Yes, indeed the plot was very shallow and predictable.  The Film revolves around Harry (Shah Rukh khan) and Sejal (Anushka Sharma), who’s looking for her engagement ring that she claims she lost during the trip. She’s clueless about where she misplaced it. It could be in any of the cities she visited with her family, where Harry was the tourist guide of Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest.But the screenplay was beautiful. Ali’s films have always taken meandering roads to their destinations, with characters (usually male ones) “discovering” themselves along the way. To an extent, this happens here as well: Harry, who’s pushed the world away, might learn to love again (“I feel like you can save me,” he tells Sejal). But unlike Highway or even Tamasha, there’s little complexity or emotional depth here, just travel and 140 minutes of foregone conclusion.

The film chooses four basic themes around which the entire atmosphere is reinforced. The first one is Friendship which is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. The entire first part of the film vividly describes the theme of friendship. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. I appreciate the director for creating this atmosphere covering the entire first phase of the film.  Emotions can’t be quick as we think.

Hope is the second theme which interacts between the lives of Harry and Sejal. Every instinct was hinting to a single fact that hopes can conquer everything. Remember this conversation?

SRK: Tu flight pakad ke wapas chale ja, aise ring nahi milne wali tujhe.

Anushka: Dhundhne se bhagwaan bhi mil jate hain

SRK: Mujhe toh nahi mile aaj tak

Imtiaz Ali highlights the fact that-I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.

Sacrifice is the third aspect of the plot. a scene arises when Anushka says “Main aisi ladki hu hi nahi jo apne fiance ko chodke tour guide ke saath bhaag jaye”. This is not a heartbreak statement. But this is an assertion which can be correlated like-‘But he was there. Day and night he was there for me, risking his very existence to protect me from a war that claimed my life over and over again. He never faltered, never wavered, never feared for his own safety. He was beaten, stabbed, abused, and tortured again and again, yet he still stuck by me, ignoring the possibility that he would die for me one day. It wasn’t right. I didn’t deserve everything he sacrificed for me. I wasn’t worth so high a price.’

The reply from SRK was : Has le has le, baad mein pata chalega tujhe

Memories were the last major plot since the entire plot had a smooth relation of human life to memories. Be it Harry’s Punjab or Sejal’s engagement, whatever may the instant be, it proves Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don’t believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it’s good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.

I do have a favourite scene, though, where Harry perfectly, summed the thoughts about the film. Fed up of the constant fights and confusion, Harry tells Sejal,

“Tu flight pakad ke chali ja. Yehbahut silly ho raha hai [Why don’t you go home? This is getting really silly].”

Now you know how it feels, Harry; now you know.

Yes that is emotion and an Imtiaz Ali film too.

That is Jab Harry Met Sejal.

Reviewed by

Sayan Basak

Kolkata