IN SEARCH OF HEAVEN!!

Just seen Jannat. Hence the title. And must say I enjoyed the movie. It was good cinema ableit flawed. The film could have been directed better. I felt the script was tailor made for some one like Anurag Basu(Director of Gangster and Life in a Metro) to give it the execution it deserved. And the film definitely needed a much better actress than Sonal Chauhan. Don't get me wrong, she isn't all that bad and she's very pretty. It's just that her emotional range doesn't seem to vary a lot and for a script like this you needed an actress who could actually pull off those powerful emotional scenes with panache. In that regard Sonal Chauhan's inexperience shows. The first half doesn't really pack a punch but the second half more than makes up for it as the film goes on an emotional roller coaster ride. And there are some wonderfully executed scenes there, starting with the intermission scene when Emraan Hashmi gets arrested. Wonderfully enacted by Emraan Hashmi and the scene reminded me a lot of the scene from Ganster where Shiney Ahuja gets betrayed by his lady love. That's why I thought the script was tailor made for Anurag Basu. For according to me, that scene in Ganster is one of the most stunning scenes in history of cinema. It was just brilliant to watch and though the scene from Jannat was pretty good too, it wasn't as brilliantly executed as it was in Ganster. Emraan Hashmi does a wonderful job and he almost seems tailor made to play roles of the loveable rogue. And ofcorse, Pritam's music is plain outstanding. The sad version of Zara si dil mein de jagah tu still gives me goosebumps.

Well, that was the review of Jannat. What really got to me in Jannat was its concept. HOW FAR CAN YOU GO TO CLAIM YOUR LOVE? Emraan Hashmi loves this girl and he does everything for her. Even though greed has always been in his nature, it doesn't really come out until he meets this girl, falls hopelessly in love with her and wants to give her all the happiness in the world. And though she helps him redeem in the end albeit tragically, the truth is she never really showed that she loved him more than the materialistic happiness he was giving her until half way through the movie. The reason why she fell in love with him was because he was ready to do anything for her happiness. So is emraan hashmi's character really to be blamed here for crossing the limits that he does?

We all want happiness. Much more importantly, we want happiness for the people we love more than anything else. We want to make our parents happy, we want to see a smile on our girlfriends and wives faces and we want to give our children everything that they want. So does it justify crossing a few limits just for their happiness? For betting maybe seen as wrong by our society but who actually is getting harmed by it? There's no killing, no mass murders, no terrorism involved here. You bet, you win or lose. It doesn't really affect anyone but yourself. And like Emraan Hashmi's character, if you have a talent at guessing which way the matches are going to go, is it really wrong to take advantage of them? I am not promoting match-fixing here for I'll always consider that wrong but I am talking simply of betting. If you know the outcome of the match before hand without the match actually being fixed, there really isn't anything wrong there, is it? Especially as he does all this for the girl he loves.

So how far is too far in love? Every relationship goes through its ups and downs. Especially in our country, a relationship faces numerous obstructions before the couple can actually be tied in matrony. Cast, religion-they all come in between one way or another. So if you are a Muslim boy in love with Hindu girl, would you be ready to walk the distance and go against the powers of our society to be with her? Or will you succumb to the pressure and having dated her since the 1st year of college, since you were 18, when you finally turn 26 and are ready for marriage, you would give in to the pressure from your parents and tell the supposed love of your life that our paths end here?

Religon has always been a tricky issue when it comes to love. I am a Muslim and I completely and absolutely believe in Allah. I also happen to believe in true love. And unfortunately the paths of true love and religion often intertwine. True love says that in love nothing matters- age, caste, religion, all of it fades into the background-nothing but love matters. And if you are with the person you love then that should be more than enough. Yet religion stops you from loving anyone but people of your religion. A Muslim girl can never marry a non-muslim boy unless he converts. A Hindu boy is also strictly barred from not just inter religion marriage but also inter caste marriage. So who is right? God or Love? Will you be willing to cross the boundaries of your religion for love? How far can you go to claim your love?

I believe that you fall in love with the person and not his or her religion. I believe that if you love someone and she loves you back, then love should suffice. Which God you worship to is your personal choice. Just because I believe in Allah doesn't mean she can't worship Ram or Jesus. It's her faith and I have nothing to do with it. I fell in love with her and not her faith. So to ask the girl you love to convert to your religion just for your God's convenience is asking her to change herself forever. It's asking her to change her beliefs and then she's no longer the person you fell in love with anymore. And if she doesn't agree, are you willing to let the matter of religion go? How far can you go to claim your love?

We are all looking for our own little heaven here somewhere. Where everything is perfect, where you are with the person you love and you are leading the life that you could only dream of. But that heaven always comes at a price. Happiness doesn't come cheap in this world. If it did, we would all be smiling. The question is are you willing to pay that price? How much are you willing to sacrifice to reach that heaven? How strong is your love? Are you ready to cross all thresholds and break all barriers to be with the one you love? Are you willing to go the distance to claim heaven?

It's the last scene of Jannat which broke my heart. I never predicted this movie would have a tragic ending until it reached its last few reels. Arjun(Emraan Hashmi), now accused of murder charges, asks Zoya (Sonal Chauhan) to leave the country with him. Zoya says that if he didn't commit the murder, then he should surrender and she'll help him fight the charges. She'll stand by him throught all the trials and tribulations but asks him to stop running away from the law if he really loves her. Arjun, madly in love with her, raises his hand, a smile on his lips for all he has ever wanted is to be with her and if this is what it takes, then he'll surrender. The police arrive and ask him to drop his gun. Arjun, still smiling, takes the gun from his pocket and drops it on the ground. As he does so, the ring that he's been carrying with him for years, hoping to give it to Zoya on the day he proposes marriage to her, drops down as well. As Zoya shouts at the surrounding policemen not to shoot as Arjun has surrendered, Arjun notices the ring on the ground. He bends to pick it up for he cannot bear to see that ring, the symbol of his love, to be lying on the groudn like that. As soon as he picks the ring up from the ground, the policemen fire. Zoya screams and runs to Arjun. Needless to say, Arjun breathes his last in Zoya's arms and as he's about draw his last gasp of air, he gives the ring to Zoya.

It was a heart breaking moment, one which made a fairly decent movie climb a few notches higher in my list and become a good movie. More than all the betting and the match fixing, it was this little step that resulted in his death, that shows how far Arjun was willing to go to claim his love...his heaven. Even though he knew death was facing him, he still couldn't bear to see the symbol of his love lying on the ground covered with dust. Zoya's love meant that much to him. And that really is what we are all looking for. For a love that is that strong. For a love that can travel the distance and actually reach heaven.

I am not sure how many of us have the strength to do what Arjun did. And I am not talking about the illegal means he uses to get his love. I meant that last scene where he picks the ring from the ground. For that really was love. He didn't care about the fact that there were a hundred policemen with their guns pointed in his direction. Once he saw that ring, all he saw was his love lying on the ground, covered with dust. But maybe that's why it's a movie. For most of us wouldn't even look at the ground in such a situation. We would be too shit scared to look anywhere but at the hundreds of guns facing us. But then, you can never stop hoping that one day you too will find your heaven.

AND MAY WE ALL DO!!!