Jab Tak Hai Jaan: Yash Chopra’s Incomplete Swan Song

Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif in ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’

MUMBAI: Sunday 21 October, was a traumatic day for the Indian film fraternity and the nation. Bollywood lost enigmatic filmmaker Yash Chopra to Dengue fever.

The man who gave us ‘Deewar’, ‘Trishul’, family sagas like ‘Parampara’, thriller ‘Kala Patthar’, cross-generational romance ‘Kabhi Kabhie’, ‘Daag’, ‘Silsila’, ‘Chandni’, ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, and ‘Veer Zaara’.

The man who megastar Amitabh Bachchan and superstar Shah Rukh Khan say they owe their career to. The man who has left a deep, empty void in India cinema with his absence.

Yash Chopra had at 80, just about wrapped up the shooting of his final film pre-retirement – ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’, with one of his favourite casts Shah Rukh Khan. The film is all set to release this Diwali, except for one last song which remains incomplete.

The veteran filmmaker’s final song was to hold all the quintessential Yash Chopra features — a lilting melody, a drawing romance, the scenic Swiss Alps, and Katrina in a chiffon sari in the snow.

This would have been the last time the King of Romance wielded the megaphone. When he fell ill, the crew decided to postpone the shoot.

Now, with the unfortunate news of his demise, the production house has sent out feelers that the song will not be completed.

A daily reported, “No one wants to touch a single frame of the film. Jab Tak Hai Jaan has acquired a new significance now. Agreed that even earlier Aditya Chopra was overseeing the romantic portions of the film. And in all probability, he would’ve accompanied his father to Switzerland where the song was to be shot. But now with Yashji gone, adding anything in his absence will be inappropriate. Without Yashji’s presence, adding anything to Jab Tak Hai Jaan would amount to tampering with his vision. Besides the film’s release is just less than a month away. So there is practically no time left.”

For fans and admirers of the late legend, incomplete song or not, ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ will serve as beautiful memory of his cinematic genius.

Yash Chopra’s final movie, his beautiful swan song, will keep him alive in our hearts forever…for, in poet Albert Pike’s words, “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains immortal.”