In the recent times, Bollywood has seen some of its most accomplished filmmakers failing to live upto expectations; Dilwale, Tubelight, Befikre are examples of big-name directors failing to excite the audience. With ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali known for classics like ‘Jab We Met’, returns with two of the biggest names in the industry; Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. Will the director deliver a romantic classic that lives upto the hype? Does Shah Rukh Khan still have something new to offer in the romantic genre? Let’s find out!
Story: The story of ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ is about Harry and Sejal’s journey across Europe. Harry (Shah Rukh Khan) takes visitors on a tour across different European countries. He’s a bit aloof, rude and finds it difficult to maintain long lasting relationships. Sejal (Anushka Sharma) is a tourist who has taken the services of Harry along with her entire family. She gets engaged during the trip to Rupen. Her engagement ring goes missing and she refuses to go back to Mumbai until she finds it. She compels Harry to help her find the ring and he agrees to do so.
Jab Harry Met Sejal Review – Shahrukh, Anushka
Review: ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ starts well with some good interactive fun between the lead pair, which does remind you of some of Imtiaz’s earlier films. The proceedings in the first hour are fairly well-paced with some ear-pleasing songs like Safar, Radha and Parinda. A special mention to the episode leading upto the Hawaayein song as it brings Shah Rukh Khan back to his romantic roots.
However, the film fails to move with its storyline and the plot related to the ‘lost ring’ is stretched beyond its elasticity. The second hour begins on a very average note and it is through these portions that the film begins to drag. The writing lets the film down big-time, which is surprising because most Imtiaz Ali films – Tamasha, Highway and Rockstar in particular – have improved in the latter half. The climax is the weakest link of the film, which also ends pretty abruptly.
The only silver lining in this otherwise disappointing tale of Harry and Sejal are the performances. Shah Rukh Khan delivers a likeable performance, but is let down by a film with a wafer-thin plot line. Harinder Singh Nehra had the potential to be Ved Vardhan Sahni of Tamasha, but unfortunately the same hasn’t been explored by Imtiaz Ali during the last hour. With all due respect to the legend and the evergreen ‘King of Romance’, after having achieved everything and more in the romantic genre, it’s time to do roles with more substance at this stage of his career. His legacy and stardom deserve better films than this.
Anushka Sharma is excellent as Sejal, she plays the role of a Gujarati girl to perfection. The supporting cast comprising of actors like Chandan Roy Sanyal takes the graph of the film down. In fact, the movie would’ve probably worked better without the whole ‘Illegal immigration’ angle involving him which fails to raise any laugh and ends up making the film feel longer.
The music is pleasing with good cinematography thrown in even when the screenplay doesn’t require songs. Radha, Hawaayein and Raula (the unreleased Diljit Dosanjh Punjabi track) are the songs that stands out. But too many songs, as many as eleven, can test the viewer’s patience.
On the whole, even though Jab Harry Met Sejal travels through 6 countries in those 145 minutes, the film fails to take you on an emotional ride that you expect from an Imtiaz Ali – Shah Rukh Khan film. The charisma and acting prowess of the lead pair make the film watchable, but ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ is a romantic film that lacks soul. When you don’t feel for the characters or want the lead couple to fall in love and be together, it makes the whole film pointless.
‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ is one of the biggest disappointments so far this year.
Rating: 
What works in Jab Harry Met Sejal:
- Performances by the lead pair
- Some good songs
- Visually beautiful
What doesn’t work for Jab Harry Met Sejal:
- Lacks soul, all style with little or no substance.
- Imtiaz Ali’s direction
- Poor second half
- Some dialogues and scenes that can make you cringe
The writing is on the wall. There were ominous signs from the very time this movie was announced. Imtiaz ali is a flop director. When the tentative title was “The Ring”, you could start feeling negative vibes. Then suddenly there was a news that title is changed to Rehnuma – sigh of relief…pleasant title, maybe the movie would also be pleasant…simple earthy love story between a tour guide n a tourist. Then the first look arrived- O O…foreign locales , urban look , alien treatment…YASRC ( yet another shitty rom com) shot abroad feel…then finally the official title announced- Jab Harry met Sejal….phussssssss….what ? When Harry met Sally? Jab we met? Haven’t the audience heard similar titles before…was Rehnuma not 10 times better than this? From there on, things started going only downwards…the mini trails, the sex n intercourse dialogues…some not so gud songs…some more songs…too many songs…one more song just the day before release..which was the crappiest of the lot…then the city tours, banarasi paan, all the frills….by now it was clear to all n sundry that this is just YASRC. Come Friday morning and the pre-release experience of the audience clearly reflects in the theatres…they are empty !! Sorry, all those frills are not enough to sell this YASRC to smartened audience. The writing is on the wall.
My comment as RahulRaj is my last comment on Indicine wish everyone peace and happiness in their lives.Take care of yourselves.
And it was always a pleasure to read all the amazing articles on Indicine.You are the best :)
RCE…vul gaya kya!!!lol
vaii..ab dekhna RCE ka kaamaal!!lol
@SRK’s JABRA FAN: Where is this guy?? He was hyper active at the time of tubelight release.. where he has gone now?? What happened now?? Looks like JHMS might not even cross 100 cr… when salman delivered just one failure in 7 years you qtnd his stardom, commented so ridiculously and badly.. Now what u call ur star who is delivering flops one after another since past 8 yrs(except 1or 2 hits). “KARMA HITS BACK”
Its better if fans like u realize atleast now. It is not the problem of star power. Its just matter of time and the kind of films that the star is doing. Salman or SRK still have that boxoffice pull which even amir can is envy of(yes i am sure, if aamir delivers 2-3 back to back flops i bet his next film won’t even get a good initial. However it won’t happen, bcz he is a genious and truely mr.perfectionist) . They just need a right film that satisfies millions of their fans and common audience.
So Bolly fans plz don’t spread negativity among ur stars and make other film industries destroy ur own films. I am saying this as a south indian, who loves to see all indian films working.
Bakwaas film
very bad movie, boring I don’t like srk movie LYF TyM Collection::: 89 crr.super Bumper Flop Flop Flop
I am very happy I don’t like SRK Movie ss
As per boi today report prev highest opener in rom com is shandaar
Yjhd is not an urban romcom
Srk will find it more and more difficult to get solo release dates and he should not…
I suddenly see Srk fans vanishing
It’s high time everyone understand that only and only content will sail rest anything and everything will fail.
Hence please make a movie when you have something and not for a sake of it.
Nothing assures a success these days.
Not even Salman and SRK.
Jhms first day collection is 15.50 crore
Saturday morning there has been a drop. I am just shocked as according to Srk fans this was supposed to do 250 crores….now even 110 looks out of reach
When was the last clean hit from Srk ? Anyone ?
Next week Akki will sadly end the run of JHMS and the screens will drop to less than 1000 …What happened the global superstar ? Biggest star of Bollywood is struggling to cross Varuns movie
Look at collections of last few films of Srk – Barring Chennai Express which was way back in 2013, no movie can be called a clean hit…4 years of struggle. Earlier his films used to take a big opening and failed to sustain beyond weekends…Now the problem intensifies – they take opening and fail to sustain from day 2…Looks like either his fans are dwindling in numbers or neutral audiences have decided to stay away from Srk and his movies…Srks downfall has benefited one guy tremendously – Aamir Khan who is doing 300 crores easily with every movie –
New ranking
1. Aamir
2. Salman
For the first time in history there is a strong chance Srk might go below Akshay at least in terms of box office verdicts…I can say with guarantee Srk won’t feature in top 3 by end of 2017…even his movies will be below top 3 as far as collections are concerned…TZH will easily outgross Raees – Golmaal 3 can do 175ish or even touch 200…..It is clear decline…
The fact is Srk is no big star than someone like Hrithik or Akshay or even Ajay to some extent…if his film is bad or reviews are bad it crashes badly….when was the last time Srk film sustained post opening ? Is his star power limited to day 1?
if we have to go all the way back to 2013 to show his star power – CE then something is wrong….one completes a bachelor degree in engineering in 4 years and in those 4 years, there was not a single hit from Srk…are we kidding here ? Even his opening numbers which used to be high are slowly going down…At least Happy new year had a crazy huge opening weekend which is not even happening now
Also, the days when he used to get solo releases are over…SLB challenged him first then Hrithik etc…People know they can challenge Srk and not Aamir or Salman and that itself shows his star power…The reason they avoided TEPK clash was also obvious…After the negativity he got when he lost to SLB-Ranveer he could not bear losing another clash
I want to ask one simple question – is 100 crore so difficult for the mega star Srk now ? 200 and 150 are clearly out of reach…..100 crore is usually weekend for Aamirs movies…and come on Srk also does at max 2 films a year..most years only 1 movie a year so the excuse that Aamir does less movies should not work now…It is not like Akshay who does on an average 4 movies a year
I saw the film today at cinema and when the movie started I thought that it would b a slow film and I will get bored.. any good film we could say from the starting and it was really good! Interesting, funny and we had a good time. I just felt angry while watching. remember the critics reviews.. it’s stupid!!! This film is a bit similar to Jab we Met but a way better.. I didn’t like that movie and thought it was really a silly script ( do ppl love silly and stupid films therefore JWM was a hit film at the box office ) never rely on ppl’s reviews.. watch it, u will enjoy it and Shahrukh’s look was great for his age.. in fact he’s more charming now than how he was in his 30’s! Bless u Shahrukh. U didn’t disappoint me with this film. I just wished that the film had a shorter name like ( Harry and Sejal)