Movies with multiple stories have been already attempted in Bollywood (Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai and of course Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota the best examples). But Salaam-E-Ishq is a different movie altogether. It handles six stories together. The director Nikhil Advani succeeds but unfortunately he fails and that too in many aspects.
STORY#1:
Ashutosh (John Abraham) and Tehzeeb (Vidya Balan) are happily married to each other. They both work in the same office and so they get maximum time to spend with each other. They cannot live without each other. Everything was fine in their life. But one tragedy occurs in their life-Tehzeeb was traveling in a train and that train meets an accident.
STORY#2:
Vinay (Anil Kapoor) lives in London alongwith his wife Seema (Juhi Chawla). He has a perfect house, a perfect job, a perfect family; but everything in his life was dull, colourless and full of boredom. When he meets Anjali (Anjana Sukhani), everything in his life turns upside down.
STORY#3:
Raju (Govinda) is a nice, funny cabbie, who was waiting for the girl of his dreams. And one day he meets that girl-Stephanie (Shanon Esra). But Stephanie had come to India to meet her boyfriend, Rohit (Kushal Punjabi).
STORY#4:
Shiven (Akshaye Khanna) is an eligible bachelor living in Delhi. He was going to get married to Gia (Ayesha Takia). But suddenly he changes his mind. He didn’t wanted to become ‘Gia Ka Piya’! He wanted to remain as a bachelor. And he breaks his engagement with Gia, which hurts her very much.
STORY#5:
Kkamini (Priyanka Chopra) is a famous item girl in Bollywood. She announces to press and media that she is in serious relationship with a guy called Rahul. Now, Rahul was a fictitious guy and it was a publicity stunt of Kkamini in order to get a role in Karan Johar’s next. But suddenly Rahul (Salman Khan) comes into the scene. Unwillingly, Kkamini had to pretend that Rahul (Salman) is the same one who is her boyfriend, as she wanted a role in Karan Johar’s movie.
STORY#6:
Ramdayal (Sohail Khan) gets married to Phoolwati (Ishaa Koppikar). He wanted to lose his virginity as soon as possible. But everytime he tried to satisfy his burning desire, everything went wrong and upside down!AND ALL THESE STORIES HAD ONE COMMON PROBLEM-LOVE
I would analyze each of the stories first:
STORY#1(John-Vidya): This was the best story of all the six. The chemistry between the two is very nicely depicted. Even the tragedy in this track moves you. The story also gets a very nice, happy, beautiful ending.
STORY#2(Anil-Juhi-Anjana): The story starts in a very inconvenient way. The introduction was done in a very bad manner. But the story got into a nice shape as it progressed. The ending was the mot acceptable.
STORY#3(Govinda-Shanon): The other best story of the movie. This story too starts with a wrong way but it gets interesting and engrossing with the introduction of Shanon Esra. The conversation of the two and the love that starts blooming between them is very nicely described. This story also gets a nice conclusion.
STORY#4(Priyanka-Salman): This was a very confusing story. It was completely unacceptable and inappropriate. What was the need for Kkamini (Priyanka) to show that she was in a relationship? Just to get a role in Karan Johar’s movie? And does one get a role in the movie by such a stunt? And why was Kkamini so desperate in working in Karan Johar’s movie? Doesn’t she know that there is a possibility that Karan might make a dumb movie like KANK again? However, the movie got a better track in the post-interval portion. Its ending was predictable.
STORY#5(Akshaye-Ayesha): This was the weakest story of the movie. It doesn’t just make any sense. Had Shiven not thought that what will happen to his life after marriage? However, the conclusion of the story was quite funny
STORY#6(Sohail-Ishaa): This story was laughable! In this movie, all stories got inter-connected, leaving this story! And the tagline of the movie is-Six different stories, one common problem-Love. But Love was not the problem in Sohail’s story. But from the humour point of view, this story was the most funniest.
The movie partly succeeds and partly fails. It fails in the writing department and screenplay. While some stories were very nicely written, some stories were not properly sharpened and bores very much. Another big problem of the movie-its excessive length. The movie is 3 ½ hours duration and certain portions in the movie test the viewer’s patience. But the movie succeeds too. It wins because of the last 50 minutes of the movie, when the stories get inter-connected and the problems in the movie get solved. Another main pros of the movie are that it does not consist of ‘rona-dhona’.
The first hour of the movie is quite boring. All the stories are introduced in this hour and it becomes quite tough to remember and concentrate properly on each of the story. Also we don’t feel a part of any story in the first hour. But the movie gets interesting before the intermission point. But the interest falls again after the intermission. But the movie becomes interesting again in the last hour when all stories get proper endings.
John Abraham is the best performer in the whole movie. He manages funny, romantic, emotional as well as tragic scenes quite effectively. Vidya Balan looks cute and performs as per her character demanded. The chemistry between the two is great and it would be nice to look both of them together in more movies.
Anil Kapoor does a great job. Juhi Chawla was nice but she doesn’t get much scope in the first half. Anjana Sukhani looks confident in her debut performance. Govinda was funny and it was he who keeps most of the interest alive. Shanon Esra was amazing and the scene where she speaks Hindi in the climax is sure to bring the house down.
Akshaye Khanna does quite a good job. Ayesha Takia gives a sweet performance. Priyanka Chopra overacted in the first half but got better in the second half. Salman Khan performed as his role demanded.
Sohail Khan was funny and after Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, he delivers yet another hilarious performance. Ishaa Koppikar doesn’t get any scope.
There are lots of other supporting actors. The most notable and good ones were Vrajesh Hirjee, Viju Khote, Vishal Malhotra, Prem Chopra, Manoj Pahwa, Kushal Punjabi and Saurabh Shukla.
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