Film Review: Ok Jaanu
Shaad Ali’s (Saathiya) tryst with the romance genre continues. This time he’s opted to remake Mani Ratnam’s Tamil version of ‘OK Kadhal Kanmani’.
Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur), a video-game designer from Kanpur, meets Tara (Shraddha Kapoor), an architecture graduate at a friend’s church wedding. The two don’t have any compunctions about communicating and relaying phone numbers in sign language across the aisle. They meet, but since neither of them wants commitments, they go in for a live-in relationship. Adi plans to emigrate to the US and Tara to pursue higher studies in Paris.
Their landlord, retired High Court Judge Gopi Srivastava (Naseeruddin Shah) and his amnesiac wife Charu (Bharatnatyam dancer, actress and former Censor Board chairperson Leela Samson) salvage the film from getting too repetitive. The dialogues of Adi and Gopi’s initial meeting are reminiscent of the generation gap which later condenses into an unspoken camaraderie. It’s one of those love-at-first-sight films, but threatens to remain static and fails to get a move on. Most of the first half is spent boarding buses and trains and generally providing the viewer a South Mumbai darshan. Shraddha acts the love-stricken adolescent even when angry. Aditya is passable. Naseeruddin plays the part of the protective husband to perfection. There is an overt tribute to renowned gynaecologist, Dr. Nozer Sheriar.
The set design by Sharmistha Roy (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Mohabattein, Kal Ho Na Ho) is outstanding. But the music of AR Rahman is average — the one-time master digging into his library and rehashing his hit song ‘Humma Humma’.
It’s just not OK, jaanu!
