I wonder which college Shaad Ali went to…either he has studied abroad, or he hasn’t made it to a college at all! Because had he gone to a conventional desi college, he would certainly have known how to play the game of ‘spin a yarn’ effectively.

Shaad has disappointed by not encashing the opportunity that the mighty Yash Raj banner presented to him. Patchy storyline, lackadaisical screenplay and an overdose of theatrics have completely killed the movie. Add to that the not so great music score from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, and you have a half-baked, mediocre chitrahaar called Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.

The saving grace in the movie comes from Aki Narula, the Costume designer and Abhishek Bachchan the actor (in that order). The costume donned by Big B is quite impressive, as is the distinct look given to Abhishek; though I wonder if Amitabh would have done this role had his son not been there in the movie. Lara Dutta gives a steady performance, but Zinta babe and Deol puttar are clearly below par.

A word on Abhishek’s performance: he has shown remarkable comic timing and doesn’t look wooden anymore in facial expression or dance movements. His look has been well worked at and it is sad that poor direction and a poorer story would deny him the adulations that he would otherwise have received.

Ayananka Bose, the Cinematographer has done a steady job, but then you simply can’t opt for the movie because of its Cinematography. Of late, there has been a plethora of movies showing Western locales (KANK, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Cheeni Kum) and therefore there isn’t any novelty left in the way foreign locales are picturized. So never mind the Eiffel Tower or the Waterloo station or indeed our pride Taj Mahal, you would not miss much if you give this movie a skip.

Shaad Ali’s fetish for the Taj though leaves a stale taste in the mouth…apart from the ‘Taj for Sale’ sequence in Bunty aur Babli (where present-day UP’s CM Mayawati was lampooned as Phoolsakhiji), he had picturized the ‘Chup Chupke-2, chori se chori’ song using Taj as backdrop. In JBJ too, a reasonably long (and therefore irritating) sequence is picturized, using portions of the song ‘Bol Na halke halke’ as well.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have largely disappointed, and barring the title track and the mellifluous ‘Bol Na halke halke’ (rendered by Rahat Fateh Ali & Mahalaxmi Iyer), the tracks sound monotonous and jarring.

The Editing by Ritesh Soni is just about OK, and barring the climax, isn’t too great.

Vaibhavi Merchant’s Choreography also fetches her pass marks, and that is rather disappointing because the scope for her was tremendous. She has given repetitive steps to Abhishek, which was avoidable. Worse still, she has made a good dancer (Bobby Deol) look average. I wonder if this was done deliberately at behest of the now powerful Bachchans, just like Big B was made to look the weak dancer in K3G’s ‘Shaava Shaava’ by Farah Khan as the behest of Shah Rukh Khan.

In a nutshell, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is a David Dhawan type of movie and should be watched only if you endorse the ‘dimaag nikaal ke dekho’ school of thought. Since the promos of the movie are a few leap years ahead of the full-length stuff, I suggest that you shouldn’t strain your time and money on this flick and instead be happy with the promo.