When Jab We Met celebrated its six-year anniversary recently, we did a post on seven life lessons we’ve learned from the film. As I mentioned in that post, Jab We Met is not just a film; it’s a way of life. There’s much that we, personally, can get out of it, and when we spoke to Imtiaz Ali recently, he agreed – he believes that people like Jab We Met so much because of its “life affirming qualities.” So we asked him what he learned from the film, and surprisingly, his answer is not all that different from ours – even though he’s the one who actually made it!
Imtiaz Ali says:
“One thing that I get from Jab We Met now that I think about it is very life-assuring qualities. And I don’t feel like I’ve written that dialogue, but I feel that she’s telling me that – ‘live your life. What the hell are you worried about? Make your mistakes, don’t make mistakes for other people.’ So why the hell can’t I do that? So Jab We Met, at certain scenes, and especially this particular thing – I use it as though somebody is actually giving me some advice. It’s completely forgotten and incidental that I’ve written that dialogue. So I have that life-assuring umbilical cord coming from Jab We Met. I think that’s why people like it so much; it’s very life-assuring.”
I love that he thinks of Geet as a separate entity, and it does not feel to him like he’s the one who has written those dialogues. That’s when the best work happens, I think: when the character you’ve written grows into something much more than the sum of the parts you’ve put in.
Psst keep an eye out – our full chat with Imtiaz is coming soon, and it was a fantastic one.