Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007)

A man and a woman, engaged to marry different people, spend a couple of hours chatting together at a train station only to fall for each other.

Director:

Shaad Ali

Writers:

Habib Faisal (screenplay) (as Habib-Faisal), Anurag Kashyap (story idea)

Stars:

Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol

Cast

Credited cast:
Abhishek Bachchan	...	Rakesh 'Ricky' Thakral
Preity Zinta	...	Alvira Khan
Bobby Deol	...	Satvinder 'Steve' Singh
Lara Dutta	...	Anaida Raza / Laila
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Dancer / Singer
Piyush Mishra	...	Huffy Bhai
Ameet Chana	...	Shahriyar
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sarah Amos	...	Dancer
Sanjeev Bhaskar	...	Shopkeeper
Sheena Bhattessa	...	Karishma
Ramon Christian	...	Lead dancer
Taru Devani	...	Alvira Khan's Auntie
Robert Galas	...	Paul Pimply
Hubertus Geller	...	French Buyer
Sadie Lyth	...	Anna

Storyline

The film begins with a mysterious gypsy-like musician leading the crowds at Waterloo station in London in a dance to the title song. At the station, two strangers, Rikki Thukral and Alvira Khan, wait for their respective fiancés. Rikki is a fun-loving Punjabi boy from Bhatinda who lives in Southall, while Alvira is a middle class Pakistani girl from Lahore who is more assimilated into British culture. The two share a table in a café together and to kill the time they talk about how they met their partners-to-be. Rikki, handsome but primitive in the Desi way, says that he met his fiancé, Anaida Raza, at the Hôtel Ritz Paris, the same night that Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed left the hotel to take their last journey together. Rikki explains "When two lovers die, another two are born", as he fell in love with Anaida that night. Alvira says she met her fiancé, the dashing lawyer Steve Singh at Madame Tussauds in London when he saved her from death by a falling Superman wax ...

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Plot Keywords:

love | lawyer | dance | pakistani | punjabi | 

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Taglines:

This June dance... jump... shout...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Yash Raj Films

Country:

India

Language:

English Hindi Panjabi

Release Date:

15 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dance Baby Dance

Filming Locations:

Esplanade du Trocadéro, Paris 16, Paris, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£266,748 (UK) (15 June 2007)

Gross:

$695,157 (USA) (22 June 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yash Raj Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Abraham was signed for Bobby Deol's role but opted out due to date issue's.

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Goofs

During the scene where Abhishek is telling the story of him and Lara he mentions that she is a Pakistani and he met her in 1997 around the time when Princess Diana was in Paris, France. This was fifty years after an Independant India and Pakistan were created. In one scene with him Lara he says to himself "She will take revenge for the past 60 years" So he jumped ten years ahead.

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Quotes

Rikki Thukral, Anaida Raza, Anaida Raza, Steve Singh: [singing] Jhoom barabar jhoom... Dance, baby, dance!

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Connections

Referenced in Bachna Ae Haseeno - Liebe auf Umwegen (2008)

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Soundtracks

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Written by Gulzar (as Sampooran Singh Gulzar)
Composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa
Performed by Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Zubin Garg
Courtesy of Yash Raj Music

User Reviews

A playful, knowing, kitsch film about self-mythology and the power of Bollywood fantasy

I saw Jhoom Barabar Jhoom while travelling in Rajasthan, in the Raj Mundir in Jaipur, which is, with some justification, described as the best cinema in Asia (and it certainly beats watching a film in a 'Multiplex' on a screen the size of a large TV in London).

As the film ended and the huge audience of all ages rose, making its way into the grand, pretty foyer, I turned to an Indian man in his thirties next to me and asked him in Hindi if he liked it. He said he loved the songs, particularly the song of the title, which he thought would get even the most unlikely person in the cinema dancing in the aisles. Then he added,

'But the the rest of the film is nonsense'.

I certainly agree with him about the infectious song of the title, having badly hummed it often. However, I don't think the rest of the film is nonsense. What I believe many people mistake for nonsense is actually a playful, kitsch, knowingly referential film revolving around the desires and problems of self-mythology, and the power of Bollywood fantasy.

The film is set in Waterloo station where a young Indian man and woman of Pakistani origin bump into each other and form an acquaintance while waiting for infamously late English trains. But their talk about themselves, we come to see, may not quite be so credible and ingenuous. Not only this but there is something magical in the air at Waterloo Station, for a wondering busker, Amitabh Bachan, looking like a sixties drop out, is somehow mysteriously involved in the lively plot.

The two leads, Bachan's son Abishek, and Preity Zinta, make engaging leads and, alongside the wonderfully outrageous Laura Dutta and Bobby Deol handle the film's sense of fun and comedy vigorously (though perhaps the nods to the famous Bachan/Deol partnership in Sholay goes too far).

Another thing about Jhoon Barabar Jhoon is its sure sense of place, something few Indian films set in Britain can claim. Preity Zinta's Alvira is an NRI and the film makes a playful but genuine attempt to engage with the London Indian diaspora.