Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007)

Simply A Masterpiece

best movie i've ever seen.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was okay, not great, but not absolutely horrible… About to be expected from a Bollywood movie. Since Hindi DVDs are pretty cheap from Amazon, it was worth checking it out, especially since Preity Zinta is my favorite actress…I thought the premise, two strangers, Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan meeting at a train station and swapping wild stories of how they each met their fiances to pass the time sounded like good fun, if nothing else.Unfortunately, almost any of the time that Abhishek Bachchan was on the screen, and mostly wished he'd leave… I didn't like his character, Rikki, at all, or the way he used the phrase "I got class" instead of actually having a modicum of class. He was just too scummy…Rikki's story of meeting Anaida, a manager at the Ritz Hotel in Paris was simply too far fetched to suspend disbelief for a little bit to go along with it. While Alvira (Preity Zinta) had a story that was a little better put together.I never figured out if the scene where they dare each other to do things was part of the story, with Rikki and Alvira passing time, or was one of them daydreaming they were doing it. Since Alvira's dare to Rikki was a tattoo, there was no follow-up later on with his tattoo or not…Bobby Deol's transformation from wimpy, dorky Satvinder into cool Steve was far too extreme to quickly to be believable at all...The songs were mostly kind of dull. I liked "Ticket to Hollywood" as far as the song and the dancing, though Rikki's attitude in it simply made me dislike him still more, and wonder what exactly his made-up finace, Anaida actually saw in him (but hey, it was his fantasy…). The rest of the songs I just fast-forwarded through, until the dance competition at the end, since that was part of the plot.Overall, it was entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying...

And churn out flop after flop - this seems to be the standard YashRaj Films formula these days. How can an illustrious production house churn out such tripe, film after film? 2007 would be a zero for them but for one film, but this is not that film. Abhishek (looking more and more like a dirty toilet brush with his scruffy beard) meets Preity (looking more and more like a stretched and nip-tucked desperate middle-aged woman) meet at a train station. They tell each other stories about how they are waiting for their affianced ones, and we see the suave (don't be shocked please) Bobby Deol and the sexy, Frenchified Lara Dutta in 'flashbacks'. There are weird dialogs exchanged between the lead pair like "Sex Hua"! What the heck/fish/whatever? Turns out they were both making up a story. Hello? Why were this retarded duo at the train station in the first place? After such a beginning you are still expecting a story to emerge? So what else can I say about JBJ? Oh yes - that it is utter tripe. The saving grace are the two sideys – never thought I'd say I liked Bobby Deol (gulp, shudder, please don't strike me down God, Zeus, Allah, Rama), Lara Dutta was decent too. Preity disappointed big time, Abhishek never could act so what else is new. Amitabh was a joker, he dressed as a pimp and acted as a drug addict – can someone please tell him to hang up his hat? Songs sucked big time and there was no saving grace in the film other than - no, I cannot say it twice, there will be hell to pay. Avoid this one like the plague, you probably already did avoid it in the theaters, you lucky bunch. Now run from the DVD!

JBJ is a classic example for theory that a great ensemble of a big production house, star-kids, a beauty queen, a queen bee and a great musical score does not guarantee a great film.The supporting cast has over shadowed the main leads, Lara was a delight to watch with her street antiques, while Bobby was the cute mama's boy. Both Preity and Abhishek are as stale as their last year's flick together, KANK. One fails to understand why a classy girl like Alvira falls for the piracy-specialist Rikki.This movie has everything in the book for a good film, except a story, which was clearly missing from the big picture. It was like watching a movie of nicely choreographed music videos, all the songs make you jhoom literally, and cinematography was top notch. Song sequence of bol na halke looks something out of Veer-Zaara, which makes me wonder, is the message of the movie is kiss and make up between India and Pakistan?

Once I wrote, as a Bobby Deol fan, that he only had to play in a Yash Chopra movie. Because Bobby is a great actor, and Yash Chopra makes good movies. But I was wrong, yes Bobby Deol acts very well, but his part in this movie is too small. His entrance was great, but the special effects were horrible! Yes, Yash Chopra can make a horrible movie! Abishek proved in Kabhi Alvida that he can act very well. In this movie he did not act good. It was very bad! He could not make his character alive. It was like a painting that did not come out of his paint.Preity Zinta still is an annoying actress. The combination Zinta and Anishek was not good. The story between these tho was too predictable.It was funny that Amitabh Bachchan played in a song in this movie. It was like a good joke. But this joke was repeated several times. Then it ain't funny anymore.The actress Lara Dutta I guess was also annoying. She reached the annoying level of Zinta. Her accent was terrible. I didn't see the whole movie. I put the DVD out en I started to watch Cheeni Kum. Maybe tonight I am going to watch the end of this movie.With saying this, I must add that I never have seen a bad movie like this from Yash Chopra before.