Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na

Over the weekend, I watched Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na on DVD. This is my second viewing of the movie. I watched it on the big screen couple of months back and ended up dozing off towards the climax of the movie. It was fatigue catching up and not a bad movie putting me to sleep!

The movie is about falling in love without realizing it. Although the subject is familiar (and has been done to death before), this is an interesting watch. This is also the directorial debut of Abbas Tyrewala. Abbas is multitalented as he as already worked as a story writer, screenplay writer, dialogue writer and lyricist in several sucessful/unsuccessful, commercial/critically acclaimed movies. Remember the dialogues in Munnabhai MBBS! Abbas wrote it.

The things I liked about the movie/DVD are

1. Narration: A group of friends narrates the love story to an young woman who is currently dating one of them. The story unfolds in a linear way. But the story tellers take a break in between to explain the subplots. This works in the favor of the movie.
2. Audience is inside the movie: The young woman echoes our feelings about the love story. As the narration begins, she is skeptical about the love story (...So are we!). As the story progresses, she gets hooked on to the love story(...So do we!).
3. Background scrore: A R Rahman
4. Naseeruddin Shah & Ratna Pathak Shah: Watch the real life couple having arguments as the reel life couple. I loved the way Mr Shah delivers the punch line "You can take a Rathod out of Ranjore but not the Ranjore out of a Rathod".
5. Director's commentary: Excellent commentary by Abbas. It gives a lot of insight into the movie.
6. Special Features: A second disc with 2+ hours of deleted scenes and the making of the movie.
7. Mansoor Khan: The director who gave us a "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak" and who has gone into hibernation since "Josh"! He produced this film along with Aamir Khan for launching their nephew, Imran Khan. You need to come and give us more good films (...But, please do not give us a "Josh").

The movie is different and is better than the mediocre "prem kahani" dished out to us day in and day out. Please see the movie and encourage the film makers who are embracing and encouraging better cinema.