Movie Review of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008)

Bollywood has some traditions,one of them being that whenever new actors need to be launched most likely they will get launched in a story about young romance.Case in point movies like Bobby, Maine Pyaar Kiya and Qayamat se qayamat tak which launched Rishi Kapoor, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan respectively.

This tradition is continued with Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na made to launch Aamir's nephew Imraan Khan.In order to launch Imraan, Aamir and Mansoor Khan,the latter who has been absent from the bollywood scene for quite some time come together to produce this movie.

This movie stars Imraan Khan and Genelia in the lead roles.The story is about Jai Singh Rathore (Imraan Khan ) and Aditi (Genelia) who are best friends throughout college.They are surrounded by four other friends who go by cutesy sounding nicknames like Rotlu and Jiggy to name a few.Jai and Aditi love each other, everyone other than the two of them seem to recognize this fact.They both seem to think that theirs is just friendship and they come up with what they believe is a brilliant idea of fixing up their best friend with a person they think will suit them best. Whether they recognize their feelings for each other and how they go about handling it forms the rest of the movie.

Some interesting deviations from a regular bollywood fare includes the male lead who does not like violence and avoids a fight at all costs which is very rare in bollywood, the female lead on the other hand never backs down from a fight.This is refreshing in a couple of ways, it is interesting to see the male lead try and diffuse a couple of confrontations with humor and it is interesting to see the female lead especially in a bollywood movie that does not seem to need to cling to the male lead and act like a wilting violet.

In fact some of the highlights of the movie has to be when Jai diffuses a tense situation at a club and a tense situation in his college. Also the sequences involving Naseeruddin Shah who speaks through the picture to his wife Ratna Pathak Shah are quite funny and will evoke a few chuckles at the very least.

Imraan Khan makes an impressive debut and performs competently.Genelia is adequate in her role of Aditi. Both Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah shine in their brief roles and leave the viewer wanting to see more of them.

The movie itself is above average and definitely worth a watch especially for the different presentation of a subject matter that presents no newness.The music of the movie is also refreshing and in keeping with the style of the movie.You will find a detailed music review here .

Ratings
3.5/5