Jab We Met

About the film

Jab We Met (transl. When We Met) is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Imtiaz Ali and produced by Dhilin Mehta under his banner Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision. The film stars Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor with Tarun Arora, Saumya Tandon, and Dara Singh in supporting roles.

Primarily set in Mumbai, Bhatinda and Shimla, the film tells the story of Aditya Kashyap, a heartbroken businessman who boards a train, where he meets a talkative Punjabi woman, Geet Dhillon. After missing their train, Geet and Aditya begin a journey together to her home, and what follows is a love that changes them. The music of the film is composed by Pritam, with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil.

Plot

Aditya Kashyap is the heir to a wealthy but troubled family. Depressed and reeling from his girlfriend marrying someone else, he drifts out of a company meeting, attends her wedding in a daze, then boards a random departing train from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai.

On the train, he meets Geet Dhillon, a lively and bubbly, albeit naive, young woman. Overwhelmed by her energy—and weighed down by his own despair—Aditya gets off the train late at night at a small wayside stop. Geet, trying to help him, tries to get him to board again before the train leaves. While they argue, the train departs, leaving them both stranded. Aditya helps her reach Ratlam Junction railway station to catch the train but in the chaos, Geet misses boarding again. Now stranded past midnight, Geet clings to Aditya for safety, stubbornly insisting he help her get all the way home to Bhatinda.

The two slowly become friends. Aditya reveals his mother left his father for another man, leaving both father and son embittered. Geet admits she plans to elope with her boyfriend Anshuman. Despite his initial irritation, Aditya begins to shake off his depression in Geet's cheerful company.

Production

In early 2007, the Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited announced that director Imtiaz Ali would be directing the then real-life couple Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor in their first "full-fledged romantic drama". Teddy Maurya, worked as an art director on the film and later acted in it too.

When Ali began casting for the film, Preity Zinta and Bobby Deol were his first choices to portray Dhillon and Kashyap respectively, but were eventually replaced by Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor respectively, the former when Zinta refused to do the film. While, Shahid Kapoor agreed to the film because he "loved the script", Kareena Kapoor revealed that Shahid "convinced" her to do the film. The film marked Shahid and Kareena's fourth project together after Fida (2004), 36 China Town (2006) and Chup Chup Ke (2006).

On the two lead actors, Ali commented, "I wanted a girl who could look natural in scenes where she misses the train. She had to be without make-up, someone who could be hyper, talkative and interesting but not irritating. I was never a fan of her [Kareena] and hadn't seen too many of her flicks, but I just knew Kareena was perfect as Geet [...] [On the other hand], When I met him [Shahid], I realised he wasn't the forgettable actor that he comes across in several of his movies. He has gone through a lot in life and that maturity had never been brought out. He was perfect for the role of a young, mature, quiet guy."

Soundtrack

Imtiaz Ali initially approached A. R. Rahman to compose the score and soundtrack for the film. However Rahman declined the offer assuring Imtiaz that he would do Rockstar. The score was composed and produced by Sanjoy Chowdhury. The film featured a soundtrack composed by Pritam with lyrics by Irshad Kamil. Sandesh Shandilya composed one song. The track "Mauja hi Mauja" is based on raag Sindhu Bhairavi. The film's soundtrack was released on 21 September 2007 by Kareena Kapoor on the musical show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007.

The soundtrack mostly received positive reviews. Joginder Tuteja from India FM gave the music 3.5 out of 5 stars and said, "In 2007, Pritam may have come up with good music in number of films [...] But if there is one album that impresses most after Life in a... Metro and turns out to be the most satisfying experience, it is Jab We Met. The album is a perfect example of how to get a quality soundtrack which mixes songs for different segments of audience." Movietalkies.com rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, describing the album as "certainly one of the better albums that have come out this year ... Pritam has shown a depth and width of imagination in the manner in which he has used so many different genres and mixed them together to create a fascinating journey of music."

The film's soundtrack debuted at number 8 and later jumped up to number 5 during its second week. Over the next several weeks, the album steadily began climbing up the music charts and saw the album sales increase after the film's release. During the week of 19 November the album replaced the soundtrack of Om Shanti Om and moved up to number 1 but fell back to number 2 the following week. Despite competition from the release of newer soundtracks, the album stayed at the top for over nine weeks.

Release

Jab We Met was released on 25 October 2007. Moser Baer served as the DVD partner and regional distributor for Jab We Met. The film was officially released on DVD in the U.S., U.K., UAE and other international markets on 7 December 2007. A single disc collector's item in an enclosed box with the DVD containing English, Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish subtitles was also released. The film was later made available on Amazon Prime Video. In 2024, the film was re-released in theatres as part of PVR-INOX's Valentine's Film Festival.

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