Enduring Love

Jaane Tu... is actually more than a standard date movie, it is a heart warming tale about love, and loss. And the film is what it is because of what the urban lexicon describes as “quan”— that intangible quality that lifts something from the basic to the sublime. Call it love, charisma or chemistry.

But take everything away, including the quan, and I’d still love Jaane Tu...because it is an unabashed tribute to the kind of films we have all loved grown up adoring— the quintessential Bollywood love story.

So there is a girl, Aditi (Genelia is quite the revelation), a spirited, confused mess of a thing who will appeal to even the hardest of cynics. And then there is a boy. Jai (Imran), the kind of guy you would bring home to mamma, and then probably drag straight to the bedroom. With his bedroom eyes and his mess-my-hair-coz-I-am-so-cute appeal, Imran proves to be quite the package. And yes they are hopelessly in love, a fact that everyone around them knows, but they refuse to acknowledge. Heartbreaks and misunderstandings ensue, like they do in such love stories, and eventually they are united in the mandatory airport sequence. Sigh. Yes, yes, before you say it, I will admit. Jaane Tu... is best suited to those whose hearts flutter when the music swells at the end of a Frank Capra movie, like me. And it’s definitely for those who can’t tell whether their heart is fluttering because they’re too busy wiping the tears from their eyes.

But it also has some poignant moments. Take the brother-sister bonding sequence for instance. A harried Aditi confronts her reclusive brother ( Smita Patil’s son, Pratiek Babbar), who is monstrous to her friends, asking him why has he distanced himself from her, only to realise that its she who has built a wall around her. Heart warming stuff this, the kind you will definitely not come across in any of the recent Bollywood releases.

And then of course there are is the brilliant supporting cast. Faces you have probably never seen before, but will carry back home with you. Alishka Varde as the dim-witted Bombs; Karan Makhija as whiney Rotlu; Nirav Mehta as thegoofy Jignesh and Sugandha Garg as the spunky and mysterious Shaleen, are efficiently etched out characters, who actually appeal to you as much as the lead duo. Need we mention the veterans? Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal more than deliver, they bring to the film the kind of easy camaraderie that makes you want to reach out and hug them.

Jaane Tu ... scores over most romantic comedies because it follows its core romance past the point of infatuation, straight into complacency. It’s a movie about enduring love, not fleeting, solve-everything romance.