Shaad Ali seems like one pampered and spoilt kid of the parents (here YashRaj) who have given chances repeatedly to the kid despite the failures. Except Saathiya which is again a remake of Mnai Ratnam’s Alai Payuthey, Shaad hasn’t made even one good film. His latest attempt Kill Dil was probably the worst of all. However since Ok Jaanu is a remake of Mani Ratnam’s Ok Kanmani, chances are he might do well. Alas, the original itself was average except the exceptional performances. So the remake must have very good performances to match up to the least.
Ok Jaanu is the story of Adi and Tara. Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Tara (Shraddha Kapoor) are the urbane and practical youngsters have a career paths of their own and are serious about it. They decide not to marry but enter into a live-in. They live in the house of Gopi and Charulatha played gracefully by Naseeruddin Shah and Leela Samson. Gopi and Charulatha represent the unconditional love we see in some couples among the senior citizens. Adi and Tara represent many of the current generation who can uninhibitedly say, sorry I cannot marry but will live-in. The film is about discovering love and the climax can be predicted even by a kindergartener may be.
Ok Jaanu has very few things going right on its side and major problems that makes the film suffer (or he audience?)
Things that went well:
At the end of the day, it’s a Mani Ratnam’s script, so it had an inherent class.
Cinematography of Ravi K Chandran
The music to an extent
Naseeruddin and Leela Samson’s performances which we wished had more length in the film.
The major issue with the film is the script itself, which is so redundant in itself. The movie hardly progresses. Blame Mnai Ratnam’s screenplay. The story which could have bene probably finished in 20 minutes is elongated 10 times making it taxing for the viewer to sit through. In such movies where it’s just about the guy and the girl, they ought to give extra-ordinary performances because it’s purely a love story and nothing else. Aditya Roy was too ordinary and much like his performances in earlier films. There was no charm, same is the case with Shradda who seemed to try a lot to be like Tara but her interpretation of Tara seems to be wrong at many levels. The chemistry between them is far away from what is in Aashiqui. Of course the roles and the context is different, but the spark is missing which is so important.
Last but not the least, Shaad Ali has failed again.
