Some scenes make you laugh, caught up in the characters’ joy. Others make you cry, as you grieve with the people on the screen. Still others just make your heart ache, and my favorite scene from Jab We Met is one of those.
The Scene
Aditya Kashyap is forced by circumstances beyond his control to seek out the woman who turned his life upside down nine months before – and put it back on track: Geet, the “Sikh girl from Bhatinda!” He expects to find her happily married to her boyfriend Anshuman in Manali, but instead learns that Anshuman rejected her. Geet has been living alone in Shimla. During ‘Aaoge Jab Tum’, we flash back to Geet’s tumble into despair, and then see Aditya’s reactions to finding her again without her knowledge.
What Makes It So Special
First, the words of the song: “When you come, darling, the courtyard will be in full bloom…; This is how two hearts will meet.” Geet applies this sentiment to Anshuman – if he would just agree to marry her, everything would be all right. However, we as viewers know that, in fact, Aditya is the answer to the barrenness in her heart. Her eyes have left his heart in “the pain of sadness,” but she still holds his heart in her hands. Every lyric applies to both of their situations.
Secondly, the set-up of the scene: every shot mirrors the beginning of the film, only this time it’s about Geet’s heartbreak rather than Aditya’s. It’s Geet who wanders the streets aimlessly, who gets on a bus with no destination in mind, who is saved from the paralysis of pain by a chance meeting with someone who helps her. However, unlike Aditya, Geet has no one to pull her out of her introspection and give her a little joy.
Finally, I adore how Imtiaz Ali uses a series of wordless vignettes to show how much Geet has transformed from the happy-go-lucky girl of the first half of the film. When Aditya finds Geet again, he gets out of the car right in front of her, but she doesn’t even see him. The woman who cared enough to try to help a stranger on the train now is too wrapped up in her own pain to notice a friend. As Aditya follows Geet through her daily routine, he is clearly appalled at her colorless existence. Aditya’s own distress reaches its pinnacle when he watches Geet eat a solitary lunch; sorrow, disbelief, helplessness, and anger flicker across his face in the space of a few seconds, until finally he has to look away. It’s a bravura performance on both Shahid and Kareena’s parts.
Of course, without the assurance that all will end well in standard rom-com fashion, I might not enjoy watching these two endearing personalities suffer. However, since I do have that assurance, this scene is one of my favorites that I’ve watched over and over again.
