Jab They Met at the Naggar Palace

Many saw JWM for a lilting fresh love story. Few others saw it to catch up with the blossoming chemistry between bespectacled Shahid and sparkling Kareena. I had my reasons to catch it up. One logical one being that it was the next movie of the Socha na Tha director, the celebrated love guru Imtiaz Ali. Pritam's music was great too, but there was this hidden charm in the movie as it was shot partially in the beautiful locales of Naggar and Manali of Kullu, Himachal Pradesh.

Now a days, when even a B-grade movie is filmed abroad, I was overjoyed at this choice of location. The place is cliched like a girl next door. But, still it has been shot so specially, just for people in love.

How can one forget the scene where Kareena says goodbye to Shahid for that pesky character Anshuman. The white vapors oozing in background out of the 70 mm screen added clutching impact to the pain of Shahid. And, in the song “Yeh ishq hai…” a full-rounded view of the Naggar castle comes up. There were also glimpses of the snow-clad La Rohtang Pass in the beginning. The song was majorly shot in the premises of Naggar Palace. It was choreographed by Saroj Khan featuring local folk dancers, who looked beamingly different from typical Bollywood style extras.

And, finally here is the travel angle to this story. Naggar was the capital of the former princely state of Kullu for over 1,400 years. Now, it is acknowledged as the third heritage village in Himachal after Pragpur (Kangra) and Kalpa (Lahaul). The castle is around 500 years old and is made up of big stones and wood. On the East side flows the river Beas. The 6-minute song was pictured in the backyard of the castle that opens up to the valley where generally gliding and ballooning takes place. The riot of colors as shown in the song was not real though and seemed like a made-to-order Tibetan carnival.

The castle, built by Raja Sidh Singh, had survived the devastating earthquake of 1905. It has now undergone a facelift and been converted into an HPTDC hotel. The small wooden castle has many fables associated with it. One being that the queen of the castle died after jumping down. Another one is related to the construction of the castle. It is said that the stone for building it was brought from the other side of a river via a human chain of laborers, passing stones from hand to hand! The stones, collected from the ruins of Gardhak, a fort of Rana Bhosal , gave the king his castle.

A basement of the castle, from where Kareena walks down a ramp, is a small dingy museum showcasing Himachal’s arts and crafts like patoos, shawls, gudmas, nagaras, carpets, including figures of devis and devtas in traditional attire.

The castle also has the revered Jagti Patt stone inside. Many believe that once Naggar was chosen to be made as the celestial seat of all the Gods in the world. The Gods converted themselves into honeybees and cut a sample of Deo Tibba and flew it down to the present site of the temple.

There are few temples around, namely Vishnu, Tripura Sundari & Lord Krishana. Vehicles can go up to the castle, but the remaining way is best enjoyed on foot. Few kilometers ahead is the Roerich art gallery, erstwhile home of the famous Russian artist Late Nicholas Roerich, who came to India and decided to stay here forever in 1929. The house has now been converted in an art gallery, which displays his masterpieces. The museum is still maintained by the Russian government and is definitely worth a visit with a camera. Naggar is also a base for pursuing treks to the Chanderkhani pass and the mysterious tribal village Malana.