An appraisal of Harry and Sejal's meeting, many years after it actually happened.
This is a leisurely, lazy, alright-why-not piece on this Imtiaz-Ali-meets-Bollywood-Stardom movie, Jab Harry Met Sejal. I really love the original of all these Meeting movies, When Harry Met Sally. I also love the Imtiaz Ali version, Jab We Met. So I waited breathlessly for Jab We Met 2 (Jab Harry Met Sejal). But ended up catching my breath and actually watching it sometime this year only. I read some of the not-so-favourable reviews and hadnt wanted to get disappointed because Imtiaz Ali is one of my favourite Tellers of modern Indian Love stories. Well, now what I am feeling is ambivalent. Not so disappointed and yet a little disappointed. It has Ali's touch of love for sure. How he narrates the course of love and dances around and through those fine boundaries that romantic love unwittingly transgresses is definitely there. Watch the movie to get a taste of Imtiaz Ali's world of love and romance. He usually remains within mainstream Bollywood lines and tries to stretch those lines from the inside by depicting complex nuances and shades of love between black and white.
The film also has a taste of Bollywood stardom. Well, more like mouthfuls of it. In the bigger than life form of Shah Rukh Khan of course. If you have never been to Europe, then you must go on this proxy Europe tour with an aging but still handsome and charming SRK as your tour guide. I think he was actually meant to be a grumpy and insulting man who has been dragged to repeat a tour (grudgingly) in a futile search for a bauble, by a nauseatingly innocent woman in search of herself. He starts out well. But he loses the act very quickly and becomes his charming Shah Rukh Khan self soon. I mean, come on, this is SRK we are talking about. He cant surely be anything but "Raj, Naam to Suna hi Hoga"? But the sprightly Anushka Sharma carries her act through quite convincingly for most of the movie, with her Gujarati accent and calling Harry, Hairy. However, maybe falling in love changed her fundamental mannerisms and accent? She loses it some time in the second half of the movie, and I was wondering if I was looking at a repeat performance of "Taaniji" from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. But, I remember that we are still in the frames of an Imtiaz Ali love story - and I realise the story is trying to as well.
The characterisation is intact. One or both of the protagonists are usually in search of themselves or some part of themselves in Ali's movies and love helps them discover, and transforms them. Of course for the better. This is true blue Indian romantic love we are talking about, ne? Here, the woman trying to come to terms with her sexuality, coming in to her own, getting comfortable and gaining confidence in her own skin is a journey that we get to see, albeit in slightly immature, teenagerish ways. But hey, who am I to judge? To each her own, right? A man losing his inner "womanising" self through falling in love and finding a home within himself as well as an actual returning home, is perhaps the other journey. The man's journey could have been more compelling, more attentive, in its portrayal. And yet, we do get to see the subtle inner conflicts that arise, the contrariness and the resonances that humans can display in the throes of romance. We are told quite upfront that Harry is a 'womaniser' and Sejal sees this truth, and has no value judgement about it. That is a refreshing difference in Bollywood cinema. She also sees the underlying truth of his loneliness. That is a subtle thread of relationship and understanding that was captured quite touchingly and yet without fanfare and raucousness. Here is a Harry unmasking his flamboyant colours to discover a sensitive self within, and here is a Sejal who is coming out of her hitherto protected, cocooned existence to find her bold and flamboyant self.
There is also the usual spiritual, psychological, Rumi undercurrent that is there in Ali's movies that sort of laughs along with life's ironies (or feels poignant, like in Highway). Think about it - in this film there is a gem, something priceless that they are searching for everywhere outside and this leads them on a merry dance, and ultimately she finds it with herself. And by the time she finds it, we and possibly she as well, realise that the real treaure that she is searching for is something else, which is also with(in) her. Call me whimsical, but that seems to me like a metaphor for life's search. "The treasure is within" or some such! (There is also the phrase from the movie itself and its song, Jeeve Soniya - "What you seek is seeking you")
The music pieces are good as stand-alones but do not really flow with the story. Like I said, if you have a leisurely, lazy Sunday, and as an absolute fan of Imtiaz Ali you have watched every other movie of his, then Jab Harry Met Sejal is an alright-why-not, to complete the Ali collection.
 |
| Image from Kathmandutribune.com |
The film also has a taste of Bollywood stardom. Well, more like mouthfuls of it. In the bigger than life form of Shah Rukh Khan of course. If you have never been to Europe, then you must go on this proxy Europe tour with an aging but still handsome and charming SRK as your tour guide. I think he was actually meant to be a grumpy and insulting man who has been dragged to repeat a tour (grudgingly) in a futile search for a bauble, by a nauseatingly innocent woman in search of herself. He starts out well. But he loses the act very quickly and becomes his charming Shah Rukh Khan self soon. I mean, come on, this is SRK we are talking about. He cant surely be anything but "Raj, Naam to Suna hi Hoga"? But the sprightly Anushka Sharma carries her act through quite convincingly for most of the movie, with her Gujarati accent and calling Harry, Hairy. However, maybe falling in love changed her fundamental mannerisms and accent? She loses it some time in the second half of the movie, and I was wondering if I was looking at a repeat performance of "Taaniji" from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. But, I remember that we are still in the frames of an Imtiaz Ali love story - and I realise the story is trying to as well.
The characterisation is intact. One or both of the protagonists are usually in search of themselves or some part of themselves in Ali's movies and love helps them discover, and transforms them. Of course for the better. This is true blue Indian romantic love we are talking about, ne? Here, the woman trying to come to terms with her sexuality, coming in to her own, getting comfortable and gaining confidence in her own skin is a journey that we get to see, albeit in slightly immature, teenagerish ways. But hey, who am I to judge? To each her own, right? A man losing his inner "womanising" self through falling in love and finding a home within himself as well as an actual returning home, is perhaps the other journey. The man's journey could have been more compelling, more attentive, in its portrayal. And yet, we do get to see the subtle inner conflicts that arise, the contrariness and the resonances that humans can display in the throes of romance. We are told quite upfront that Harry is a 'womaniser' and Sejal sees this truth, and has no value judgement about it. That is a refreshing difference in Bollywood cinema. She also sees the underlying truth of his loneliness. That is a subtle thread of relationship and understanding that was captured quite touchingly and yet without fanfare and raucousness. Here is a Harry unmasking his flamboyant colours to discover a sensitive self within, and here is a Sejal who is coming out of her hitherto protected, cocooned existence to find her bold and flamboyant self.
There is also the usual spiritual, psychological, Rumi undercurrent that is there in Ali's movies that sort of laughs along with life's ironies (or feels poignant, like in Highway). Think about it - in this film there is a gem, something priceless that they are searching for everywhere outside and this leads them on a merry dance, and ultimately she finds it with herself. And by the time she finds it, we and possibly she as well, realise that the real treaure that she is searching for is something else, which is also with(in) her. Call me whimsical, but that seems to me like a metaphor for life's search. "The treasure is within" or some such! (There is also the phrase from the movie itself and its song, Jeeve Soniya - "What you seek is seeking you")
The music pieces are good as stand-alones but do not really flow with the story. Like I said, if you have a leisurely, lazy Sunday, and as an absolute fan of Imtiaz Ali you have watched every other movie of his, then Jab Harry Met Sejal is an alright-why-not, to complete the Ali collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment