HINDI FILM - Jaane Tu... has all the jaan
DEEPA GAHLOT
Article Rank
O kay, let’s get the
cribbing out of
the way first
— the plot of
Abbas Tyrewala’s Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is so
overused, that at first when the
‘best friends who don’t realise
they are in love’ stuff comes
up, you want to run out of
the hall screaming. The bunch
of friends telling an outsider
the big love story (like Chalte
Chalte) does nothing to allay
your fears. You are bugged that
the lovely Kabhi Kabhi Aditi
song is wasted on an inconsequential situation. Then the
quirkiness of the director, the
effortless lines, the freshness
of the characters start to grow
on you; the unusual casting,
the reality of ordinary people’s lives hits home and then you
sit back and enjoy the rest of
the film and come out smiling
(in spite of that grr-inducing
‘Godot’ cleverness!) Jai Rathod (Imran Khan) has
been brought up as a decent,
non-violent boy by his slightly
loopy mother Savitri (Ratna
Pathak Shah) who fights with
his dead father’s portrait. His
best friend Aditi (Genelia
D’souza is a spirited and illtempered girl, whose favourite
punching bag is her brother
Amit (Prateik Babbar).
They have a ‘gang’ of loyal
friends and everyone thinks
Jai and Aditi are made for each
other, except the two themselves. Jai falls for a soft, feminine Meghna
(Manjari Phadnis), while Aditi is attracted to a macho type (Ayaz Khan).
How the two recognise their
love for each other is what
the film is about. But then,
where else do you a see a
brave activist mom like Savitri,
whose constant battle with an
inspector Waghmare (Paresh
Rawal) is almost like a lovehate relationship? Where else
do you see cool parents called
“Peachy” and “Pumpkin”?
Where else do a see a brothersister team that has so much
rage and so much tenderness.
And where else can you see
two mad Rajput cowboys
(two Khan brothers in wacky
cameos)? There is the very,
very hackneyed airport climax; there is the very slightly
disturbing thought that the
film actually lists violence as a mark of manhood. But Jaane
Tu… (the title from a song in
Aa Gale Lag Ja, sung by various
characters with various degrees of cacophony) is such a
nice, clean, enjoyable film that
you don’t really mind.
Imran Khan has the kind
of looks that will be called
“cute” by the teenage multiplex crowd that will throng to
this film, but hopefully he will
be able to grow out of it. Both
he and Genelia D’Souza with
her make-up less, unaffected,
tomboy look, have given really charming performances.
Some of the other actors like
the gang, the brother and the
two other partners are terrific
too, so’re the seniors like Ratna
Pathak Shah, Paresh Rawal and
Rajat Kapoor in small parts.
