Jab Tak Hai Jaan And Son Of Sardaar Day Five Business

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** Friends, can someone put this as a separate thread. I dont have rights to create a thread**

JTHJ – My Movie Review (3.5 on 5) – The ‘Khan’dom is back

Halfway through the first half, Meera (katz) who is confused about her feelings meets her estranged mother and her lover (Mr and Mrs Rishi Kapoor in a lovely cameo) and the mother sums up her reason for eloping with her lover succintly with the line “Har Ishq Ka Ek Waqt Hota Hai. Woh Humara Waqt Nahi Tha. Iska Yeh Matlab Toh Nahi Ki Woh Ishq Nahi Tha”. Chopra weaves a romance using this line as the central premise of his final movie – a movie that is forever destined to be remembered his swansong and whose title “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” add so many layers of intrigue just because of his preordained death. Fortunately the movie has more going for it than not for most of its 3 hour running time.

We are introduced then to a dare devil Major Samar Anand of the bomb disposal squad christened – The Man who cannot die – because he doesnt wear a bomb suit when the reality is that he tries to die every single minute. A discovery channel 20 something reporter Akira (Anushka) chances upon his diary and we come to know that Samar was a odd job specialist in his younger days in love with an engaged heiress Meera (Katz) who in turn had a peculiar give and take relationship with Jesus wherein she will give up things that she like for favors from the almighty. So when Samar and Meera gets too intimate for comfort and a possibly fatal accident happens to Samar, Meera in a fit of impulse resolves to stay away from Samar in return for his life when in reality all she had to do was to teach Samar ways to cross the road or drive a motor bike without getting hit!! Samar leaves Meera and resolves to die (though it is not clear why he didnt just hang himself if he had to die to prove Meera wrong).

Chopra is a master in weaving a romance specially when it involves his two pet subjects – fate and God. So however much flimsy the premise of a movie sounds (I intentionally wrote the above para to make the story sound as flimsy as possible) Chopra’s conviction and his handling of ‘moments’ (there are plenty of those here) are so terrific that you are able to believe in his films. JTHJ is no exception and though the movie is saddled by atleast one clunky plot line involving retrogade amnesia and a weak central heroine (the worst Chopra heroine ever) you are able to ignore both these flaws to a large extent.

It was important that the central love story (between SRK and Katz) here is really strong but we are saddled with such a frigid and emotionless Katrina that you hardly feel for anything here (specially when they reunite – remember how we were so involved when SRK and Kajol reunite in DDLJ??.Hell, even VeerZaara – Chopra worst effort scored on this front.). Katz is so plastic its not even amusing. The role needed a better actress and this is the biggest drawback of the movie (I would have cast Priyanka). SRK is distincly awkward when he is with Katz and I dont blame him as its tough to be passionate in front of a plastic zombie even when she is half naked.

The second love story between SRK and Anushka on the other hand is wonderful. Anushka is superbly vibrant and her chemistry with SRK form the best portions of the movie. There is a wonderful scene with Anushka when SRK explains why he doesnt wear a bomb suit “Bomb toh sirf 1 baar jaan leti hai , zindagi toh bar bar jaan leti hai” he says and that scene is beautifully done by both of them. Anushka is a wonderful young actress and you feel for her loss however impending it was.

Khan himself is in fantastic form and i can bet that no comtemporay actor looks as good as he does with a stubble and no one looks as regal as he does in an army attire. He lends great depth and gravitas to his role as Samar and his simmering intensity add a layer of intrigue to his character. What also works big time is Chopra stays clear of corniness and melodrama most of the times and instead leaves so much unsaid and unexplained intentionally in some frames. The parting scene between SRK and Katz ends with SRK abruptly walking off Katz without so much of a protest and i thought that was a wonderful touch. A Karan Johar would have made poor SRK cry like a sissy and it was refreshing to see maturity here which only a master like Chopra can bring to the table. Khan pitches his performance so perfectly and with so much finesse that it makes Chopra’s swansong a very good one and one that I suspect will age very well with time.

A recommended watch even if you are not a SRK fan. I am giving 1 full star just for SRK’s performance out of 3.5