OK Jaanu movie review: Very close to okay

Director: Shaad Ali

Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Leela Samson

How far would you go to realize your true love? If given an option to choose between love and career, what will you pick? Director Shaad Ali’s latest offering ‘OK Jaanu’ discovers these issues among the modern day youth. An official remake of Mani Ratnam’s ‘OK Kanmani’, ‘OK Jaanu’ is a light-hearted film but there is nothing extraordinary about it.

Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur) is a guy from a small town, who moves to Mumbai to work on video game designs. He meets Tara (Shraddha Kapoor) at Mumbai’s railway station, who is running away from her clingy boyfriend. The two keep meeting accidentally and start liking each other. Adi stays in Mr. Gopi Srivastava’s (Naseeruddin Shah) mansion, who is an old caring husband to his wife Charu (Leela Samson), who is suffering from Alzheimer.

Tara has a broken family and stays in a women’s hostel until she realizes her feelings for Adi and decided to move in with him. Soon after, Tara’s mother (Kitu Gidwani) announces their engagement and the two are left clueless. Adi bags a good deal in the USA for his new game design and Tara gets a confirmation for her admission in Paris to learn architecture. What happens next is what you might have not seen before yet the climax won’t amaze you.

The eight-film-old male protagonist Aditya Roy Kapur is best known for his chocolat-boy image and has a huge female fan following. His expressions are cute in the film. Shraddha Kapoor knows her audience quite well. She is bubbly, chirpy and endearing in each frame. The chemistry of the two will leave you in awe of them. Naseeruddin Shah who plays the role of an old caring husband does justice to the role. Leela Samson is so good that she steals the show in her small yet pivotal role.

Director Shaad Ali marked his directorial debut with Mani Ratnam’s ‘Alaipayuthey’, ‘Saathiya’ was an impressive debut but later he went on to make disasters like ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ and ‘Kill Dill’, that made it difficult for one to have any expectations from ‘OK Jaanu’. But then, this is a better film in terms of the treatment to an official Hindi remake. It may be a possibility that down south ‘OK Kanmani’ is a huge hit already so Shaad must have got that leeway to bring romance on screen for Bollywood viewers.

The story and screenplay by Mani Ratnam is refreshing. Down south it may be an unusual film but Bollywood had seen similar love stories in the past. ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Salaam Namastey’ are the biggest examples of the same plot. Dialogues by Gulzaar are casual and up to the mark. The good thing about ‘OK Jaanu’ is that it won’t bore you but at the same time, once you step out of the theatre, there’s nothing to take back home. A. R Rehman’s music is enjoyable especially the title track, ‘Humma Humma’ reprise and ‘Enna Sona’. The songs are shot so nicely by cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran that they sound melodious plus Aditya and Shraddha’s chemistry adds a charm to these songs.

If you thought that ‘OK Jannu’ is a peculiar love story, you will be disappointed. However you can still watch it for Aditya and Shraddha’s organic chemistry. Looks like their sizzling reel life chemistry has stemmed out of their real life romance.