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Direction: Imtiaz Ali
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor
Rating: **˝
Director Imtiaz Ali announced his arrival with the uber cute 'Socha Na Tha'- a story of two friends, a young boy and girl (Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia) figuratively travelling down the same road unaware that their destiny is the same--each other!
This time, Ali puts his protagonists in literally the same situation, only they are travelling by train and road to Bhatinda. Aditya Kashyap (Shahid Kapur) an industrialist, tired of his problems, impulsively jumps onto an outbound train. His mother has deserted the family, his father has committed suicide, his girlfriend has married another man, and Aditya is a broken man. Opposite him sits Geet Dhillon (Kareena Kapoor), a chatterbox who loves herself. They are like chalk and cheese so, sparks have to fly.
They end up missing the train, chasing it from one station to another and eventually reach Geet's house. They sing songs and dance with the extended family till Geet puts her plan in action. This is to run away and marry her lover in Manali. Just like 'Socha Na Tha' in which Ayesha helps Abhay get closer to his girlfriend, so Aditya helps Geet to do this too and returns to his life in Mumbai, a changed man.
Harping back to the earlier film, Abhay misses Ayesha when she is not around. Here Aditya is lost without Geet's joie de vivre, as he tries to emulate her lifestyle.
Despite the similar premise of the two films, 'Jab We Met' holds your attention completely in the first half. The pace is speedy, the humour infectious alas in the second there are too many 'sad' songs and packed with at least half-a-dozen scenes we can do without.
Kareena's introduction scene is wonderfully executed. What is jarring though is how Geet such a live-life-king-size girl can become so low-key when faced with adversity.
Shahid shows maturity in his approach and will hopefully soon be able to play more than the lover boy. Kareena, much slimmed down, holds your attention throughout.
Because so much of the publicity of the film is based on the Shahid-Kareena romance and break-up, it is inevitable that you look for signs. The good news is that the chemistry between them is crackling. The bad news is that you tend to read a lot more than you should. Like when Geet tells Aditya that he will miss her when she is not with him it's almost prophetic like Kareena was telling Shahid that. Or when they kiss, you know its their last kiss.
