Jab We Met (2007)

Directed by: Imtiaz Ali

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Dara Singh, Saumya Tandon

 

The camera work in this movie is unique, and definitely something to watch for. If you’re a fan of technical work in a film production, ’Jab We Met’ has a few goodies. I really resisted seeing this movie because it had so many recommendations (when people really set up a movie for you, it tends to be a let-down) but when I finally did manage to see it, I was glad I did.

Adi (Shahid Kapoor) is rich, famous, and very very unhappy. He walks through the beginning of the movie dazed. It starts at a meeting which he barely registers, he goes to his car and eventually to a wedding where he meets the bride and leaves. He places his beeper and phone on top of his car and walks away from it, removing his tie. He gets on a bus, and then with seemingly no purpose…catches a train. My first thought: Was the bride the love of his life, who left him for another woman? My second thought: is he going to kill himself?!

 

Immediately after this, there is a comical scene wherein men start loading cargo (stuffed tigers, pink suitcases, etc) onto the train while a woman is running to catch up with it. Apparently she was late. She also talks a lot…A LOT. Her name is Geet (Kareena Kapoor). When she gets to her seat, 23, she tells Adi to show her his ticket. Apparently he’s in her seat. He moves, and she starts…talking…again. If I were depressed (possibly suicidal depressed) I’m sure I’d want nothing more than an annoying girl chatting with me throughout my trip.

 

Eventually she talks his ear off, so he decides to get off the train. More appropriately, jump off and into the path of another train. Geet stops him from jumping, though she doesn’t realize he actually WANTED to die. The ticket master comes up and asks for his ticket…but he doesn’t have one. Geet convinces the guy to sell Adi a ticket, and he gets to stay on the train. Eventually, Adi explodes and tells Geet to leave him alone. He apologizes immediately afterward. She forgives him because she’s about to get married (elope) with a guy, and her family won’t approve because he isn’t a Sikh. She’s then stuck in another little…talking…loop. Eventually when Geet is going to sleep, she notices that Adi is missing.

Geet goes in search of Adi, and finds out he’s gotten off the train. But the train is about to leave, so she gets off to bring him back. They both end up missing it. Geet explodes, demanding that Adi get her to where she’s going, since it’s his fault she missed her train and lost all of her luggage in the process.

I don’t know why, but when we view a taxi they catch from above, it’s very obviously a toy car on a toy road. The same thing happened earlier with a shot of one of the trains from above. It’s hopefully an artistic choice. Anyway, Adi takes control of the taxi and races to the next station. He gives Geet some money for water, while he gets busy paying the distraught taxi driver.

Geet ends up missing her train arguing with the clerk about the water being 2 rupees too much.

Well, Geet goes to the station master and he agrees to call the guy at the next station to hold her luggage. He then proceeds to give her a creepy lecture on the similarity between life and trains, and why she should always be alert. She leaves the station and gets propositioned by a guy on a motorcycle under the misguided impression that she is a prostitute. Why he’d choose a girl in pajamas over a bunch of women decked out in saris and make-up, I don’t know. Anyway, she runs away and catches Adi. Overjoyed that she’s found him, she finally tells him her name. Adi introduces his name (fyi, full name is Aditya.) Geet informs Adi that he will escort her home.

 

They get a hotel room for the night…er…three hours. Adi tries to pay for the night, but the clerk asks if he wants the room ‘per-hour’. Geet is a but innocent and thinks that a per-hour basis is convenient for people who are only going to rest there for a few hours. Adi tries to explain WHY it would on a per-hour basis, but she argues with him and they take the room for three hours. The clerk asks Adi where he found her, and he explains that he found her on the train. They talk about Geet for a few minutes and Adi goes to the room with her. Geet and Adi talk. Adi pulls out a photo of his ex-girlfriend and Geet makes him burn her photo so he can get over the girl. She then makes him go to the bathroom and flush it down the toilet. Surprisingly enough, it does actually make Adi feel a little bit better.

The romance is interrupted when police raid the hotel. Adi drags Geet out of the building (all the while, poor Geet is confused and Adi is amused). They find a bus and decide to spend the night there. Eventually, when the bus departs, Adi breaks into song. They get on a rickshaw. Go to a small village. Go shopping. Etc. It’s obvious at this point that Adi is falling for Geet.

Eventually Adi tells Geet who he really is. The son of a famous industrialist, Aditya Kashyap, who is also a famous industrialist. We find out that Adi’s mom ran away with another man. Anyway, Geet and Adi finally arrive at Geet’s family’s house. Geet’s uncle is suspicious of Adi, demanding to know who he is. Geets tells her uncle that he’s just a friend who helped her get home when she missed her train. Adi lies about who he is, and says he’s a musician. Geet’s uncle demands that Adi spend a week there for being such a good friend to Geet and helping her get home.

Later, after Geet’s family tries to feed Adi to death, Geet tells Adi that she thinks some of the family know about her fiancée, Anshuman. Geet’s sister walks in on them talking together and gets a bit suspicious, but Geet informs her that she is going to elope with Adi…so it’s all good. Adi doesn’t seem too keen on the idea (he didn’t really seem keen on it when Geet came up with it in the first place). The next day Geet and Adi meet in a field, where Geet explains that her family have gotten her engaged to a childhood friend, Manjeet. She’s none to happy about this. Adi tries to convince Geet to tell her family about Anshuman, but she is insistent on running away with him instead of letting her parents know about it.

The next day we meet Manjeet, and everyone is excited about the approaching wedding. And then…Adi is forced to sing. Awesome musical number at this point, by the way. The really ultra colorful bit you all know and love in a Bollywood movie.

Geet has invented a ruse to convince everyone that she is having an affair with Adi. But Adi doesn’t go along with the plan, and Geet just resorts to plan A (running away.) While they hide from Geet’s family, it comes out that Anshuman doesn’t even know Geet is running away to elope with him. Adi doesn’t take this too well. But they talk it over and he decides to help her get there anyway. Cut to another song, ‘Ye Ishq Hai’, probably the most popular song on the soundtrack.

They arrive in Manali, and Geet is overjoyed that she is finally going to be with Anshuman…but Adi just can’t bear to meet him. He’s fallen in love with Geet, and parting with her is difficult enough. Adi returns home and back to work with a much lighter heart than he left it. He is finally ready to buckle down and take care of the company his father left him. He also forgives his mother for leaving his family in the process, and takes up singing again (something he’d given up years before.) But there’s still something missing…Geet…

What’s going to happen? Will Geet and Adi somehow be reunited? Will Geet get married and Adi find someone new? I guess you’ll have to find out for yourself. My final rating is 8/10 Bindis, just because it met all of my expectations for a great movie and more.