Jab Tak Hai Jaan Movie Review

Release date: November 13, 2012
Cast: Shahrukh Khan,Katrina Kaif
Genres: Romance Film, Drama
Cinematography: Anil Mehta, Ravi K. Chandran
Director: Yash Chopra
Producers: Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra

RATINGS: 3.0/5.0

I would like start off by first paying my respects to Yash Chopra ji. Thank you sir for giving us many wonderful romantic dramas over the years. ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ has Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma in lead roles. Music has been composed by A.R.Rahman. Let us see how the movie is.

Story :

The movie is a triangle love story that revolves around Major Samar Anand (SRK), Meera (Katrina Kaif) and Akira Rai (Anushka Sharma). We are first introduced to a broody and dispassionate Major Samar Anand, who is an expert bomb squad operative with the Indian Army. He has a sterling track record when it comes to defusing bombs. Akira Rai comes into the picture as a documentary film maker who is hell bent on making it to Discovery Channel’s elite film making panel.

She gets to tag along with Major Samar Anand and begins filming her documentary. Along the way, she comes across a diary that belongs to Samar and discovers that he has a sad love story behind him, involving Meera. She discovers that Meera, who is a very rich London businesswoman, leaves Samar and moves away from him despite being neck deep in love.

As Akira spends time with Samar, her admiration for the Major grows and starts developing into a romantic dimension. Life comes full circle when Samar heads back to London. A twist causes Meera to come back into Samar’s life. What happens then and why Meera left Samar in the first place is what ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ is all about.

Plus Points :

Shah Rukh Khan delivers a good performance as the brooding Major Anand. He looks good in army fatigues. He is famous for his lover boy roles and he pulls off yet another one quite convincingly. Anuskha Sharma is superb as the hyper energetic Akira Rai. She is a big asset to the movie and her scenes with SRK are actually quite endearing.

Katrina Kaif is ok. She is gorgeous as always in the film and her character requires her to downplay her emotions.

The second half of the film has good pace and the first 20 mins after the interval is quite enjoyable. Songs have been picturized richly in typical Yash Raj style. There are a few moments of good humour in a few places.

Minus Points :

The biggest issue with this film is the slow pace, which can get quite difficult at times. A run time in excess of 3 hours does not help matters either. The first half is where the pace dips alarmingly and atleast 30 minutes could have been edited out of the film here.

SRK and Katrina somehow do not share set the screen ablaze with their chemistry. One of the reasons why SRK – Yash Raj Film’s romantic flicks like DDLJ worked is because of the brilliant chemistry between the lead pair. SRK and Katrina do not have the chemistry of SRK and Kajol, for example.

The extremely predictable nature of the story and quite a number of loopholes in the script also spoil the overall experience. This scene is a good example. In a bomb scare scenario on the London Metro, Major Samar Anand (dressed in very casual clothes) walks up to the police officials and proceeds to defuse the bomb without showing any credentials. He tells them “I am Major Samar Anand of the Indian Army” after he defuses the bomb. Will British police officers allow an Asian man in casual attire to defuse a device without checking his credentials or asking him for an ID?

The climax could have been a lot better. Also, the reason for Meera’s distance from Samar is not strong enough emotionally to cause an impact on the viewers.

Technical Aspects :

Anil Mehta’s cinematography is good. Namrata Rao’s editing could have been a lot better. As I said before, there is a lot of footage that could have been left out in the first half. Rahman’s background score is decent but we expect more when he is in charge. Among the songs, “Challa” and “Ishq Shava” stand out for their picturization.

As for Yash Chopra’s direction, all I will say is that this movie is not his best.

Verdict :

Jab Tak Hai Jaan is a film that has all the ingredients you expect in a Yash Chopra film but somehow, it does not work out this time. The film is way too long, painfully slow at times and the magic is missing between SRK and Katrina. Anushka is excellent though. Watch the film if you can take the slow pace and if you want to catch Yash Chopra’s last flick.