Jaane Tu….Ya Jaane Na (Review)

Abbas Tyrewala, the acclaimed writer of movies like Maqbool and Munnabhai MBBS has chosen a rather simple and no frill story for his directorial debut. The story of Jane Tu…has nothing much to offer in terms of its content but the way story has been told made all the difference. Jane tu…by no parameter can be considered a path breaking teen film like we have seen Ishq vishq or dil chahta hai. You will find traces of films like Chalte Chalte, Ishq Vishq, Dil Chahta Hai or even Hum Paanch (Ratna Pathak speaking to Naseerudhin Shah in photo frame) along with airport climax which has been tried nth time in bollywood. Basically it seemed that director tried to spoof old scenes of tried and tested love stories of past something that he already tried although as a writer in “Main Hoon Na”. But except few occasions it worked fine.

 

It’s this kind of candid, relatable freshness that characterises Abbas Tyrewala’s directorial debut, a deftly made film about friendship. There’s a pretty distinctive line between films trying to be innocent, and films that actually come across as charmingly naive as this one. The best thing of Jane Tu…is even though it’s a teen flick; it does not indulge itself in bath room jokes to tickle the funny bones of the audience which is very easy temptation post American Pie days. Its take on the friendship and relations is as innocent and naïve like small town school kids.

 

Another fact that makes Jaane Tu a little special — as is the case with most films about friendship — is a rock-solid ensemble cast that is mouthwateringly perfect. Take a bow, casting director Pakhi, this is a helluva nice set of good actors, with refreshingly unfamiliar faces.

The story revolves around a set of friends, there life in general and focuses on one couple that’s in love. They mistook their feelings as mere friendship and needed a series of events, match making etc to make them understand and acknowledge their feeling towards each other. Khan plays the peace-loving Jai Singh Rathore, more for the promise he had made to his activist mom Ratna Pathak rather than his real traits. He himself is oblivious of his actual self and keeps watching weird dreams of a masked man in horse with a sword. The story involves his friendship with effervescent Aditi and in process of finding love for himself; he ends up finding his own self.

 

We have seen similar stories time and again in bollywood but Jane Tu….stands out just because of the way subject has been handled and the performances of each one of the actor.

 

 

Here are few things in the movie that worked

 

1. The characterisation of each actor has been perfect and no way has any character been left without a proper boundary within which they have to perform. Even a small role of Rajat Kapur stands out and has been properly etched.

 

2. The acting is top-notch all through the film. Ratna Pathak is magnificent, Prateik Babbar bestows the film with angst and maturity, Jayant Kripalani and Anuradha Patel make a great affable couple, Rajat Kapur’s is awesome in such a small role, Naseeruddhin Shah is hilarious and paresh rawal as usual a delight to watch. But the onus of the entire film was on the group of six friends who carry the film on their shoulder. Each one does justification to there role whether its Karan Makhija as the pessimistic yet lovable Rotlu, Alishka Varde as Bombs, Nirav Mehta as highly accented gujju Jignesh, the one persistent yet affectionately etched caricature in the film and then there’s Sugandha Garg as the spirited, nickname-giving Shaleen, full of spunk.

 

3. But the actor to watch out was Genelia. It is really Genelia who steals the show. The actress is a real livewire on screen and conveys those annoying feelings of jealousy, confusion, irritability and fake happiness without any problem. Although her Hindi diction in many scenes was not proper but needless to say that added to her cuteness. I loved her in Boys many years ago but watching her in a Hindi flick is a treat.

 

4. The cinematography is good and the urbane feel has been captured properly which is very essential for a film like this.

 

5. Another thing that needs special mention is the back ground score. It is the back ground score that makes many scenes special. It hits you right at the time and never goes over bound or making it loud.

 

 

Things that did not work in the movie

1. This is the launching pad for Imran Khan and thus should have been the showcasing film for him. He might be cute but surely he did not have the charisma like his mamu jaan, at least not in this movie. His body language was quite restricted in initial scenes and facial expression stiff. Although in few scenes he was good like when he saved Manjari in the disc but that’s not all. He need to work more on his screen presence and body language as he might not be as lucky next time with such a great supporting star cast and great execution.

2. The film is painfully long. By the time film ends, it seems like an eternity. Editing was badly required for a lot of scenes. After some time, few sequences seem to be repeated.

3. The characters of love interests of Jay and Aditi was given more screen time than required.

4. Character of Amit (Aditi’s brother) as a physically or mentally challenged fellow was not properly etched. There was no explanation provided for his behaviors as well.

5. There is no variation in the pace of the film; hence it feels all the more slow and draggy sometimes.

6.  Screenplay could have been more taught and grappling and that would have made the movie all the more effective.

 

All in all, this is what is called popcorn entertainment with lots of popcorn and soda in Sunday afternoon with friends.