Jab Harry Met Sejal released on 4 August 2017 to mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audience, with criticism for its direction, story, and screenplay, but praise for the soundtrack, cinematography, production design, costumes, and Khan and Sharma's performances.[5][6] It was a box-office bomb in India, however, it was fairly successful overseas.[6]
Harinder "Harry" Singh Nehra (Shah Rukh Khan) is a tourist guide who works in Amsterdam. Self-described as a "cheap womaniser", he is lonely yet friendly and helpful, and often flirts with his clients, putting his job at risk.
After dropping a family at the airport, Harry comes across Sejal Zaveri (Anushka Sharma), a member of the same family who has lost her engagement ring and wants him to help her. Harry is reluctant, but to avoid a complaint by Sejal that might make him lose his job, he reluctantly agrees to help. In due course of time while searching for the ring, they become friendly and he tells her that he had left his village, Nurmahal and came to Canada to become a singer, which did not work out and that is how he slowly became a tour guide.
Both Harry and Sejal travel to places in Europe where he had initially taken the family, in search of the ring. During this, Harry ends up falling in love with Sejal, but does not reveal it to her, knowing that she is engaged to Rupen (Kavi Shastri). They soon learn that a criminal, Ghyassuddin Mohammed Qureshi "Gas" (Chandan Roy Sanyal), has stolen the ring. They go to Gas to retrieve the ring but Harry gets thrashed by Gas' men. Later, while looking for antiseptics in her bag for Harry, Sejal finds the ring and realises that the ring was in her bag all along. However, she does not tell Harry, as she wants to spend some more time with him and is falling in love with him as well.
The next day, Harry and Sejal fly to Frankfurt for the wedding between Harry's friend Mayank (Aru Krishansh Verma) and Irina (Evelyn Sharma), where both get questioned by them about their relationship, seeing their evident chemistry. After the wedding, Harry and Sejal get into an argument about it. Harry does not admit his feelings, as he feels he is not good enough for her and she decides to fly back home.
At the airport, Sejal shows Harry the ring and tells him that she found it few days ago and that it was in her bag all along. He asks her to take care and bids her goodbye.
She returns to India and he returns to his work, but begins to miss her and gets sad, not being able to concentrate during work. On Mayank's insistence, Harry flies to Mumbai to go to her wedding in hope to talk to her about his unrevealed feelings before she marries. On reaching the venue, he learns that Sejal's marriage was called off. He walks out to find her sitting outside. They eventually share their feelings for each other, kiss and go to Harry's village, Nurmahal in Punjab, where he reunites with his family and marries Sejal.
Jab Harry Met Sejal was initially conceived about a man trying to commit suicide. However, after Khan met Ali, the former suggested to revitalise the story by making it a more jolly film.[8]
Production of the film began in April 2016[9] and plans to filming were announced in the first part of August 2016, when the film had the working title "Production No. 52".[10] Sharma required several months of diction training to prepare herself for her role, as her character is from Gujarat. She describes her character as "very superficial, doesn't have any depth as a person. There is no similarity with me. But her morals and values of self-respect are something that I can relate to. But otherwise, the character is quite impulsive by nature."[11]
The film underwent a lot of name changes throughout its production phase from The Ring to Rahnuma to Raula until it was finalized with Jab Harry Met Sejal.[12] When the title of the film was finally revealed, it received considerable backlash from people who accused that it must be a copy of the iconic 1989 Hollywood romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... or that it must have been inspired by it. However, contrary to popular beliefs, the two films have no similarity or connection with one another except both falls under the same genre and the two protagonist start off as strangers. Khan explained, "When Harry Met Sally... is one of the greatest love stories ever made in the history of world cinema. Our film on the other hand, is quite original, a fun space love story by Imtiaz Ali. But it is a takeoff from there as that film is a classic. It is a way to attribute."[13][14]
In an interview with The Indian Express, Khan discussed about the possible epilogue of the film; the couple had three children and moved to a small town for some time. Sejal then works as a lawyer while Harry takes time off and writes a book. The former takes the role of a working partner while the latter looks after the children.[15]
The film's music was composed by Pritam, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil.[20] The music rights were purchased by Sony Music India.[21] The soundtrack was preceded by five songs that were released as singles — "Radha", "Beech Beech Mein", "Safar", "Butterfly" and "Hawayein" — before the album being released on 30 July 2017. American DJ Diplo composed the song "Phurrr" with Pritam, which was released on 3 August 2017 as a single version, and not included in the album.[22] The film version of "Phurrr" is solely composed by Pritam and sung by Tushar Joshi.[22]
Release
Jab Harry Met Sejal was initially set for an 11 August 2017 release. However, it was later moved a week earlier to 4 August to avoid a clash with the Akshay Kumar-Bhumi Pednekar-starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.[14] Its release date in Dubai and United Arab Emirates was pushed from early Thursday morning – which has been the norm for Bollywood films – to Friday evening to prevent pirated versions of the film or its spoilers from getting leaked. However, after a backlash, it was decided to release it on its original release date, 3 August, at 6 pm GST.[23][24][25] The film was released on 3400 screens worldwide.[26]
Critical reception
Anita Iyer of Khaleej Times rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "The film goes through its ebb and flow, and all you can do is enjoy the good bits, till they last."[27] Manjusha Radhakrishnan of Gulf News also rated it 2.5 stars out of 5, saying "The climax isn't ground-breaking, however, the cinematography that highlights the beauty of a handful European countries is pleasing to watch."[28]
Yahoo gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 calling it a complete entertainer.[29]Koimoi gave Jab Harry Met Sejal 3.5 stars out of 5, praising the performances and direction.[30]
The Times of India gave the film 3 stars of out 5 and wrote, "Sound advice here would be that you actually buy yourself a tour ticket to Europe and soak in the sights for real. But, if you want to settle for a cheaper option of touring the continent inside a cinema hall, buy yourself a JHMS ticket and get transported to the land of make-believe captured indulgently by cinematographer K. U. Mohanan, with the added advantage of a Punjabi 'munda' playing your friend, philosopher, lover and guide." Filmfare Magazine gave the film 3 stars out of 5 stating that, "JHMS is a happy romantic comedy that you can sing and dance along with. Pritam's music is a stand out feature. The performances are really strong".[31]
NDTV gave JHMS 2/5 and wrote, "It is cinema's equivalent of a shiny bauble that glitters wholly in vain. Watch it only if you fancy a vicarious romp through Europe with an off-colour megastar trying hard to get going".[32] Shubhra Gupta, critic of Indian Express gave JHMS 1.5 stars out of 5 stars while calling it a dud.[33] Giving Jab Harry Met Sejal 2 stars out of 5, Hindustan Times wrote, "Lethargic storytelling kills Shah Rukh Khan-Anushka Sharma's film. It's a big disappointment to see Shah Rukh Khan returning to his comfort zone and yet not performing on top of his powers."[34]Bollywood Hungama gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Jab Harry Met Sejal has its moments. But the film is riddled with cliches and flaws that takes the film down, thanks to the poor script."[35]Rajeev Masand of News18 wrote "After successfully exploiting themes of self-discovery in Jab We Met (2007) and Rockstar (2011), it became clear watching Tamasha (2015) that Imtiaz may be running out of ideas. There are just so many times you can romanticize self-healing and coming-of-age before it all starts to feel contrived. In the case of this film, frankly Harry and Sejal come off as characters in search of a plot."[36]Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote "The problem is that Imtiaz is unable to mould the larger-than-life romantic persona of Shah Rukh into his own more bruised brand of romance. Twenty-two years later, Shah Rukh is still Raj – tender, sensitive and resolutely chaste – at least with the woman he loves."[37]
Box office
The film's box office gross is ₹153.43 crore (US$19 million), including ₹89.4 crore (US$11 million) in India and ₹64.1 crore (US$8.0 million) overseas.[3] The film under-performed at the domestic box office.[6] However, the film was an overseas success, grossing US$10 million overseas, making it the year's second highest overseas grosser among Hindi films, behind only Raees, another Shah Rukh Khan-starrer.[38]
Domestic
The film collected ₹15.25 crore on opening day,[39] becoming the lowest opener for a Shah Rukh Khan film in three years.[40] On the second day, it collected ₹15 crores, followed by its third day's collection of ₹15.5 crores, bringing its first weekend's collection to ₹45.75 crores, and making it 2017's sixth-highest first-weekend-collecting Bollywood film in the domestic market.[41]
Nevertheless, the weekend box office collection of the film did not manage to cross ₹50 crores, and it emerged as one of the lowest openers of Shah Rukh Khan in recent years.[42][43]
Overseas
On the first day, the film collected ₹50.57 lakh (US$63,000) from 27 screens in Australia, ₹20.83 lakh (US$26,000) from 20 screens in New Zealand, ₹1.1 crore (US$140,000) from 104 screens in the United Kingdom, ₹2.44 crore (US$310,000) from 252 screens in the United States and ₹58.26 lakh (US$73,000) from 26 screens in Canada.[44] On the second day, the film collected ₹18.96 lakh (US$24,000) from 10 screens in Australia, ₹16.01 lakh (US$20,000) from 16 screens in New Zealand, ₹1.17 crore (US$150,000) from 105 screens in the UK, ₹25.3 million (US$320,000) from 251 screens in the US and ₹7,175,000 (US$90,000) from 26 screens in Canada.[45] On the first Sunday, it collected ₹3,330,000 (US$42,000) from 31 screens in Australia, ₹1,201,000 (US$15,000) from 21 screens in New Zealand, ₹79.69 lakh (US$100,000) from 106 screens in the UK, ₹1.57 crore (US$200,000) from 249 screens in the US and ₹47.17 lakh (US$59,000) from 26 screens in Canada.[46] On the fourth day of release, the film collected ₹7.29 lakh (US$9,100) from 23 screens in Australia and ₹3.78 lakh (US$4,700) from 18 screens in New Zealand.[47]
^ abSubhash K. Jha (22 November 2015). "Kajol takes hubby's name for the first time". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 24 December 2015. Starting with his upcoming film Chennai Express, the credit rolls will not feature his name first, but that of his leading actress.
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