Jab Tak Hai Jaan .... Yash Chopra's swan song!

If KJo’s ‘Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham’, was ‘all about loving your family’, then Yash Chopra’s swan song, ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’, is ‘all about loving Sharukh Khan’ – the dude is there in every frame of the film! If you are an SRK fan, then you ought to watch ‘JTHJ’, as a Diwali gift to yourself.

Lekin, for those whose hearts don’t go dhak-dhak for King Khan, thank the Lord for:

*Katrina Kaif, who manages to match the beauty of one of my favourite cities in the world, London;

*the Yash Chopra effect of breathtaking locales, from the lush green meadows of the English countryside, to the natural splendour of Ladakh, which looks like God’s own country;

*Anushka Sharma, who plays the anti-Katrina – tomboyish, adventurous, free spirited, who gets away with wearing the skimpiest of shorts while shooting a documentary on the Indian army;

*I know AR Rehman hasn’t lived up to expectations, but still, you leave the theatre with some good music ringing in your ears – Niti Mohan’s voice in the “Chaliya” number & the amazing Javed Ali, singing the title track!

The movie is inspiring at one level – even if you are only an odds ‘n ends labourer, who sells fish, sources "foie gras" for customers & becomes head waiter in a London restaurant, worry not doston ... just fall in love, get rejected & voila, ten years later, you are defusing bombs as a special officer, on the Indian army bomb squad!!! So no rigorous training, no qualifications, but just being dumped, makes you an ace bomb defuser! I have to add, that the moment he wins back his love & his desire to live, he stops working with the bomb squad – Katrina’s ultimate gain, is the Indian army’s loss, apparently!

As you can see, this is quite the love rectangle: Sameer loves Mira (Kat), who dumps him for the mother-of-all-foolish-reason (she bargains with God, that if Samir, who is hurt in an accident lives, she will never meet him again!!!!), then Sad Samir falls in loves with bombs (because he now welcomes death!!!), Akira(Anushka Sharma) is head over heels in pyaar with Sad Samir, who still loves death & Mira & when he gets Mira back, he falls out of love with bombs, because now ‘main marna nahin chahta!’ Whew – if you found reading that excruciating, think of we the people, in the audience!

BUT there are some silver linings:

*You get sentimental about this being Yash Chopra’s last film; like all his productions, this one too, is well put together, with gorgeous gals, SRK as the never-ending-hero, Manish Malhotra outfits & yep, while a tad bit too lengthy, you don’t really squirm in your seat;

*I hope Salman Khan isn’t reading this, because it has to be said, that unlike the thanda, lukewarm chemistry, between him & Katrina Begum, in ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, somehow, the SRK-Kat pairing sizzles – they cuddle, they kiss, they romance & it almost looks right!

‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ – the irony of Yash Chopra directing the movie till the very end, is not lost on us – so head to the theatre, pay for the tickets, as a tribute to the combined body of work of the ‘King of Romance!’

Rahi baat SRK ki, the joke doing the rounds is that he will probably play the romantic lead with the grand daughters of Katrina Kaif & Anushka Sharma, his motto being, ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan!!!’