Director: Shaad Ali
Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Leela Samson
Quick take: A frothy romance that deals with some real issues
Filmfare rating: 3/5
OK Jaanu is an official remake of Mani Ratnam’s O Kadhal Kanmani (2015). Director Shaad Ali has remade this with his Guru’s blessings. So, given the reasons, the film looks and feels like a Mani Ratnam film. It will feel more so to someone who has seen the original. Thankfully for Shaad, most of the Hindi belt doesn’t get to see Mani sir’s Tamil films and hence the intended audience won’t make comparisons. If you want a one line review of the film you can say it’s about good looking people find love ion local trains and BEST buses and kaali peeli taxis. Yes, Shaad Ali has done a huge favour to Mumbai’s local transport system by making his protagonists behave like normal middle class people. They may have cool jobs as fledging game designers and architects but they live in hostels and PGs and know they don’t have money to burn.
And like most young people of today, the lead couple has issues with long-term relationships – marriage and commitment seem passé to them. It takes an older couple, played by Naseeruddin Shah and Leela Samson for them to realise that old fashioned love isn’t that bad after all. That’s both the strength and the falling of the film. Because it begins to feel like the older couple’s story is the real centrepiece and Shraddha and Aditya’s saga revolves around their periphery. Naseeruddin Shah is a far superior actor than most in the industry and makes his scenes look deceptively easy. The scene where he confides that his day gets made when his Alzheimer’s ridden wife remembers to call him Paplu says all about the depth of love he feels for his partner of many autumns. Then, the scene where a poignant Leela Samson asks she’s afraid of one day forgetting Naseer is poignant too. You long for more such gravitas-laden scenes and in front of them the conflict between Aditya and Shraddha looks frivolous. Both the leads have no doubt acted their hearts out and full marks to them for the effort.
The cinematography, the production design, editing, the peppy dialogue (by Gulzar) as well as the background score all combine to make it a product that’s easy on the eyes and ears. All-in-all, it’s a well-made product by Shaad Ali. Now he should concentrate on doing something original…