You could say Imtiaz has stoked one of Bollywood’s more heated discussions by being unvarnished about his Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma movie. In an interview not long ago, he gave it a 3 out of 10, labelling it ‘an opportunity lost‘ – a statement that has fans talking before he puts out his new film.
When you put him on the spot about the low mark, he doesn’t let up. “I feel it was an opportunity lost, because of the potential of the story. I should have dealt with it in a different way,” is how he put it. “I liked the potential of the story more than the story and definitely more than the film.”
Why the 3 still stings for some
There was a lot of pressure on ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ well before it made it to the box office in 2017. It was the first time he was working with SRK, and everyone was after the kind of romance he is known for.
But what you got in the end was a bit of a letdown. The critics had their say, the public wasn’t having it, and the numbers were down. With this 3 on 10, he’s brought up the old question: how did a collaboration like that come up short?
What he thinks he left on the table
For Imtiaz, it comes down to a story he feels he didn’t get to tell in full. He had in mind a Punjabi guy from a small town who goes overseas with a soft heart and is calloused by life away from home.
Even if you don’t make a connection, it lingers with him all night, because there is something in the moment you want to hold on to. Once that is bruised, it changes the way you go about love.
He sees the pivot in the character when he has to see the same woman be close with another man. You can’t just get over it, so he learns to be gone right after. Where sex is a transaction, he won’t stay around where he can be hurt.
A hard time for the director
Imtiaz has been open about these things before. He has a memory of someone saying, “So what if it didn’t do well, it is your film,” and he felt a sort of melancholy, like a parent for an “unfortunate child”.
Then there was the nitty-gritty of it. “I was reading people’s faces, I could sense the disappointment. I had dengue, so I was in bed for a month or so.” The bad reviews and the fever made for a rough patch.
In a nutshell, here is what you get from his side of it:
– A 3 out of 10 for the film
– ‘An opportunity lost’ is his word for it
– The story’s promise was better than the movie
– He would have done it another way
– It was meant to be about loneliness and tenderness
The reaction from the other side
It’s a mixed bag for the audience. Some are still in favour of the music, the yearning in it, and the odd, brittle way SRK played Harry.
To some, the 3 is no surprise; it’s just what they thought in 2017. What is unusual is the bluntness from a director of his calibre. It is disarming in an industry that usually polishes its image.
Put it next to ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Highway’ or ‘Tamasha’ and it stands out. Those made a name for him with love stories that had a pulse. This one, he’ll be the first to tell you, didn’t measure up.
What really gets to you is the what-ifs. It’s not just about a misstep, but an emotional quality he wanted to put across: a man whose masculinity is put on the line by his own vulnerability, and who has to run from it to keep from breaking.
And then there is the future
Hard to miss the timing of it all. He is set to be back in the theatres on 12th June with ‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’, with Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Vedang Raina and Sharvari Wagh in tow.
If the 3 on 10 is a hard look at the past, it also sets a standard for what’s to come. We will be seeing if he can give that kind of vulnerability the room it needs this time around.
SRK fans might find it bittersweet. The flaws are laid out, but in a way, it makes Harry a more interesting character than we saw. That alone is enough to start a few viewings and a few debates.
For the rest of us in Bollywood, the story is in the nerve of it. You don’t often see a top-tier filmmaker mark his own homework in public. Imtiaz did, and he didn’t look away.
