Picture Abhi Baaki Hai

The blogosphere is rife with reviews, views and opinions on Jane Tu Ya Jane Na.. This piece may have undertones of a review but is not one. I loved the movie and it did make me very nostalgic about my college days. For those who haven't seen the movie as yet and won't be mad at me for throwing the suspense away (there isn't one by the way, the end is very predictable.. you can guess that from its box office success) the movie is about Aditi and Jai who are the best of chums in college, very much in love but also very much in denial. They are a gang of very everyday people like you and I. I could relate to the movie because the people in it and the circumstances they find themselves in are very real.. the kinds you actually experience in college. Which is what that weakened my defences against it despite a less than perfect start (read a song and dance sequence in college premises.. i can't recall doing that). For instance, there are mismatched equations - remember how we made the closest of our friends being their sounding boards when they fell in love with someone who was in love with someone else (didn't they always manage to find someone like that?). Then there is finding of true love on the rebound, people living in make-believe fairy tale romances not having the courage of facing the truth of their situation. And remember how there is always one such girl in the class who is in a relationship with a double-standard-male-chauvinist-control-freak much older than she is? Well there's that too. And then the backbone of the story - Jai and Aditi.The chemistry between Jai and Aditi is so obvious that the whole world can see it but they. So they move into relationships with different persons. And eventually they realize that they are made for each other and before an irreparable damage could happen (like marriage of either, or the last-minute-airport-scene going kaput) they make a stitch, just in time.

It made me think of all the Jais and Aditis back in college. Of some who were in love but never realized and are now with different people. Of the Aditis who ended up marrying the double-standard-male-chauvinist-control-freak. Of the Jais who couldn't profess their love in time. Of the Meghnas and Jais who still continue to remain in their make-believe fairy tale romance not having the courage to face the truth of their situation. Of the Aditis who flew to the U.S before the Jais could do the last-minute-airport-sequence. In fact, it was simpler for Aditi to snap out of her relationship with her control freak fiance because he was a mean guy. What about those Aditis who committed themselves to nice guys and even married them before they realized that they were in love with their Jais? They'd probably live the rest of their lives in denial. Should they have the courage to be honest about it and act upon it, the society will stigmatize them as "bad women".

But the movie has hope in it. That when your intentions are real the Grand Will acts to make happen what you in your heart of hearts really want, preempting an irreparable damage. So maybe there is more than meets the eye in case of all the Jais and Aditis and Meghnas that I've talked about. Or maybe, just maybe, picture abhi baaki hai...