| Directed by | Yash Chopra |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Aditya Chopra |
| Screenplay by | Aditya Chopra Devika Bhagat |
| Story by | Aditya Chopra |
| Starring | Shahrukh Khan Katrina Kaif Anushka Sharma |
| Music by | A.R. Rahman |
| Cinematography | Anil Mehta |
| Editing by | Namrata Rao |
| Studio | Yash Raj Studios |
| Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
| Release dates |
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Jab Tak Hai Jaan is a 2012 Indian romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra and written and produced by Aditya Chopra under their production banner, Yash Raj Films.
PLOT
Samar Anand (Shahrukh Khan), a major in the Indian Army, defuses a bomb without fear or regard for his safety. Akira Rai (Anushka Sharma), a Discovery Channel filmmaker, later dives into a river in Ladakh and is rescued by him. Samar gives her his jacket and leaves before retrieving it. Akira finds his diary in the jacket pocket and begins reading.
The diary recounts Samar's earlier years as a struggling immigrant in London, working as a street musician who performs other menial jobs to support himself and his roommate Zain (Sharib Hashmi). Samar is working part-time as a waiter when he meets Meera (Katrina Kaif) at her and her fiance Roger's engagement party. Meera grew up, motherless, in an affluent Indian family; her mother (Neetu Singh) left for another man (Rishi Kapoor) when she was twelve. The dominant person in her life is her father (Anupam Kher), for whose company she works. Samar notices that Meera often prays when he sees her at the church. Samar and Meera begin to fall in love after a night of wild street dancing. To face her past, Samar takes Meera to visit her estranged mother and they reconcile. Some days later Meera decides to confess to her father about her relationship with Samar and break her engagement, Samar has a serious accident on his motorbike. Meera prays to God to save his life, promising never to see him again. Samar recovers, and Meera admits her vow to him. Angry, he leaves her and London. Samar challenges God to keep him alive while he risks his life every day, because he believes his death is the only way to make Meera lose her faith in God. He goes to India and enlists in the army, becoming a bomb-disposal expert.
When Akira finishes reading the diary, she obtains permission to make a documentary about a bomb-disposal squad. She asks Samar for help to make her film and becomes acquainted with him and his team. Akira develops a crush on Samar; however, he does not reciprocate because of his unresolved love for Meera. Akira makes a successful film and leaves for London. She wants Samar to visit the city to help her publicise the film; after he reluctantly agrees to come to London, he is struck by a car.
Samar is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia, and he remembers only the events before his first accident a decade ago. Concerned, Akira tracks Meera down and persuades her to aid in Samar's recovery. Meera agrees, pretending to be Samar's wife. In the meantime, Akira realises that Major Samar is only a fragment of the young Samar; he used to be happy and sociable, but is now bitter and lonely. One day Samar finds a bomb planted in the London Underground, and helps defuse it. The event jogs his memory, and he realises that Meera was lying to him. Samar confronts Meera with a choice: to be with him, or see him keep risking his life until he is dead. He then leaves for Kashmir, where he continues defusing bombs. During a conversation with Akira, Meera realises that her beliefs and prayers subjected Samar to a fate worse than death; realising her mistake, she goes to Kashmir and they reunite. Samar defuses his last bomb, and then proposes to her.
TRAILER
REVIEW
He yanks off his cool shades and gets going with the job of diffusing a bomb. He has done it 97 times before - the veritable Hurt Locker who has dared God to take his life, but that just doesn't happen. He survives every time.
Shah Rukh Khan's bomb expert Major in Jab Tak Hai Jaan works wonders on a very different sort of bombs too. He is quite the Heart Locker, excuse the pun, who doesn't need much of an effort to woo the richie rich Barbie he spots floating across picture poster London scape, so what if he is just a snow shoveller (in an early scene when he is yet to become the Army hero). "Paree (fairy)", he sighs and, never mind that she owns an empire and is engaged, you know she will madly be in love with him within the hour.
You ease into Yash Chopra terrain watching SRK play the field in his best romantic avatar yet, ready for the mush crackers.
The girl is straight out of Planet Chopra, too. Stunning as only Katrina Kaif can be, and an obvious emotional wreck who habitually strikes divine deals in churches with the Almighty for anything and everything she wants. So much so, at a pivotal point she is actually telling God that she is willing to forget her lover forever if He saves his life.
That's Jab Tak Hai Jaan for you, bringing back all the sweeping love, sacrifice and melodrama quotient that has ever defined the cinema of Bollywood's King of Romance. Watching formula at play all over again, it somehow feels all right as a mainstream maestro plays out his swansong.
Few masala films become larger than they set out to be, possibly deserve to be. You sense as much could happen someday to this film as it plays out an exhaustive three hours of love triangle plus some twists. Yash Chopra's final feature is not just about itself or the story it narrates. It is about celebrating a fancy's flight that set the template for filmy romance over the decades (minus the heroine's chiffon-sari sway in the Swiss Alps, which was not to be). Jab Tak Hai Jaan becomes a final bow for mush in a way it may never come alive on the Bollywood screen again.
Overwhelming as that sentiment can be for hardcore fans, the film has its flaws. The fact that it could have been a good hour shorter. Or, less evident in the story it narrates and maybe a bit more daring in exploring man - woman relationships.
There is a moment in the film where that last-mentioned bit becomes glaring. The hero lies on a hospital bed suffering from retrograde amnesia. Recovery involves the heroine pretending to still be in love with him despite a past turmoil that wrecked their romance. No easy deal since, you have been made to believe immediately before, she is married and has a kid.
It is a momentary spark... can a Bollywood heroine resort to adultery simply to save her first love? Will the film bend tested rules - like Silsila or Lamhe did in their times?
Sadly, Jab Tak Hai Jaan doesn't dare taking any such risks. Too much is at stake for YRF, and its talismanic hero SRK. The film prefers remaining feel-good fare, a visual feast in every frame no matter the mood on screen - much like its heroine Katrina.
She plays Meera, the classic YRF girl, and her love story with Samar - snow shoveller - turned - waiter - turned - bomb expert - will find its predictable end after ample highs and lows and via a triangle tangle involving the gutsy docu - filmmaker Akira.
A snap report card would be clear - cut. The songs could have been better but the background score is grand. The cinematography is world - class but the editing cuts pace. The characters are weak but the cast is in crackling form. The film proves SRK is still at the top of his game, just as Katrina wows with irresistible screen presence. Watch her street dance gig and you realise all over again why she is Bollywood's best female dancer. While on Anushka, the girl will go far. Just give her a meaty role and watch her go.
AVAILABLE DVDs/CDs-
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