Jab We Met

''Jab We Met'' () is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Imtiaz Ali and produced by Dhilin Mehta under his banner Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision. The film stars Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor with Tarun Arora, Saumya Tandon and Dara Singh in supporting roles.

Primarily based in Mumbai, Bhatinda and Shimla, the film tells the story of Aditya Kashyap, a heartbroken businessman who boards a train, where he meets a talkative Punjabi girl, Geet Dhillon. While they miss their train, Geet and Aditya begin a journey together to her home and what follows is a love that changes them. The songs are composed by Pritam, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil.

''Jab We Met'' was released in the United Kingdom a day before its worldwide release on 25 October 2007. Since its release, the film has garnered widespread critical acclaim and was among the top-grossing Hindi films of the year, grossing over ₹50.9 crore. The film was later remade in Tamil as '' Kanden Kadhalai'' with a subsequent Telugu dubbed version titled ''Priya Priyathama''.

The film received several accolades. At the 55th National Film Awards, the film won Best Female Playback Singer for Shreya Ghoshal and Best Choreography for Saroj Khan, both for the song "Yeh Ishq Hai". At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, ''Jab We Met'' received seven nominations and won two awards: Best Actress for Kareena Kapoor and Best Dialogue for Imtiaz Ali. Since its release in 2007, ''Jab We Met'' has achieved cult status.

Plot

Aditya Kashyap is the heir to a wealthy but broken family. Depressed by his girlfriend's abandonment, he spontaneously walks out of a company meeting and boards a random train headed out of the city after briefly attending his girlfriend's wedding. Aoard the train, he meets Geet Dhillon, a vibrant young girl, who refuses to stop talking. Exhausted by her constant chattering, Aditya gets off at a station in the middle of the night, but Geet chases after him. As she attempts to get him back aboard, they are both left behind. Geet blames Aditya for the mess and insists he accompany her to her home in Bhatinda.

Geet's company on the journey shakes Aditya out of his depression. At some point, he starts falling for her, but finds out Geet is planning to elope with her boyfriend, Anshuman. After spending quite a few days with each other, Geet and Aditya finally reach Bhatinda. At Geet's home in Bhatinda, Geet introduces Aditya as the one who protected her and helped her reach her home safely after missing train. Her grandfather initially suspects something is brewing between them, but later expresses gratitude to Aditya for protecting her; to hide his businessman credentials, Aditya introduces himself as a musician. The next day, Geet tells Aditya that her family had already been thinking of getting Geet married to her childhood friend, but she is not willing to do that and has decided to elope with Anshuman. Finally, one night, Geet leaves her home with Aditya, and they reach Manali, where Anshuman stays. Aditya bids her farewell and returns to Mumbai.

The trip has changed Aditya's life, giving him renewed optimism. He reconciles with his estranged mother, and launches a new product for his company, named after Geet. He thinks Geet is the one who brought colours to his already finished life, and gradually develops feelings for her. But one fine day, when everything was going good, Aditya is visited by Geet's family at his office, who claim she is missing from home. Aditya returns to Manali, looking for Geet. There, he meets Anshuman and learns that Anshuman rejected her when she showed up unannounced at his doorstep, as he had no plans of marrying her.

Aditya finds Geet in Shimla, where she has become a school-teacher, leading a quiet life all by herself. Aditya tries to help her regain her positive outlook towards life, but Anshuman shockingly shows up to start afresh with Geet after a miserable period of 9 months. The three travel to Bhatinda, where Geet's family welcomes Aditya as her boyfriend/husband. They plan to marry them in front of relatives and friends, and Geet fails to inform them that she is with Anshuman. Eventually, Geet realizes she is in love with Aditya. She kisses him in front of Anshuman, driving the latter away from her life. Geet marries Aditya with their families' blessings.

Cast

* Kareena Kapoor as Geet Dhillon
* Shahid Kapoor as Aditya Kashyap
* Tarun Arora as Anshuman
* Saumya Tandon as Roop Kaur Dhillon, Geet's sister
* Dara Singh as Suryendra Singh Dhillon, Geet's grandfather
* Pavan Malhotra as Prem Singh Dhillon, Geet's uncle
* Kamal Tiwari as Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, Geet's father
* Kiran Juneja as Amrit Kaur Dhillon, Geet's mother
* Pravin Purva as Sarabjit Kaur Dhillon, Geet's grandmother
* Veer Pratap Singh as Manjeet Singh Maan, Geet's suitor
* Divya Seth as Ayesha Khanna, Dharamraj's ex-wife and Aditya's mother
* K.F. Jussawala as Advocate Shrikant Sharma, Ayesha's lawyer
* Nihar Thakkar as Raghav Dutta, Aditya's subordinate
* Manushka Khisty as Meher, Aditya's subordinate
* Vishal Om Sharma as Advocate Rohit Bhosle, Aditya's lawyer
* Wamiqa Gabbi as Geet and Roop's cousin
* Kishore Pradhan as Station Master
* Brijendra Kala as Taxi Driver
* Teddy Maurya as Hotel Receptionist and Policeman at Railway Station
* Asif Basra as Station Vendor 1

Production

Development

In early 2007, the Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited announced that director Imtiaz Ali would be directing the then real-life couple Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor in their first "full-fledged romantic drama". Teddy Maurya, worked as an art director on the film and later acted in it too.

Casting

When Ali began casting for the film, Preity Zinta and Bobby Deol were his first choices to portray Dhillon and Kashyap respectively, but were eventually replaced by Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor respectively, the former when Zinta refused to do the film. While, Shahid Kapoor agreed to the film because he "loved the script", Kareena Kapoor revealed that Shahid "convinced" her to do the film. The film marked Shahid and Kareena's fourth project together after '' Fida'' (2004), '' 36 China Town'' (2006) and ''Chup Chup Ke'' (2006).

On the two lead actors, Ali commented, "I wanted a girl who could look natural in scenes where she misses the train. She had to be without make-up, someone who could be hyper, talkative and interesting but not irritating. I was never a fan of her areenaand hadn't seen too many of her flicks, but I just knew Kareena was perfect as Geet .. n the other hand When I met him hahid I realised he wasn't the forgettable actor that he comes across in several of his movies. He has gone through a lot in life and that maturity had never been brought out. He was perfect for the role of a young, mature, quiet guy."

Tarun Arora was cast as Anshuman, opposite Kareena Kapoor. While, Saumya Tandon was cast as Geet's sister, Dara Singh as Geet's grandfather, Pavan Malhotra as Geet's uncle, Kamal Tiwari as Geet's father, Kiran Juneja as Geet's mother and Divya Seth as Aditya's mother.

Filming

The film was shot throughout the Punjab region, and filming started on 20 March 2007 in Chandigarh and later headed to Shimla and Manali, where the crew filmed a song on the Himalayas and the Rohtang Pass. Manish Malhotra served as the costume designer. The summer shots in Punjab of the haveli were filmed in Nabha near Patiala. While shooting the last schedule of the film in Mumbai, sources had indicated that the lead pair had broken up. Though the media projected it as a publicity stunt for the film, it was later confirmed that the couple had indeed parted ways.

Post-production

To promote the film, the actors appeared separately on different television shows. Kareena Kapoor appeared as guest judge on the singing talent contest '' Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007'' whilst Shahid Kapoor appeared on '' STAR Voice of India'' and '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa''; they later appeared together on the television show '' Nach Baliye''. Apart from this, the producers also painted two full local trains in Mumbai from the Western and Central lines with ''Jab We Met'' imagery, where Shahid Kapoor chatted up with fellow passengers and informed them about the film. The title of the film was decided by a popular vote; moviegoers had a choice between ''Punjab Mail'', ''Ishq Via Bhatinda'' (Love via Bhatinda''') and ''Jab We Met'' (earlier titles of the film had included ''The Train'', ''Geet'' and ''Geet Ready'').

Soundtrack

Imtiaz Ali initially approached A. R. Rahman to compose the score and soundtrack for the film. However Rahman declined the offer assuring Imtiaz that he would do '' Rockstar''. The score was composed and produced by Sanjoy Chowdhury. The film featured songs composed by Pritam with lyrics by Irshad Kamil. The track ''"Mauja hi Mauja"'' is loosely based on raag Sindhu Bhairavi. The film's soundtrack was released on 21 September 2007 by lead actress, Kareena Kapoor on the musical show '' Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007''.

Critical reception

The soundtrack mostly received positive reviews. Joginder Tuteja from '' India FM'' gave the music 3.5 out of 5 stars and said, "In 2007, Pritam may have come up with good music in number of films ..But if there is one album that impresses most after '' Life in a... Metro'' and turns out to be the most satisfying experience, it is ''Jab We Met''. The album is a perfect example of how to get a quality soundtrack which mixes songs for different segments of audience." ''Movietalkies.com'' rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, describing the album as "certainly one of the better albums that have come out this year ... Pritam has shown a depth and width of imagination in the manner in which he has used so many different genres and mixed them together to create a fascinating journey of music."

Charts and sales

The film's soundtrack debuted at number 8 and later jumped up to number 5 during its second week. Over the next several weeks, the album steadily began climbing up the music charts and saw the album sales increase after the film's release. During the week of 19 November the album replaced the soundtrack of ''Om Shanti Om'' and moved up to number 1 but fell back to number 2 the following week. Despite competition from the release of newer soundtracks, the album stayed at the top for over nine weeks.

According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 19,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's second highest-selling. ''Jab We Met'' album was featured on Rediff's and IndiaFM's year-end list of ''2007's Top 10 Music Albums''.

Release

''Jab We Met'' was worldwide released on 25 October 2007. Moser Baer served as the DVD partner and regional distributor for ''Jab We Met''. The film was officially released on DVD in the U.S., U.K., UAE and other international markets on 7 December 2007. A single disc collector's item in an enclosed box with the DVD containing English, Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish subtitles was also released. The film was later made available on Amazon Prime Video. In 2024, the film was re-released in theatres as part of PVR-INOX's Valentine's Film Festival.

Reception

Box office

''Jab We Met'' opened with an opening of 70% all over India on 26 October 2007 and later increased to 90% during the weekend. Making a total first week net business of 11.75 crores from 350 cinemas, the film went into the second week with very strong collections and saw a massive increase with 40%-50% increment in shows worldwide.

Continuing its strong march in week two with collections of over and a two-week total of , the film was declared a ''hit''. During its third week, ''Jab We Met'' managed to add another to its collections but suffered a setback due to release of ''Om Shanti Om'' and '' Saawariya'', which resulted in the number of shows for the film being reduced. Due to demand and the poor performance of the latter, the following week saw an increase in the number of prints for the film across the country, and resulted in a 50% increase of the film's collections. Completing 50 successful days at the box office on 14 December 2007. the film received a hit status by ''BoxOffice India''.

By February 2008, ''Jab We Met'' had made a net business of over ₹310 million (US$10.9million), and emerged as one of the biggest hits of the year. On 30 January 2008, it was announced that to celebrate the success of its 100 days run at the box office, PVR Cinemas in Delhi would have a special screening of the film on Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile, ''Jab We Met'' also opened well internationally, especially in the U.K., where it was released a day before its worldwide release of 26 October. Debuting at number 10 in the U.K., the film grossed £11,488 on its previews night and £144,525 on its opening weekend, collecting a total of £156,013 from 31 screens. The film continued to do strong business and garnered excellent collections during its second week, making a two-week total of £325,996. Over the next five weeks, ''Jab We Met'' collected a total of £43,529 from 54 screens and made a grand total of £424,681.

Critical response

Upon release, the film opened to widespread critical acclaim. Critics praised the film for its simplicity, its romance, saying that it was "one of the finest romantic films to come out of Bollywood in 2007". The film's direction and performances were particularly appreciated.

''The Times of India'' gave the film 4 out of 5 stars concluding, "The film belongs to Kareena and Shahid who pitch in memorable performances and lend a whole new meaning to the boy-meets-girl story." Taran Adarsh from ''indiaFM'' gave the film a 3.5 out of 5 rating saying it is "as refreshing as an ice-cold watermelon juice in scorching heat." Subhash K. Jha wrote, "...''Jab We Met'' is the kind of cinematic experience that is hard to come by in this day and age of smoky cynicism and borrowed rage."

Rajeev Masand from ''CNN-IBN'', who gave the film 3 stars out of 5, described it as "a film bursting with the kind of lovely little moments that'll bring a smile to your face. Khaled Mohamed of ''Hindustan Times'' gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying the film, "is quite a delight, particularly for the chirpy-chirpy-cheep-cheep girl and the retentive, moan-groan boy. Directed with a flair for garnishing even the most abject of circumstances with humour and irony, here’s a feel-cool film. Wonderful.

Reviews towards the director, Imtiaz Ali, were favourable as well. ''Indiatimes'' wrote, "After his much-appreciated '' Socha Na Tha'' (2004), Imtiaz goes bigger and better and the result is nothing but flying colours".

Most critics agreed that the main highlight of the film was the leading pair and Kareena and Shahid's chemistry. Rajeev Masand further explained, "The real magic of this film lies in the performances of its two main leads who seize your attention from the moment they first appear on screen." Taran Adarsh commented, "Shahid delivers his career-best performance in ''Jab We Met''... Kareena is in top form as well. ''Jab We Met'' is a turning point in her career. Fantabulous -- that's the right word to describe her work this time. The confidence with which she handles the contrasting characterization speaks volumes. This film should do for her what '' Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'' (1998) did for Kajol." Subhash K. Jha approved the chemistry as well, "...there are sparks...and the ones between Kareena and Shahid are so unselfconsciously genuine that you end up looking at the characters rather than the two actors going through a series of brilliantly conceived and energized incidents..."

Apart from critics, ''Jab We Met'' was one of the best films of 2007 according to various Bollywood film directors such as Madhur Bhandarkar, David Dhawan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Basu and Sriram Raghavan.

Accolades

''Jab We Met'' received several accolades including, two National Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards and two IIFA Awards. The film also earned three Producers Guild Film Awards, three Stardust Awards, three Zee Cine Awards and one Screen Award.

Remakes

Ashtavinayak announced that ''Jab We Met'' would be remade in four other languages: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. However, eventually it was only remade in Tamil as '' Kanden Kadhalai'' (2009) and subsequently dubbed in Telugu as ''Priya Priyathama''. Starring Bharath and Tamannaah Bhatia, it was an average grosser. The film's plot later inspired the television show '' Love U Zindagi'' (2011), starring Sidharth Shukla and Pavitra Punia.

Legacy

''Jab We Met'' remains one of the most popular romantic comedies in Hindi cinema. The film was named as one of the Bollywood's top 10 most romantic movies by ''Yahoo! Movies'' and '' Vogue''. '' Time Out'' placed the film in its "The 100 best Bollywood movies" list. Ineye Komonibo of ''Marie Claire'' listed it as one of the 43 best Bollywood movies of all time. Jasmine Ting of ''Cosmopolitan'' cited it as one of the best Indian films. ZEE5 listed it as one of the thirty evergreen Bollywood films that one should watch before they die. Shubhra Gupta featured the film in her book, ‘‘50 Films That Changed Bollywood’’.

Sampada Sharma of ''The Indian Express'' noted, "''Jab We Met'' has gained cult status in the world of Hindi romantic comedies and can easily be addressed as the most adored love story since '' Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'' (1995)." ''Jab We Met'' is cited as a milestone in Imtiaz Ali, Shahid and Kareena's career. The film brought recognition to Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor, both having enjoyed only limited success in their previous films. The couple was named in ''Bollywood Hungama''s list of the top 10 best romantic couples of the decade. Shahid and Kareena's performance has been noted as one of their most notable works. It later consolidated their career.

Kareena Kapoor's character Geet Dhillon, became a popular and recognizable character. She later went on to say about her role, "To play a character like Geet doesn't happen all the time; it just happens. When you begin working on a film, you of course know about the story and your character. However, no one knows how audiences would eventually react to it. Geet did strike a chord with the audiences and became a household name." '' Rediff.com'' named Geet, as one of Bollywood's most beloved characters. For her performance in the film, she was placed 66th in ''Filmfare''s "80 Iconic Bollywood Performances" list. '' Vogue'', '' Rediff.com'', ''Pinkvilla'' and ''Cosmopolitan'' have named Geet among the strongest and inspirational female characters of Bollywood.

See also

* List of highest-grossing Bollywood films
* List of Hindi films of 2007

References

External links

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2007 films
2000s Hindi-language films
2000s road comedy-drama films
Indian road comedy-drama films
Films directed by Imtiaz Ali
Films shot in Himachal Pradesh
Films set in Himachal Pradesh
Indian romantic comedy-drama films
2007 romantic comedy-drama films
Hindi films remade in other languages
Films shot in Punjab, India
Films shot in Mumbai
Films featuring songs by Pritam
Films shot in Mandawa
Films set in Manali, Himachal Pradesh
Films scored by Sanjoy Chowdhury
Films featuring a Best Choreography National Film Award–winning choreography
Films set in Punjab
Films shot in Chandigarh
Films set in Shimla
Films set in Mumbai
Rail transport films