Jaan-E-Mann Review

He is the rockstar who could never become a superstar. She is the pretty-young-chick with a wild side to her. And no, she can't stand Champu-the-geek even though he can solve mathematical complications with a matter-of-fact-ease. Seven years later rockstar in a last-ditch-effort to save himself from the alimony bouncer thrown by her PYC-Wifey-Dear, decides to help out NASA Astronaut (and still-desperately-seeking the illusive-chick) Champu win his love-battle. With a tag line..Let's Fall In Love.Again.You don't have to be an Einstein to predict the ending. That's the thin-sliced storyline of writer, editor, screenplay writer, dialogue writer, background music composer and director Shirish Kunder's debut Broadway-Meets-Bollywood-Bonanza `Jaanemann'.

`Jaanemann' is riding high on the Chetak-Horse of hype-n-publicity. There's a palpable eagerness before the film begins. It starts off on an interesting note. But even before it
ends (God, it's well over three hours) one feels like hungry for fresh air outside the theatre. It seems director Shirish Kunder is quite clear that he is telling no new story. He wants to dazzle the audience with his technical panache and fantasy-prone-editing-chops. The Filmfare Awards from the sixties when Salman Khan gets a trophy from Meena Kumari and he ends up thanking Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan etc. was definitely a good beginning.

Storytelling via song-n-dance-jugglery with the seasoning of good humor made for enjoyable fare. A good one hour later, the film meanders into a hackneyed storyline with Rockstar Suhan (Salman Khan) and Champu Agastya Rao planting themselves in a shady apartment bang opposite the love-interest PYC Pia (Preity Zinta). Thereafter begins a Badi-Si-Love-Story as they ogle at Pia from their telescope and watch her cry watching weepie movies on their big screen `astronomical' theatre. Suhan makes a cool dude out of Agastya. And as Champu gets close to his destination, Suhan gets to know about the little angel daughter he has from Pia. One is also made to suffer the most stupefying family-dance-show in Pia's family home in US where everyone dances in a grotesque Yash-Karan mellow-drama with loud costumes, silly jokes and `Kabool Hai' numbers. Uff.Hand over a glass of water please.

The end result of this hugely mounted film is the case of beautiful packaging and little-or-no-content. Director Shirish Kunder shows a lot of promise when it comes to giving a world class technical sheen to his film. He also shows a sense of humour at his own expense when he shows Suhaan's debut film `Jaanemann' being trashed by the audience. But maybe dude, you should have been tough and let someone do the editing of the final copy. The film could have been more effective if it could be curtailed by at least half an hour to forty five minutes. Taking cinematic liberties is fine but you just can't take audience sensibilities for granted. Even if you wanted to throw dust-of-magnificence in the eyes of audience, at least there could have been some semblance of plausible storyline. Style is wasted if the content is missing. And that's exactly the flaw with `Jaaneman'.  

In the acting department, you shall find Salman Khan as his best. He looks cool-as-ice-tea and hotter-than-piping-sizzlers. Even as an actor he gravitates between the superbly humorous to tugging-at-the-heart-strings-emotional during his brief interactions with his beautiful daughter. I would rate this as Salman's most flawless performance ever.

Akshay Kumar definitely has taken a big risk by playing a geek-with-a-silly-laughter-therapy. He himself knows his limitations as an actor and yet he springs up a fine show. It's always clear that he is the supporting actor in the film and he plays it to perfection. Preity Zinta once again is back with her-pregnant-lady avatar that she