Jab Tak Hai Jaan Theatrical Trailer

There’s nothing novel in this trailer apart from the fact that it’s background music has been stolen from Gustavo Santaolalla’s music score from The Motorcycle Diaries and recreated. It really seems that SRK has now stopped acting totally in films after My Name Is Khan. He now gives the same cliched expressions like the tilting of his head, the crinkling of his eyes, the lopsided smile and his usual syle of kissing the heroine’s neck and petting her, all a part and parcel of his onscreen romantic image. As for Katrina, she looks just as dull as she has done in most of her previous films and has nothing new to offer except her trademark seductress moves, navel display, and oomph. This will be yet another film where she will serve just as an eye candy and her acting skills will not be exploited at all. Anushka Sharma does show promise after her brilliant performance in Band Baaja Baaraat and it looks like she will provide comical relief in the film and will be very expressive too, unlike Katrina Kaif.

The film has got all the usual Yashraj elements like exotic locations, big stars and excellent designer clothing donned by the stars alongwith the usual hype surrounding their films. Unfortunately, most Yashraj films nowadays, barring a few exceptions, are all about hype and no substance. Other than the lifted tune of The Motorcycle Diaries, the trailer borrows certain aspects from Yash Chopra’s own earlier gems of directorial ventures. For example, the end of the trailer, which features SRK walking on a barren patch of land with random explosions occuring behind him, has straight been copied from Yash Chopra’s directed Trishul(1978) starring Amitabh Bachchan; from the the scene which marks Amitabh’s entry in the film, with him lighting up explosives to dynamite the rocky land and then walking ahead casually without a care in the world while the explosions take place behind him. But while Bachchan has always had an awesome aura and screen presence to carry off such a scene convincingly, Shah Rukh Khan’s version of the same scene looks very wannabe and a cheap immitation of the original. You can’t help but think that at one point or the other, SRK can’t resist the temptation of copying Big B, whom he has always considered as an idol and one of his most favourite actors.

Overall, it is guaranteed that this film will get a huge opening, a feat that an SRK film always achieves and partly because it is releasing on the very first day of Diwali which now has now kind of become a safe bet for Khan’s releases. Obviously, it will get an overwhelming response in foreign markets like the US and Europe, comprising of SRK-worshipping NRI audiences. It might cross the Rs.100 crore barrier too, making it comparable predictably to Salman and Aamir Khan’s films, in respect of the speed of it’s collections at the box office. Also, it will most probably end up being one of the highest grossing films of 2012. But as is characteristic of most SRK films released recently, Jab Tak Hain Jaan too will be a highly flawed piece of art despite being directed by a stalwart director like Yash Chopra, who also has no choice but to bow to the demands of mainstream cinema which his banner heavily endorses. Ultimately, somewhere this will leave the viewer dissatisfied.