Among the things I did this weekend was to catch up on Jab We Met, a film that I had missed seeing since I am neither a Shahid Kapur nor Kareena Kapoor (not certainly!) fan. But since everyone I know seems to say good things about the movie, and since the songs were burning up the FM airwaves morning and evening, and also since I got the DVD free, I decided to see the film that generated more interest for its leading pair’s offscreen romance than onscreen.

The film was everything it was said to be, and finally the twosome showed some signs of chemistry between them. I mean, if this is how tanda things were between them as showed in previous films, it was well that they called it off. Yes, Kareena played herself in the movie, and since she also had the author-backed role and the best lines, she naturally walked away with the honours.

But it was Shahid who I felt for. Finally the lad has done a role he can be proud of, and his dad, the incomparable Pankaj Kapur, can be proud of. He brought many layers to his role, dishing out a nuanced performance as good as any you see in Hindi films. The tragedy of Shahid Kapur has been his youth; I mean, when you have 40-year olds playing youth, what does a guy in his 20s do!

But after this film, I have no hesitation in saying that Shahid’s time has finally come. His early gaffes like comparing himself to Shah Rukh Khan, forgettable films are all behind him, he means business now, you can see that.

As I am sure you saw at the Screen awards on the telly on Sunday. Shahid set the floor afire with his performance, the crowd rooting for him like I have never heard before. Too bad he didn’t get the best actor award, but what do you do when you have films like Chak De etc jostling for the top honour!

But do you think Kareena deserved the best actress award for JWM? She was effervescent, ebullient and all that, yes, but best actress? Better than Aishwarya in Guru? Come on, her winning it – unlike the richly deserving best actor award – was proof of the power of connections which went behind the decision. No wonder Aamir makes it a point to stay away.