Film review Mayank Shekhar mayank. shekhar@ mid- day. com This is an urbane coming- ofage film. Except the person coming of age, is 50! How do you reconcile that with reality? Hell you can. Look around you closely on any given day/ night u2014 especially at bars, house parties, etc u2014 and you might just find yourself surrounded by overgrown man- children from Generation X ( born between 1965- 79), grappling with existential issues on life and responsibilities, more common among 20- year- olds few decades ago.
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This film is also what youu2019d call an NRI picture u2014 primarily about deeply rooted, non- resident Punjabis settled in the West u2014 something you saw a whole lot of, late u2019 90s onwards. And see so little of lately, given realism of small- town India appears to have replaced the gloss of u2018 gore- gaonu2019 ( White Town) in Bollywood.
But frankly the sequence that follows u2014 of a 50- yearold guy, hitting on a 21- yearold girl at a nightclub, taking her home, seducing her with his moves, into what turns out as the father meeting his daughter for the first time u2014 more than makes up for anything that you may not care for in this film. That sceneu2019s a gem.
Replace him with any other Bombay actor of the same vintage, and you run a genuine risk of the old commitment- phobe coming across as a creepy, lustful, paedo uncle on the prowl, preening around a pretty young thing, in ways that makes one think he needs mental help. No such fears with Saif.
Years havenu2019t still taken the sheen off his swag.
Besides, this is a true- blue NRI, Bollywood rom- com. And while Saif has indeed experimented with films/ parts for far longer, and far more than some of his contemporaries, the fact is the metro- sexual hero, with a roving eye coupled with romantic charm, is the sort of role he was born to do, and kill with. As he does here.
Should anything else matter then? Just the fact that the picture, otherwise quite well- written and smartly directed, at some point, descends into the preachy and predictably maudlin space, shedding its consistently humorous tone. Maybe thatu2019s just to give the picture some gravitas to be taken seriously; when, really, whatu2019s the point? Especially when you have Tabu banging it with her expressions, and the funny lines, in a role thatu2019s sadly much shorter than in the Ajay Devgn- starrer De De Pyaar De ( 2019), which was also similarly about a middle- aged, single manu2019s woes. The lead female part belongs to a young actor who goes by the screen name Alaya F. She seems supremely confident and naturally at ease, for a debutant holding her own, standing alongside veterans Tabu, Saif.
Whou2019s she again? Am told actor Pooja Bediu2019s 22- yearold daughter. Pooja Bedi, the national crush? Wasnu2019t it just yesterday that we were all swooning over her as the high school hottie in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar ( 1992)? Okay thanks, but no thanks, for reminding me of how old I am now! Right up Saifu2019s alley Jawaani Jaaneman U/ A : Romance drama Dir: Nitin Kakkar Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Alya F, Tabu 3 H YUCK HH WHATEVER HHH GOOD HHHH SUPER HHHHH AWESOME
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