Jab We Met completes 12 years today, a rare film that blended effective storytelling, sharp humour, and compelling performances.
Picture Courtesy: Official Youtube Page/Shemaroo
Imtiaz Ali's debut as a director, Socha Na Tha, was a refreshing take on serendipity and the chaos that overpowers romantic liaison. It was an unfortunately overlooked piece of work that has resonated with the youth today. It was his second film that made him the filmmaker he is today. Starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor, the film in question is obviously Jab We Met, a romance that led to the rediscovery of Shahid, Kareena and Imtiaz himself, just like his characters, Aditya and Geet.
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Aditya is a millionaire who was duped by his girlfriend, Geet is a happy-go-lucky and feisty Punjabi girl who dreams of marrying her boyfriend, Anshuman. The two strangers meet on a train for the journey of a lifetime. Kareena and Shahid had acted in three duds before they worked together one last time (they didn't have any scene together in Udta Punjab). There was no social media to create hype around the rom-com, and both actors needed a film that could re-establish their fading clout. Came Ali, with a cliched yet charming tale about two strangers and their iconic love story.
Kareena was a ham in the early and blooming stages of her career. Films like Khushi, Yaadein and Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon were loud and ludicrous and burdened the actor with deafening dialogue delivery. Geet was not too drastically different from Sanjana or Isha; like them, she was unfiltered and unabashed, unleashing like a volcano both in furious and frothy moments. But there was something immensely likeable and charming about the way Kareena enacted this role, her incessant blabbering and chattering felt organic and real, immediately making us root for the girl.
Shahid was struggling to deliver what could be called as a vivid character. Aditya had parental and personal issues, and that shocking subterfuge forced him to be silent and submissive. There could be no better example to describe chalk and cheese than Geet and Aditya; the opposites had to attract, but later!
It was largely a film about Geet and her (mis)adventures. It was a film about her tryst with Hotel Decent, her courage to escape her house and travel all the way to Manali to meet her boyfriend, and the subsequent twist in the tale. The film, then, took an ironic turn, and Ali made her the victim of the same pain Aditya was going through. From this moment, the film experienced a role reversal, with Aditya transforming into Geet and helping her get over her trauma.
Ali created unforgettable chemistry between his leads, and Kareena and Shahid gave us some rollicking moments throughout. Who can forget the conversation with Hotel Decent's receptionist, the sudden jump in the lake, and above all, the verbal abuse Anshuman goes through on the phone call by Geet. Jab We Met wasn't merely a commercial success, but also led to the rediscovery of the actors and the director. Before he became obsessed with narrating stories of broken and emotionally fragile and lost characters that discover love and rediscover themselves during incessant travelling, it was time for Ali's own discovery, and Jab We Met was that one film!
It has been 12 years, and the actors still celebrate the legacy of this fresh and fragrant love story. Well, as they say, some stories and characters never die. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor may have gone separate ways in their lives, but Aditya and Geet will always be together!
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