Love Actually

According to Joseph Francis Tribbiani (better known as Joey), actor (extra) ordinaire of Friends fame, " The rule is when two actors are actually doing it off-stage all the sexual tension between them is gone. Okay? So as long as it's hot onstage you got nothing to worry about. It's when the heat goes away, that's when you're in trouble."

Now we don't have to take Joey literally but maybe he has a point. Everyone is amazed at the crackling chemistry between Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor in Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met. Considering their past screen outings in Fida, 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke was totally thanda, this film is almost a renaissance of the Shahid- Kareena pairing.

It's difficult to remain objective about Jab We Met. Though the film stands tall on its own merit, the off screen drama of the lead pair's romantic lives somehow takes center stage when you are viewing it or discussing it. I watched the film with a bunch of friends and all of them went "Aw, they are so sweet together. Why did they break up?" Er, well, I must tell you that before the break up stories the same friends (and many more) were of the opinion that Kareena and Shahid don't have 'IT' on screen. So how come they have 'IT' in Jab We Met?

Kareena has a logical explanation for her shifting chemistry meter with her ex. "Contrary to popular belief that Shahid and my pairing didn't work in all our previous films I want to make it clear that before Jab We Met, we were never really paired together. This is the first romantic film we did together so if someone has to judge our chemistry then they should judge it only in this film," she says. It's up to you whether or not you buy Kareena's theory, I'd rather buy Joey's.

It's almost tragicomic. When they were together they didn't have 'IT' and now when they have broken up they've become the newbie poster couple of mint fresh romcom genre of Bollywood today. Sigh!