Director – Imtiaz Ali
Cast – Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sayani Gupta, Evelyn Sharma, Aru Krishansh Sharma
Music- Pritam
Bollywood’s latest most anticipated rom-com/drama story, Jab Harry Met Sejal follows the story of Sejal (Anushka Sharma), a Gujarati tourist who spends a month in Europe with her family for vacation but on her last day, she loses her engagement ring.
She rehires her tour guide Harinder Singh Nehra a.k.a Harry (Shah Rukh Khan) after much argument and set out in search of the engagement ring in all the places they had visited in the past month.
In the search of her ring, Sejal discovers a new found freedom, solace, comfort and happiness in Harry’s company and Harry too realizes what is the importance of love and relationship.
However, their journey is filled with a lot more love, romance, lies, thrill, danger, and fun, much more than anticipated. Despite a weak story, the rom-com won hearts because of SRK and Anushka working their magic.
The two lead roles play their respective parts flawlessly with Anushka playing the bubbly stereotypical Gujarati girl and SRK doing an amazing Punjabi accent. The acting had nowhere to let the audience down, from start to end.
What’s new about SRK is that he doesn’t play the over-the-top romantic here, but a brooding, reserved, lonely man (an Imtiaz Ali specialty of course). It had been too long that SRK fans had to be happy only with his off-screen appearances or movies like Dilwale and Happy New Year.
This movie will make you fall in love with the brooding and edgy SRK which is equally as charming as any other of his roles. The conversations between the two protagonists are hilarious and as the movie nears the intermission, you get the hint that their chemistry is going to deepen with every second of the movie from there.
Every little detail like how a certain incident brought them closer and helped them slip into their comfortable selves has been taken care of. You soon sense the comfort and feel your muscles relax as the two leads get more friendly and comfortable.
SRK has aged like a fine wine, even in acting skills, charming and handsome as always. He may have even wooed the male audience in the theatres and it wouldn’t come as a surprise. Anushka too is no longer a newcomer and her acting speaks of her experience and exposure in the industry.
It may not have been the same as NH10 or Ae Dil Hai Mushkil but she still gives her best. Both SRK and Anushka work their magic.
The location and cinematography had left no stone unturned. However, the plot story line seems a bit weak and incomplete. It felt as if Imtiaz Ali had wanted to show us a lot but due to time constraints, he just touched those portions of the plot and left the rest to the audience’s imagination.
The visions that Harry gets to his village in Punjab were shown as such that it felt the movie will soon have a “Past Life” scenario coming up to make it look like a “Soul Searching” love story. Also, his love-hate relationship with the village and his family has not been given a back story or a justified reason as such.
We see him having flashbacks, then waking up and crying, but just a few minutes later he starts singing with Sejal. This sudden shift left the audience a little confused for sure. The plot has not gone beyond Harry, Sejal, or the famed ring. Anytime the plot meandered away from the leads, it was brought back thanks to the ring search. There was no backdrop on Sejal or her family either.
The songs seemed forced in a lot of places. The moment you felt yourself engaged and hooked to the movie, a song would interrupt. My personal favorites were “Radha”, “Phurrr”, and “Hawayein”, however, the rest of the songs didn’t really touch a chord and the movie would have done well without them too.
Overall, Jab Harry Met Sejal is a good Rom-com story with a dash of drama, despite a weak story, especially with the King of Romance working his magic. Do not go in with high expectations and you might have a jolly good time.
My rating – 3.5/5
