Jeevi
Rating: 3.25/5
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali
Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Sulbha Arya, Sushma Seth, Reema
Lagoo, Lilette Dubey, Delnaz Paul, Satish Shah, Ketaki
Dave, Shoma Anand, Dara Singh, Kajol (spl app), Sonali
Bendre (spl app), Rani Mukharjee (spl app) and Sanjay
Kapoor (spl app).
Dialogues: Niranjan Iyengar
Music: Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy
Audio Graphy: Anuj Mathur
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Choreography: Farah Khan
Costumes: Manish Malhotra
Cinematographer: Anil Mehta
Editor: Sanjay Sankla
Make-up: Mickey Contractor
Art: Sharmishtha Roy
Story - screenplay: Karan Johar
Director: Nikhil Advani
Producer: Yash Johar
Theatrical
release date: 27th November 2003
Story
Naina
Catherine Kapur (Preity Zinta) is a NY-based working
woman who's life is full of struggles and agonies to
such an extent that she has forgotten how to smile for
years. She is away from parties. She takes every responsibility
of her family on her shoulders and slogs for it. Rohit
Patel (Saif Ali Khan) is a close buddy of Naina for
years. He is a kind of guy who try to patao every girl
he sets his eye on. Aman Madhur (Shahrukh Khan) comes
into the life of Naina as a neighbor. He gets very friendly
with all the family members of Naina. He nags Naina
first.. Then he teaches her to smile and relax from
the mundane pressures. Before she realize it, she falls
in love with Aman. And Rohit falls in love with Naina.
When
Naina proposes Aman, he says that he is already married
to Priya (Sonali Bendre). And then he encourages Rohit
to propose to Naina. The real reason is that Aman is
suffering with a severe heart ailment and his days are
counted. Hence he lie to Naina that his wife is Priya
(Actually Priya is his doctor). The rest of the story
is a love triangle where every person loves the other
two!
Artists
performances:
Shahrukh Khan: Shahrukh Khan's entry scene in
the film gets life to it. His characterization is similar
to that of his character in DDLJ. As the climax approaches
his character takes the shades of 'Devdas'. He is at
his best by exhibiting the entire gamut of emotions
throughout the film. He is the main asset to the film.
Preity
Zinta: She is a perfect fit for the role of Naina,
who is lost in the wilderness of artificial world. Her
role has the scope of acting from a serious career woman
to a bumpy teenager. She performed the role of a 22
years old girl who is going on 50. She did a pretty
balanced performance.
Saif
Ali Khan: He carried off his 'Dil Chahta Hain' role
into this film. He is very cute. His expressions when
Preity tells him that she loves Sharukh are excellent.
His histrionics towards the end makes you sympathize
for him.
Others:
The best aspect of this movie is the perfect casting.
Jaya Bachchan is impeccable as mother of Preity. Reema
Lagoo is apt for the role of a compassionate mother
of Shahrukh. Lilette Dubey is hot as the siren who always
fail to get appreciation that she is a hot babe. Sonali
Bendre, Kajol, Rani Mukharjee and Sanjay Kapoor did
special appearances and they add to the glamour of the
film. Sushma Seth is good as nagging mother-in-law of
Jaya Bachchan. Sulbha Arya creates some laughter as
the maid who suspects a gay relationship between Saif
Ali Khan and Sharukh Khan.
Technicians
performances:
Story:
Story of the film has got a deep pathos angle attached
to it. If dealt well, this angle of death gives lots
of weightage to success of the film. However, the confused
state of Preity Zinta towards her priorities and preferences
among Shahrukh and Saif makes you feel confused.
Screenplay
- Direction: Screenplay of the film is good. But
narration of the film is terribly slow. The director
used split screen technique to narrate the scenes that
are happening in multiple time simultaneously (like
the one used in Hollywood films like The Hulk and Phone
Booth). Direction of the film is good. But the director
has taken more than enough time to establish characters.
There is a touch of Karan Johar in the execution of
the film (especially the scenes where the glycerin is
much used).
Music:
Music by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy is entertaining. The
adaptation of 'Pretty Woman' by fusing it with bhangra
is good. Title track is repeated played as background
music. Mahi Ve is a class act. All the songs are well
executed on the screen except for the disco song.
Sound:
One negative point of the film is the spot dubbing (online
dubbing) adapted by the filmmakers. The clarity and
audibility of the dialogues is less. Since the audibility
is less, the background music dominated dialogues for
lots of vital scenes. One has to understand that Indian
cinema is very much dependent on dialogues. The dependency
goes to such an extent that if the dialogues were aired
on radio people would easily understand and imagine
the corresponding visuals. The maker would have chosen
the traditional procedure for dubbing.
Other
departments: Dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar are good.
There are good Samaritan dialogues that are trademark
of Karan Johar that oozes positive thinking. Anil Mehta's
cinematography is first rate. The entire film is taken
in NY area. Costumes by Manish Malhotra are trendy.
Choreography by Farah Khan is contemporary. The film
is made in a rich scale by Yash Johar.
Analysis:
The positive factors of the film are Shahrukh Khan,
Priety Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, direction and rich production
values. This film is a well made one except for two
things. First one is the terribly slow narration. Second
one is excessive use of glycerin at every possible scene
for all the artists. The technical problem about this
film is the low audibility of dialogues. This is film
is bound to have terrific euphoria around it for the
first two weeks. However, it may not perform well in
the long run. You are bound to like this film if you
prefer films with HEAVY emotions.
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