Pehle Ka Naata

It was a though choice – Will Smith’s pout or Imran Khan’s?

Ultimately what tipped the scales was that I was getting to see the newbie’s pout for only 70 bucks. So even if I didn’t like it, I could have easily walked out and not felt that my day was wasted, as the show was one of those illegally-houred 8.00 AM ones.

And guess what – I liked it. Not just the pout, but the whole movie. The cast was fresh, each character well-etched out and played convincingly. Although it did look as though Aamir mamu has sat bhateeja down and rehearsed each dialogue/scene/cut/frame/shot/flick of the eye a million times.

So Jai, the non-violent Rajput, gets out of scrapes by ducking and thinking on his feet, mucks around with friends in Bandra fort and buys kittens with one-blue-one-green eye for his best friend-but-only-his-friend -haanAditi.

And Aditi (Genelia D’Souza) the incorrigible rich child can’t see beyond him. But of course they’re only friends. I’m sure everyone’s seen this movie by now, so I am not going to sit and review it here. What I am going to do instead is ask just one question -

Why’s Shaleen (the friend who plays the guitar and wears lovely ethnic neckwear) mentioned ONLY once in the movie??

And why was she given such a small role to play?

OK – that’s two questions. I know.

All in all, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is one of those nice college flicks that depict the coming-of-age of its central protagonists; Mamma’s boy turns into Rajput papa’s boy, unruly-haired girl turns into straight-haired chick, Gujju boy loses his golden streaks and finds girlfriend and true love finds its (rather unmelodious) course. And of course, others not as fortunate continue to wait for Godot.

Thankfully, Shaleen remains the same.