The film is supposed to tell the story of our times - of how romance works today compared with the past. As it attempts to play it cute all the way it comes out too cute for good.
A boy and a girl quickly meet in London. Then decide to split since the girl is moving to Delhi to pursue her career. They close their relationship by celebrating with a break-up party. And as the boy (Saif) is alone, he meets up an old Sikh gentleman, a restaurant owner (Rishi Kapoor) who piles on him to reveal about the break-up with his girl (Deepika.)
They build a friendship where the Sikh person tells him about his own love story as he continues to push the boy to meet his girl. In the process, the film goes into flash-backs with the young Sikh being played by Saif and his own progress of friendship wherein he finds another girlfriend and the girl finds a boyfriend in Delhi.
The story per se may be alright, if not too original; the key is in the treatment and that's where the film falters. The boy is set-up to be a smart-alec, meant for Saif all the way, since perhaps he can sleep-walk through such Dil Chahta Hai or Hum Tum roles. He is supposed to be funny, whereas the girl is supposed to be cool. Independent, yet loving the boy, yet being on her own. This is where it perhaps is supposed to reflect the reality of our times.
Which is - boy and girl today meet to sleep with not much emotions at play. Unlike the past that was based on the romance. But then...love works today too - the couple are soulmates and when the misguided boy is pushed by a wise-man, then...he discovers his true love and the confused girl also comes back.
The depiction is all the way cute, which means deliver 'hep' dialogues, which not only is supposed to create humor but also move the story forward. This is a strategy which a lot of successful masala flicks follow and like many it never works - when conflict is all verbal, when there are no strong 'action' events, when reliance on cute-dialogues is key you walk on thin ice. What it does and very successfully in the film - messes up characters. Technically, there is an 'arc', but...you are never with the characters.
Being a film of today, it also tries to move too quickly - quick change of phases of period, which in itself isn't bad but..quick editing is never a solution for creating conflict. The story is told from the boy's perspective who is a smart-alec but with no wisdom. He is supposed to be a confused bloke. And the attempt to showcase that is through dialogues, which never let you sink-in with the character.
In the end the story of the Sikh tends to be more interesting - it is more visual, but...what's the story about? The boy is supposed to discover love and he is a passive player. It's an interesting trick to showcase the young Sikh as Saif but there is a big difference in the mindset of the two, plus there are no scenes to build up their connect.
The big problem in the flick is the lack of emotional journey one needs to take with the hero/heroine. It's almost missing with the latter since the story is not told from her point of view. It's the boy and the Sikh's. The only reason one may believe that there is decent chemistry between the two is simply because of the lack of other characters, which is good. But...you need to let the emotions release so the audience can relate.
Nope, it's meant to be the opposite. Quick movement as if it denotes the quick pace of our times. But it's a myth that when you 'slow' a film it loses its pace. Since it keeps shifting back and forth without helping in any identification, the characters seem very much contrived. And the Sikh character is very much cliched and so is his interaction with the boy.
When transitions become quick, when the characters are too flat, when the story doesn't have too much of tension, it does not work. Interestingly, it does for many, and as such does good business and then more such cute films are spurned. Well...that IS the harsh reality of our times.
Writer: Imtiaz Ali
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Rating *1/2
(Max Rating ****)
{Watched the 9.50 pm show at Cinema 130 in New Jersey on 2nd Aug, 2009 with Guru and Sachin}
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