Jab We Met: A Rollicking Rom- Com

At a time when the entire town is abuzz about Kareena abandoning Shahid for Saif comes "Jab We Met"- Imtiaz "Socha Na Tha" Ali's second venture starring the not-so-successful screen pair of the now separated Shahid- Kareena. It was not with great expectations that I stepped into the theatre to watch this flick. Shahid and Kareena had earlier teamed up for Fida, 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke- movies which had nothing working in their favor. I did have some confidence in Imtiaz Ali but considering the expertise of Shahid- Kareena in selecting the worst of films to appear on screen together, I was quite sure that JWM was going to be anything but joy. But, I literally had to eat my thoughts- thanks to Imtiaz Ali for having come up with a romantic comedy like nothing we have seen before. Let me tell you what makes JWM so special. Well, it is the story of Aditya (a surprisingly subtle Shahid Kapur), the son of a successful industrialist. Aditya has nothing working in his favor- his father is dead, his mother has left him to lead a new life with her second husband, his business is on the rocks and his girlfriend has walked out on him. Disappointed with his existence, he wanders along aimlessly across Mumbai finally to end up in a train. It is in the train that he meets Geet (a delicously saucy and over the top Kareena Kapoor)- the Sikhni from Bhatinda who can just not stop talking. Geet is not really bothered as to what kind of mindset Aditya is in. She just goes on and on and on and irritated, Aditya gets down at a station. Thinking that Aditya is missing the train, Geet leaves the train and finally ends up missing it. Geet demands of Aditya to accompany her till Bhatinda and what follows is an ultimate joy ride across the picturesque locales of North India- not only for the lead pair but also for the audience. Aditya and Geet understand each other. The free spirited Geet motivates Aditya to give life another try. Adi even ends up falling in love with Geet only to discover that all she is interested in is to run away and get married to her boyfriend in Manali. Aditya plays the perfect friend by uniting Geet with her lover, heads back to Mumbai and successfully resurrects his failing business taking cues from the spontaniety and free spiritedness of Geet. 9 months later, Geet's family gets in touch with Adi to know the whereabouts of Geet. That is when Adi discovers that Geet has not contacted her family for the past 9 months and that, she is largely missing. Adi sets out on a search for Geet with many questions in his mind- Where is Geet? What happened to her? Is she happy with her boyfriend? Can Geet ever be his? To find out the answers of these questions, please watch the movie yourself. And mind it, it is just not about getting these questions answered. It is about having a gala time at the movie for the 2 hour 10 minutes running time of JWM. The uniqueness of JWM is definitely its dialogues. The story is very ordinary and predictable but definitely not the situations and the dialogues. Imtiaz Ali successfully stays away from getting inspired from any of the road romances that have been made in the past and lends a certain warmth and originality to the script that is very rarely seen these days. The humor that runs throughout the film as an undercurrent is very much every day life kind and the dialogues are tongue- in- cheek. As a director, Imtiaz succeeds in bringing the best out of his lead pair. Shahid and Kareena are just not good individually, they also share a sparkling on screen chemistry that has not been seen in their past films together. The beautiful mountains of Himachal and the lush green fields of Punjab have been shot picturesquely by Nataraja Subramanian. Preetham has a ball scoring the music for this movie and the songs have been very well shot. If your idea of a good movie is having pure, unadulterated fun for 2 hours, Jab We Met is definitely for you!