Movie Review: Jab Harry Met Sejal
Jab Harry Met Sejal (JHMS) comprises of a collage capture of fun moments shared between the leading pair, en-route their journey across the world. The characters of Harry (SRK) & Sejal (Anushka) are unconventional and interesting to watch, but lack depth. Though Harry’s emotions esp. anger & sadness are captured brilliantly at times, Sejal is very superficial & non-relatable.
Beyond an hour and half, the narrative fails keep the viewer engaged, and the easy predictability of the on-goings adds to dissatisfaction. Post interval, when you expect something unusual to turn up, the sequence of events keep moving at the same pace. Towards the end, the parts leading up-to the climax are unnecessarily dragged, and by the time the climax comes in, credits start rolling!
Dialogues are okay, nowhere close to Imtiaz’s earlier works. Cinematography is great no doubt, but frankly does not add value. Songs are quite hummable, esp. ‘Safar’ & ‘Radha’, not outstanding though.
Acting-wise, both Shah Rukh Khan & Anushka play their parts well (though Anushka does get a bit overboard at times, with the Gujarati accent), but are let down by the absence of a rock-solid script. All the other characters are reduced to caricatures. Above all, the underlying theme viz. “One partner completes the other’s incompleteness” is not conveyed properly.
By and large, JHMS is an average film that can be watched at the most once, for lead performances and their chemistry on-screen. It is huge opportunity lost by Imtiaz Ali who had immense potential to do wonders with a strong cast & crew on board, if only he had a decent story line at the first place to back them up.
Rating: **1/2
We The People 