Jab Tak Hai Jaan As long as there is life) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra and written and produced by his son Aditya under their banner Yash Raj Films that stars Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. The story revolves around Samar Anand (Khan) a bomb disposal expert whose diary falls into the hands of an intern Akira Rai (Sharma); the diary recounts his time as a struggling immigrant in London, and later details his whirlwind romance with Meera Thapar (Kaif).
Becoming Chopra’s fourth film to feature Khan in lead role, Jab Tak Hai Jaan marked the second collaboration between Khan and Sharma as they previously featured in Yash Raj Films’ another film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), whereas the first between Khan and Kaif. Chopra returned to direction eight years after Veer-Zaara, and Jab Tak Hai Jaan is his final film before his death in October 2012.
Released during the six-day Diwali weekend beginning on 13 November 2012, Jab Tak Hai Jaan received positive reviews and earned ₹211 crore (US$28 million) worldwide to emerge as one of the year’s top-earning films. It became the 3rd highest-grossing Bollywood film overseas at that time after 3 Idiots (2009) and My Name Is Khan (2010). The film received various accolades, such as four Filmfare Awards, which included categories of Best Supporting Actress for Sharma and Best Lyrics for Gulzar.
Prolific filmmaker and producer Yash Chopra is known to millions as one of the finest romantic filmmakers in the country. Yash Chopra had an illustrious career spanning several decades with many classic films including ‘Deewar’, ‘Kabhie Kabhie’, ‘Silsila’, ‘Veer Zaara’ amongst others. His last directorial venture remains to be ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ which came out in 2012 and starred Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma, Rishi Kapoor & Neetu Kapoor in pivotal characters. The eternal romance was released on the Diwali weekend alongside Son of Sardaar and performed excellently at the box office by raking in the moolah.
The film was written by Yash Chopra’s son Aditya Chopra whilst legendary lyricist Gulzar penned the songs and AR Rahman composed the music for the film. In the first teaser of the film, SRK can be seen wearing a military uniform and riding a motorbike across Ladakh with a wonderful poem written by Yash Chopra going on in the background. The lyricism in the dialogues of the film makes it an eternal love story that has aged tremendously well. The film is garnished with prolific lines including:
- Har din uski zindagi ki duwa maang leti hoon, aur har din khud thodi mar leti hoon.
- Jo dil jeette hai woh kabhi haar se nahi darte.
- Jab zindagi ke khatron se bachne ke liye koi bomb suit nahin pehenta toh maut se bachne ke liye kya pehenna.
- Har ishq ka ek waqt hota hai, woh hamara waqt nahin tha.
- Zindagi toh har roz jaan leti hai. Bomb toh sirf ek baar lega.
