Jab Tak Hai Jaan review: "Yashji will be remembered forever but not for this film!!!"

It's almost a month since Yash Chopra, the "King of Romance" has left for his heavenly abode leaving Bollywood a much poorer place. So vast has his contribution to the Hindi film industry been that's its impossible to mention about Bollywood without a reference to his legacy. After having reached the ripe old age of 80 a month back, Yashji had announced that "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" will be his last directorial venture & with SRK back in the romantic avatar, the hype surrounding the film had gone through the roof. So will it be a befitting swansong???

Major Samar Anand (Shahrukh) is the daredevil of the bomb defusing squad of the Indian Army having disarmed scores of bombs, 98 to be precise with as much insouciant attitude as licking a lollypop earning him the nickname "the man who cannot die". His sobre demeanour attracts the attention of Akira (Anoushka Sharma), an aspiring documentary film maker of the Discovery Channel. Having obtained the permission of the authorities she joins Samar & his team to film them for her project. In due time, she stumbles across Samar's diary which lays bare the person behind the Aviators. So who was actually Major Samar & what made him treat death with disdain???

Yash Chopra has given us scores of memorable films through the decades be it "Deewaar", "Silsila" or "Darr" to name a few. His latest venture "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" was meant to be the perfect swansong to draw curtains on a glittering career. However, the film has come short of expectations mainly owing to a inconsistent script revolving around the character of Meera (Katrina Kaif). Her role seemed so immature & illogical that it failed to create any sense of emotional chord with the audience.The romantic sequences between SRK & Katrna seemed quite a drag at many places which could have been edited to impart a more telling effect.

SRK was fantastic as Major Samar but seemed quite a misfit in many of the sequences as the younger lover boy. He uses his charm to good effect to convey his romantic side but his age kept showing thanks to a botchy make up pretty much like Aamir's lover boy image in "Ghajini". Anushka was equally impressive while Katrina Kaif's role lacked sense & she lacked the capability to enact the emotional scenes with conviction. Another surprising aspect is that the collaboration of Yashji, Gulzar & Rahman turned out to be a damp squid. The music album as such was commendable with impressive tracks like Jiya Re, Challa & Ishq Shava but it failed to gel with the picturisation except for Jiya Re & stuck out like a sore thumb throughout the whole film which is quite unlike Rahman's music. 

Verdict:  The film will be a blockbuster in the overseas market while in the domestic circuit it will do well in Multiplexes but not so in single screens owing to an inconsistent romantic track. I believe it will earn a lifetime collection of 200 crores but wont threaten the records of  "3 Idiots" or "Ek Tha Tiger". In short, there are individual brilliances but the film fails as a cohesive unit!!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Regards...Ben