast and captivating melodies by AR Rahman — with unconventional music and Gulzar’s addictive lyrics — actually save JTHJ from being a total failure.

May I say Hurt Locker? Shahrukh Khan (SRK) plays a role of an Indian army soldier, not to mention he is also a singer and a waiter, from the bomb disposal squad named Samar Anand.  The bomb-defusing sequences in Hurt Locker and JTHJ are practically the same. The only difference is that Samar arrives to the bomb site on a Royal Enfield. Looking surprisingly young, SRK delivers his best performance since Chak De India and Swades with his everlasting romantic charm. After watching JTHJ, it also becomes clear that certain one-liners only seem plausible when coming from the King Khan himself.

Katrina Kaif plays the role of Meera — a filthy rich British girl of Indian origin. She is the typical Barbie doll — slender and sexy, but shockingly not as wooden as she usually seems. Since everything is possible in a Yash Raj production, the spoiled, chauffeur-driven Meera falls in love with Samar, the waiter.

Anushka Sharma never fails to impress and her natural spontaneity and bubbly attitude is perfect for a role of documentary film-maker Akira Rai. She is on a project assisting the crew of the Discovery Channel when she meets Samar at an army camp. The choreography stands out and watching Akira move through the serene valley of Jammu Kashmir is believable because of the natural and free-flowing dance moves she performs.

The bad

The plot is not coherent. The editing and shooting of some sequences is so similar to Hurt Locker that you wonder whether YRF took permission from the film’s producers to replicate their film scenes. Samar is a fearless soldier of the bomb disposal squad who never wears a protection kit because he likes to live on the edge. A few scenes later, Akira pops up going through the officer’s diary (which was expected) to unveil his past love story with Meera who he met in London. How the love triangle eventually begins is for you to go and watch. Sadly, Bollywood still hasn’t stepped away from unrealistic narrative tools like Amnesia, car accidents and personal diaries that bring about the truth.

The ugly

Perhaps some of the worst scenes in the film are the ones without any explanations. Like when Akira goes to find the angry major after he defuses the bomb and to her surprise, she finds him singing loudly in the middle of the valley, without any solid justification.  Another scene similar to this is how Samar evolved into becoming an Indian army Major posted in Kashmir from being a waiter in the United Kingdom.

The weakest scene of the movie was when  Samar (while suffering from amnesia) manages to recall the bomb defusing drill after hearing a siren and identifies the type of the bomb by looking at a school bag in which it was hidden.

While the dialogues are not memorable and the poem that Samar (SRK) narrates titled “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” seems childish, the frequency at which he found planted bombs in Jammu Kashmir seemed as if he was in Bajaur or maybe even Iraq.

A humble side of the character is shown when he gives all his savings to Zain, his Pakistani roommate, so that he can invest in his business and return the money to Samar when he is able to.  A point that can offend our Pathan brothers is that Zain, although shown as a stereotypical Pathan, is of Lahori origin with a strong Punjabi accent. Research has been a major casualty throughout Chopra’s films; after all, not every woman wears a burqa and says adaab in Pakistan as shown in Veer-Zara.

The verdict

No matter how diverse and awe-inspiring the legacy of Yash Chopra is, Jab Tak Hai Jaan did not add anything great to his show reel. The sentimental value attached to his films might burden his fans from being over-critical for the time being, but the fact is that JTHJ is full of scattered, unrealistic melodrama.

Like Matrix, it’s just a matter of taking the red pill and accepting that it was a half-hearted attempt by Chopra. That’s not to say that one shouldn’t go watch JTHJ. The film definitely deserves a viewing since the late director is to be credited for giving us the perfect romance and attractive heartaches with his previous work.  As an avid Yash Chopra fan, for me, it was disappointing.

Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that Samar arrives to the bomb site on a "Harley Davidson" instead of "Royal Enfield". The correction has been made.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2012.

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