Jaan-E-Mann
 

Rating: 4/5

Director: Shirish Kunder

Cast: Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Anupam Kher and Aman Verma.

Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala (Nadiadwala and Grandsons Entertainment)

Synopsis: Salman Khan (Suhaan Kapoor) and Priety Zinta (Piya) were lovers in their college days. Akshay Kumar (Agastya Roy) is a geek, who studies in the same college as Preity and is her secret admirer. However, he’s heartbroken when he discovers her affair with Salman and goes away to the US where he becomes an astronaut and is currently serving NASA.

Meanwhile, Salman and Preity get married and then also get divorced due to communication gaps between them.

Post divorce, Salman has to pay a monthly sum to Preity, who now stays in New York and runs her own flower store. However, since he is jobless, he isn’t able to bow to her demands of a sum of Rs 500,000.

Ten years later, Akshay arrives from the US to express his unconditional love to Preity and gets to know that she is divorced. The person who tells him about this is none other than Salman. However, Akshay is unaware of the fact that the man who informed him about Preity’s current condition is the same man who she loved in college and got married to. This is due to Salman’s look, which was not the same as Akshay had known 10 years back.

Salman sees Akshay’s arrival as a brilliant opportunity to get Akshay to propose to Preity so that he could get rid of the heavy compensation. In order to help him get Preity, Salman flies down to New York. However, when he reaches there he realizes that he is a father of Preity’s kid and also become conscious of his love for her.

But due to lack of confidence in himself and for the fear of rejection, he restrains from approaching her and tries to run away from Preity. On the other hand the chemistry between Preity an Akshay takes better shape.

What follows is a series of emotions and drama to set things right in everybody’s life and to watch who Preity goes to and what happens to the lovers.

The screenplay of the film is the hero is the true sense and spirit. But not taking away any credit from Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta who look stunning and have done a spectacular job under the guidance of director Shirish Kunder. Anupam Kher plays a double role in the film. His role as a dwarf is really good and adds a lot to the humorous scenes. Aman Verma excels in the small role given to him.

Kunder has invented and gifted an innovative storytelling technique to Indian cinema. His novel techniques of using lights, special effects and camera angles have added a lot of the screenplay of the film. He has not only written the story, screenplay and dialogues, directed and edited the film, but has also given the background score of the film. Not taking away the reality aspect of the story, one even gets a feeling that they are watching a fairly tale because of the way the story has been told. But nonetheless it is a treat.

The film doesn’t have an excessive dose of filmi dialogues. Instead the director has used songs, background music, facial expressions, lights and camera angles to express emotions and intensity of scenes.

On one hand where the screenplay is the hero of the film, Anu Malik’s music is its heroine. It has added flavor to the film and elated it to another level. All the songs deserve a special acclaim especially ‘Humko Malum Hai’, ‘Ajnabee Shehar’ and ‘Sau Dard’. The songs not only sound good but also look good and grand on the big screen.

On hearing such nice songs and seeing Salman and Akshay together, one does miss seeing their conventional dance as seen earlier in ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’. Only ‘Jaane Ke Jaane Na’ gives them scope to groove to the beat. But Farah Khan’s choreography in the jazz style in the songs is splendid.

Gulzar’s lyrics in the film have been blended extremely well with the story of the film. More so because the songs carry forward the film and also dialogues have been sung in the film.   

The movie does lose pace at times but one does not mind overlooking it because of unique story telling technique. Especially the scene where Akshay goes to Preity’s house for the first time for her parent’s anniversary could be a little crisper.

Although the climax of the film is emotional and in spite of seeing the actors cry on screen, it hardly triggers tears in the audience. Hence the emotional scenes could have been worked upon better.

Also a little worry is about the limited scope of the film in terms of audience. While on the one hand, the film is releasing in B and C centers due to the tie up with UFO Moviez. However, on other hand, the story telling technique of a Broadway musical may not be comprehended by most people. The subject is unique for the multiplex audience but might be alienated by the small centre audience.

The film has a lot of in film placements and visibly Bournvita has taken a stark screen presence amongst all of them. The brand name has been used and abused 10 times in a four minute scene. So while it initially adds humour to the film, it later becomes redundant.

The movie looks extremely rich, not forgetting this is Saajid Nadiadwala’s most expensive film till date (Rs 400 million). Sudeep Chatterjee’s innovative experimentation with lights is worth applause. His cinematography has given New York a flamboyant look that has never been seen before in any Bollywood film that was shot there. The film will be a sheer treat for audiences and an absolute worth for their movie ticket.