A Mundane Curtain Call

The film had a lot running on it – apart from the baggage of Yash Chopra that was unavoidably thrust upon it, the film was Shah Rukh’s return as the real romantic hero; add to that AR Rahman’s music and Gulzar’s lyrics. However, like most films that crumble under the weight of heavy expectations, Jab Tak Hai Jaan falls short of writing itself in history as anything other than the final trick Yash Chopra’s magic hat.

Yash Chopra was known to have mastered the technique of making the audience suspend their abilities to think rationally and buy into his premise. The larger than life characters and dramatic dialogues take you into a world that exists only in imaginariums.

The story of the three central characters is largely derivative and lacks originality. The plot points are loose pit-stops in the scheme of things and are not strong enough. The screenplay takes help from recent box office and critical successes – especially the parts where Samar Anand (SRK) is disposing bombs for the Indian Army leave you with clear flashes of scenes from Hurt Locker. A song in the film also resembles, in bits and pieces, another song from last year’s big hit Rockstar. However, majority of the desired audience of the film doesn’t buy the ticket for the story, thereby making the flaws in the plot unimportant. The film has a few typical Yash Chopra moments but comes across as a forced attempt than the effortlessness in his earlier films.

Nevertheless, even die-hard Shah Rukh fans might see a depleted superstar making futile attempts to appear young and romantic. Let’s face it, a 47-year-old face can barely muster up the innocence of a first love and the hurt of a first heartbreak. Shah Rukh’s inefficiency to fulfill the chocolate boy is just one nail in that coffin.

Katrina Kaif, yet again, lets her bust do the acting and is extremely dull and, after a point, it becomes unbearable to listen to dialogues coming out of a stone face. Anushka Sharma, who plays a documentary filmmaker, appears to be on a perpetual high (we suspect Prozac). Her character of Akira fails in portraying both the class of Kurosawa (her apparent namesake) and the zest of a young girl.

In terms of its music, the entire soundtrack will be out of your playlist in less than three days – highly shocking for such forgettable work from AR Rahman. Gulzar’s lyrics too, are simplistic but lack the elegance of Dil toh baccha hai ji.

For a cinema fanatic in India, ie everyone, it is impossible to ignore this film. The final presentation of one of the legends of the industry, Jab Tak Hai Jaan is a great reminder of the delightful experiences all of us have had thanks to Yash Chopra. Albeit the film isn’t in the same league as Waqt or Deewaar or Trishul, missing it wouldn’t be the best decision. SRK fans, watch it for your hero, the rest of you can watch it as a mark of respect to the pal do pal ka shayar.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on November 14, 2012

Enter Salman, Exit Logic

The Central Board for Film Certification should have, by now, created a category to fit films like Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger. The U, U/A, A aren’t enough to tell what to expect from such a film. It requires a WSD rating. Willing Suspension of Disbelief – which hereby notifies the audience to buy the ticket if and only if they are willing to get popcorn into the cinema halls and not their minds.

The film tells the story of Tiger — a super-human James Bond-like spy who works for the secret agency RAW. Having very superficially shown to be a righteous, sincere, hardcore soldier, who hasn’t taken a break for 12 years, Tiger is sent on a mission to Ireland to find out what a nuclear scientist is up to. There, he falls in love with the part-time caretaker, who, as we would later find out, is an enemy agent. But the plot dwells so much in the romance that you forget that the two love birds are in fact spies.

The two then embark on a journey to abscond from their respective agencies and live together in peace. But this isn’t acceptable to the higher authorities, and the brightest minds within the agency trace the two protagonists in a pursuit that takes them from Istanbul to Kazakhstan to Cuba. But these bright minds, who apparently have nothing else to do but chase rogue agents, appear to act in the most ridiculous ways. They are hasty, unplanned and indefinite in their motives. But at the end of it all, who cares?

Salman Khan, whose aura is supposed to drive the film from start to end, just about manages to do so. He isn’t able to live up to Wanted or Dabanng, but he definitely outdoes himself from his previous two films. The suaveness of a Yash Raj film creeps in and dilutes Salman’s raw charm. Katrina Kaif is unimpressive as usual, but throws up a few surprises in the action scenes, which are mostly performed by identifiable body doubles. Ranvir Shorey and Girish Karnad play important supporting roles in vain.

The second hero of the film, after Salman, is the action. But after an initial classical Prince of Persia-like fight sequence, it is a gradual journey downhill for those who came expecting an adrenaline rush. The dialogues lack the conceit of Chulbul Pandey and the haughtiness of, “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, phir toh mai apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta,” from Wanted. The music isn’t the kind which you’ll keep humming, and the most anticipated song of the film comes only during the end credits.

Although it is a given that once you have entered the movie theatre to watch this film, you have surrendered the weapon of logical reasoning; but even on the scale of outright entertainment, Ek Tha Tiger falls short in places. The middle seems a little too dragged and you might find yourself occasionally drifting into your own world which is outside the dark room. Watch it if you don’t want to miss a Salman Khan film. If not, there’s a lot happening out there that you can do.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on August 18, 2012