Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, 2007 ★★★★☆

As summer sets in, the carefully packaged movies pop out of the woodwork all gleaming and ready to impress but lately the deluge of sequels has been less than satisfying. But this weekend was entirely different as we watched two immensely enjoyable movies - Live Free or Die Hard and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Although I meant to write up on Die Hard 4.0 first, the sheer joy that I experienced from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom makes it jump the queue.

As I mentioned in my one-line nine-star review on the sidebar, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is unabashedly Bollywood fare and best of all, it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The movie has gotten intensely negative reviews from the mainstream critics. But I have learnt to trust only one reviewer and usually his recommendations are closest in taste to ours. His review and love for musicals had first introduced us to Jaan-e-man which being a Salman movie we would have skipped in the first place but ended up enjoying so naturally when he gave a big thumbs us to Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, we didn't have to think twice. The one-and-half-hour drive to Houston to the nearest Bollywood theater and the experience of having burnt our retinas with insanely stupid movies has made us wiser and we make the trip only after being absolutely sure.

The best thing about JBJ is that it doesn't pretend to be a different movie especially in an age when every Bollywood director tries to be different and instead ends up dishing the same crap. The plot is simple. Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) end up chatting at the railway station after the train bringing in their respective fiancees is delayed. They end up talking and telling stories about how they hooked up with their fiancees. Any more revelation of the plot will spoil the fun. Honestly, the plot doesn't matter.

It could have been about anything and yet the sheer love for making this movie would have still be difficult to hide. Rikki Thukral is your typical, as someone put it, Fobbie especially with his ringtone that goes "Ae Handsome! Ae Handsome!" He is the Bhatinda da puttar and a con man who profits from bringing in folks like him. Of course, if you ask him, he has a multitude of professions that can somehow be made to look honorable. He is a desi at heart and touts cricket match tickets but still loves Chelsea FC enough to get the sports news and night blanket. He is a kid at heart and loves comics especially Superman.

On the other hand, Alvira is a wannabe socialite with big dreams of mansions and prince charming. A tad racist by being blatant that she prefers gooras instead of dark-skinned Indians or Pakistanis but then that's what she wants to be but really isn't. Both Rikki and Alvira are at heart asal desi and rib each other on India-Pakistan differences. They make no bones about wanting to be crowned Mr.and Ms.Southall respectively. The American counterpart would be Jackson Heights in NYC, Devon Avenue in Chicago, and Hillcroft in Houston so as to get an idea of the extent of their ambitions.

Believe it or not, the best sequences in the movie are its fantastically choreographed songs. The music is catchy and you have to fight hard to keep yourself from joining in the fun. Kitsch songs with lyrics like Kiss of love, kiss of love...stay away from kiss of love and Lautade...Ticket to Hollywood...Lautade are not meant to be dissected and analyzed but enjoyed to the hilt by letting yourself go in the rapid flow of color, riot of extras, and dances.

Even the otherwise out-of-place song Bol Halke Halke soothes your nerves through beautiful visualization and a die-hard romantic spirit that is so typical of Bollywood. As a smart commenter over at Baradwaj's blog notes, is one of the few dream sequences about a couple sitting in a foreign land and visualizing themselves back in desh (strangely the subtitles for the song said, "Hold me halke halke" which strangely also made sense). But the best is reserved for the title song which repeats itself several times in the movie, in the terrific 25-minute dance off routine in an obvious homage to typical Nasir Hussain style of film-making. I was ready to stand up and applaud at the end of it.

What many critics missed was that this movie doesn't aim to break any new ground and instead is even content on doffing its hat to several of its predecessors that are etched in our memories. The subtle tributes to Qurbani, Sholay, Aradhana, Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai and Coolie are obvious yet subtle enough to hide a deeper relationship. For e.g. the Sholay tribute has the long-legged Abhishek Bachchan riding in the carrier car of a motorcycle alongside Bobby Deol with the song Yeh Dosti playing in the background but only after you think a little that you get it that these guys are the sons of the original actors.

As Preity Zinta says, ""*Chhoti chhoti *details mein bada lutf hota hai." I couldn't have said it better. Amitabh thankfully doesn't play a sutradhaar aka main-samay-hoon and is content popping up on the screen dressed in his colorfully jhatak embroidered jacket and two-headed guitar dancing to Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Those trying to make sense of his appearance fail to get it that he is merely providing a transition in the narration of a musical. The foot-tapping music and choreography of his interludes actually makes you look forward to the next one.

Lara Dutta and Bobby Deol play their characters as the 'respective fiancees' remarkably well especially Lara Dutta since her characters before and after interval are so different (you've to see the movie to know why). Other characters like Huffy Bhai only add to the eclectic quality of this movie frequently reminding us not to take either ourselves or the movie too seriously. The Shakespearean style of addressing the audience in Alvira's narration of her tale is as fun as it is over-indulgent in imagination. The nature and content of their narration reveals much about the narrator as the story unfolds. Of course, there are couple of inspired moments from Hollywood movies like Before Sunset and Usual Suspects but it is genuinely inspiration as opposed to blatant copying that we are usually subjected too.

I am sure you've heard horrid things about this movie and how you should avoid it like the plague. But if you have to trust me once, do so now and watch this movie preferably on the big screen. Further more, if you want to give your American friends a taste of real dance-n-music Bollywood fare, take them along.

Update: Annie also loved the movie and its little quirks. I agree especially with this part:

"The theme song (and dance) grows on you, and it assumes a special growth curve when you 'see' it. Listening to it is just not the same thing. Once you've seen it on the big screen, the song somehow slips into your blood and throbs there, willing you to get up and jhoom-o-fy."