Entertaining popcorn flick

AvinashPatalay

At the outset let me tell you that I am not great SRK fan owing to which watch his movies with a critical eye. As far as this one goes... it has all the ingredients that make up Bollywood movie a entertaining popcorn flick.

Sush - awesome in sarees (Credit: Manish Malhotra). Chemistry with SRK is fantastic. Amrita Rao is a surprise package especially seeing her transform from girl-next-door in Ishq-Vishq to an attractive tomboy. Naseeruddin executed his small part pretty convincingly - pity that an actor of par excellence has to be satisfied with miniscule roles in commercial films - a perfect example of under-employment. Kirron Kher did her part well and so did Kabir Bedi. Sunil Shetty's character could have been etched out better (good that Kamal Hassan rejected this role!). Zayed Khan needs to join acting classes. Bindu's English was funny and Satish Shah comedy track was hilarious - every time he came on the screen, he had me laughing. So was SRK's bursting into a song every time Sush enters the frame - does this remind you of Amitabh dialog in AAA that he hears gong of the Church every time he sees Parveen Babi? True tribute to 70's films and Manmohan Desai films as the director claimed.

Action sequences from Allan Amin prove that Bollywood can match to Hollywood standards (plagiarism, No! Inspired, YES!). Lyrics from Javed Akhtar and music by Anu Malik are extremely contagious - the qawalli song deserves a special mention. Choreography! What can you expect from the ace choreographer, who makes directorial debut. The song at the end with credits

is quite creative. Farah-SRK hail from Johar-Chopra camp and hence there has been heavy influence with obvious inputs and brainstorming to make the finished product financially marketable from every angle.

A very predictable formula storyline with a few holes in-between which are easily overlooked with the flow of the movie. Riding on the Indo-Pak peace wave, Operation Milaap is fused into the storyboard as the backbone. The movie is a mixed bag of Bollywood ingredients but what makes this movie standout from the rest, is inter-lacing in right proportions.

As you walk out of the cinema, you carry a feeling of every penny well spent.

PS: Just curious - was the title copied from DTPH where SRK convinces the fruit-seller by saying "Main Hoon Na.....".

score /10

AvinashPatalay 6 December 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0976021/