Banner: Madras Talkies & Dharma Productions
Producers: Mani Ratnam, Apoorva Mehta, Hiroo Yash Johar & Karan Johar
Director: Shaad Ali
Star Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Leela Samson,
Karan Nath et al
Music: A. R. Rahman
Director Shaad Ali’s biggest claim to fame has been the runaway hit film namely the Rani Mukherjee & Vivek Oberoi starrer Saathiya and sadly enough Shaad Ali still seems to have a Saathiya hangover. Besides Ok Jaanu happens to be the official remake of Dulquar Salman & Nithya Menen starrer O Kadhal Kanmani, Mani Ratram’s Tamil film.
Aditya Gunjal aka Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur) is a Video Game Developer & Tara Agnihotri (Shraddha Kapoor) is a student of architecture. Both have dreams of furthering their career by going to USA & Paris respectively. Once Adi & Tara bump into each other at a common friend’s wedding and hit off from there. Right at the outset Adi & Tara are extremely clear about what they want from their respective lives. Despite being career oriented, Adi & Tara start enjoying each other’s company very much. At the same time, they are in unison with the fact that, despite being in love, they will not get married, for their own personal reasons. A few days of knowing each other, Tara gets into a live – in relationship with Adi, who is himself living as a house guest with Gopi Shrivastava (Naseeruddin Shah) & his Alzheimer affected wife Charu Shrivastava (Leela Samson) in Mumbai. Adi gets a call to work in USA & Tara decides to go to Paris, it is then they realize that they will be missing each other’s company a lot.
The main flaw of Ok Jaanu is the writing part tackled by Mani Ratnam. That apart Shaad Ali’s directional skills, after a long hiatus (Kill Bill), leaves much to be desired. Musically ok barring the title track. A well – deserved mention should also go to Ravi K. Chandran (cinematographer) & A. Sreekar Prasad (editor).
Performance wise the Aashiqui 2 lead pair Aditya Roy Kapur & Shraddha Kapur are good and they enliven the proceedings with their excellent on – screen chemistry. On the other hand Naseeruddin Shah & Leela Samson have delivered a convincing act effortlessly. While the rest of the cast help in carrying the film forward with utmost ease.
Tail Piece: At the Box Office turnstiles OK Jaanu’s chances are fair as it is a film which will mainly appeal to the Gen X’s multiplex crowd. yet all said & done Ok Jaanu is a delightful film oozing a lot of fuzzy wamth.
