A New Khan Is Born

The coolest, warmest, hippest and funniest musical romantic comedy in years has arrived, and a new Khan is born. Abbas Tyrewala, who gave us the fabulous original Munnabhai MBBS story and the dark Maqbool, has written a small gem that is a heart warmer, with chuckles strewn right through, and with Mansoor Khan and Aamir Khan as producers, he has the right backing to flesh out the written word onto celluloid. But what really works for Jaane Tu is Imran Khan as Jai Singh Rathore, a non violent boy just out of college, with a strong bond of friendship tying him to Aditi, a rather aggressive moophat girl who is more volatile than ether.
The two are inseparable so inseparable, in fact, that friends and family assume the two are in love. But are they? The answer is obvious and predictable, but the journey is not. Along the way there is a talking portrait of a dead father who believes violence is courage, there are two Rajput cowboys roaming the city on a strange mission, and there is a Marathi cop who is funnier than all policemen shown so far in Indian cinema.
Smaller but equally fleshed out characters like a dopehead brother and his pet rodent, and an interesting airport security officer who also sings Jaane Tu in the climax, make this film a must see.
Add to this a dynamic screenplay format, cutting between past and present, with the group of friends narrating the story to the group's new entrant at an airport, and building up to a climax again at an airport, and you have novelty.
Finally, the eclectic casting is the icing on the cake, coming as a surprise when you watch the film, since they have not been shown in the publicity and promotion: Naseeruddin Shah as the talking portrait, Sohail and Arbaaz Khan as the Rajput cowboys, and Paresh Rawal as the inspector.
Rahman's music is minimal, with the guitar theme used at the right times, with Jai's theme and the Jaane Tu song variations as instrumental versions underlayed strategically through the drama, gaining prominence in the climax. The songs a lot has been written about already, but they get more endearing on the big screen.
Rather than going in for a big showcase to launch Imran, or resorting to an emotional love story with heavy doses of romance, a truly original script has been taken up, and the best part is this romantic comedy also has a fair degree of suspense, since Jai has to fulfill three conditions, which we will not mention here, as it will spoil the viewer's fun. Go watch it, and see Jai live up to his family's parampara (and witness Imran truly living up to his family's parampara).