I am utterly easy to please and utterly difficult to impress. You can check with my first born if you question the above statement. But egotism apart, the point of this ponder is to talk about one of the few people that manages to impress me time and again. It is Imtiaz Ali, the brain, heart and soul behind some memorable movies in Bollywood - at least in my arsenal of memorable films.
So when Harry met Sejal was in the making, I had this anticipation to watch out for how Mr.Ali is to woo me yet again with his charms of film making.I know, the title is uninspiring and sounds so much like "Harry and Sally" from Rodeo drive. But, it is a given that we get 'inspired' and that inspiration doesn't elude even original thinkers like Mr.Ali - and what's in a name anyway? It's just a label of recognition.
I didn't go catch it on the marquee - luckily for me, I didn't have my friend Ms.Madhavan persuade me to go to the theater for obvious reasons - it didn't have a certain Mr.Kapoor or a certain Miss (now Missus) Padukone. So, I kind of halfheartedly watched SRK and Anushka in action while doing my chores once it streamed on Netflix. For me, Harry and Sejal fell flat. They didn't do much except bore me to a point where I switched the telly off,half way through. I didn't want to consume unconsumable stuff.
Long after I dismissed Harry and Sejal as boring, a little voice in my head kept egging me to give Mr.Ali a second chance. Now Imtiaz is one of those endangered species in bollywood story telling, who conceives character and emotion driven plots. Seldom do we find an intricate story in his works, but somehow, by the virtue of making his leading characters embark on this journey of self discovery through the people they bump into and get influenced and inspired by, he creates a layered viewing experience that is filled with gasps, 'aha' moments and once in a while fills the peepers as well, in the intensity of those second hand emotions that find their way into the minds of hard hearted, logic driven viewer like me.
"What you are seeking is seeking you" is the log line. I got the metaphorical engagement ring that is lost and the the allegory of the 'seeking' well bred, 'sister type' Sejal does with the vagabondish Harry. Each carrying their own bags and baggage and each finding what they were seeking in the unusual company of the other. On paper, Harry and Sejal must have been every bit as convincing as the leads of 'Jab we met' or Highway or Tamasha...but when the translation to the screen occurred, some crucial details fell through the cracks. Yes, I get Sejal's side of the discovery but Harry's demons stay vague and obscure failing to create the trademark 'character driven magic' Imtiaz creates time and again.
I know I sound every bit like those 'reviewers' out there. That isn't the point. At all. The point is, I am smitten by Imtiaz Ali's story telling prowess, his deep, meaningful, welling up human relations that he explores through his protagonists and his ability to take the movie goer beyond entertainment. There are wonderful, insightful and smile inducing moments in Harry and Sejal's journey too...I specially was smiling through the scene where Sejal keeps on repeating "Main uss se laayak hoon" pointing to the super hot female entertainer they meet in the quest of finding what they were seeking. That gyrating she does - Oh God! the sister type and her voids! Oh my! I smiled, laughed and them got all smitten by Mr.Ali's nuanced, subtle character exploration.
But the meeting sank, not because it went over the heads of the average Joe of a movie goer, but because it didn't recreate the intensity that we have come to trust Mr. Ali with. But then again, our Midas touch goes to the garage once in a while. It is really okay. Such is life!
Pictured -Harry and Sejal, sporting their Tom ford and Ray Ban aviators respectively ;)
