Josh – The Young Will Conquer It All

I watched Josh for the first time two decades ago & I remember feeling instantly impressed by it, not just cos I love Shah Rukh Khan but cos of how inherently cool it looked & felt. Well ladies & gentlemen it’s my absolute pleasure to confirm that Josh has managed to somehow retain that coolness factor all these years later! The leather jackets, silver junk jewellery & Shirley’s plaid skirts & summer dresses still stand tall as far as fashion statements are concerned. But has the story & the film itself stood the test of time? Yes, they have!

Josh has several stories woven together beautifully. There is the gang rivalry (Eagles for life!), there is the love story & finally there is the secret which when uncovered leaves havoc in its path just like it had once before.

The above three stories seem time resistant. Not only cos they are based on universal themes but because they have been treated in a futuristic manner by which I mean that there are no dramatic monologues or unrealistic complicated sequences which usually help age a film. Josh deals with its stories & its characters in a uniquely modern way & tries to gives them nuance & depth. There are specific character traits which are subtly drawn out over & over again till the characters take flight from paper & enter the audiences’ world as someone they can identify as real people. For instance Shirley is a sweet but confident & naughty girl who believes herself (independent of her brother) to be the best. She knows she is beautiful & she sometimes even takes advantage of it. She could have been arrogant, perhaps she is a tad bit, but her inherent goodness makes it easy for the audience to ignore the more haughty aspects of her nature. For instance her prank on Rahul is the direct result of her feeling bested by him. Unlike how many other female characters were being written at the time, Shirley is a wholesome human being. Similarly, the other three lead characters have been written carefully so as to avoid them becoming cliches & thereby redundant in time, especially in a film which is already set 20 years prior to its release!

What really adds to the film is the fantastic performances by its lead actors. Shah Rukh Khan aces the role of Max. He is so intrinsically cool yet so cute that you are able to get cheer him on. Sharad Kapoor as Prakash is unabashedly rugged & provides the perfect antithesis to Max. Aishwarya Rai’s Shirley is believable & loving while Chandrachur Singh as Rahul provides the perfect outsiders view to the above 3’s world. Much like the audience he too is equally alarmed & enamoured by this make believe world which seems as real as the popcorn in your hand yet still far away for you to be able to enjoy. Then there is the music which gets the feel of the film bang on yet is hummable enough to be remembered for years. The only note I would give this film is the ending which is rushed and has too much happening too fast.

Mansoor Khan’s Josh presents a world which is not bleak but it is no bed of roses either. It has strife, love, betrayal, jealousies, greed and the perfectly captured feeling of the young that they will conquer it all regardless.

Direction – Mansoor Khan

Cast – Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor, Sushant Singh

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