It was a weekend and five of us were loitering around not knowing what exactly to do. Then somebody dropped the brilliant idea, ’’Lets go to a movie!’’.
And me being what I am instantly asked ’’Which one is running?’’. The intention being that there was no good movie running at present and hence lets not waste our time and money.
’’Socha Na Tha’’ came the reply.
’’Woh movie? paagal hai kya? Dharmendra productions? Kis Kis ki kismat yaad hai? aur woh Dillagi? Aapko jaana hai to jaao, main nahi aa raha!’’ was my reply. (That movie? Are you mad? Do you remember the previous movies of the same producers? If you want to go, carry on. I am not coming). Arrogant nevertheless. But as you can see my knowledge was what was directing me towards the decision.
Although they agreed with me, the boredom drove them to decide against leaving this arrogant, strong-headed guy on his own and walk off. Finally, as a matter of politeness they asked me, ’’Hum log jaa rahe hai. Aana hai?’’ (We are going. Wanna come?)
Figuring out that they were quite serious about leaving me alone, I tagged along.
We were ten minutes late into the hall (Thank God! Ten minues less torture!). The tickets were easily available as I had predicted.
As we entered the hall, Ayesha Jhulka and the sub junior Deol (he has very cute dimples u know) were on the same bed with some photos. Before I got my ideas, we heard the dialogues and understood that the overdress ed bhabhi (Ayesha Jhulka with too much of make-up) wanted her saale sahab = our sub junior Deol to get married. And after emphatically turning down all but one, dimple Deol says ok to one girl. And then Bhabhi tells him, ’’Duffer all these photos were of the same girl!’’
All of us laughed out loud! And the ice was broken! It was not such a bad movie afterall! But hey wait! This is still the first 20 minutes, 150 minutes more to go. Dharmendra Productions afterall!
Then its the scene where the Dimple Deol goes to see the girl. The girl is the extremely cute Ayesha Thakia. Similar to the scene in DCH where Sonali and Saif are asked to go into the room and where they discuss how much they hate this concept of arranged mariages, same thing happens here! And they agree to call it off because Dimple Deol is in love with Christian Kathy.
And once the household of Ayesha comes to know about the refusal, everybody gets amusingly hysterical. Nobody understands why there is so much of tension because of this. There’s lot of tension and shouting that ensues!
And before it gets to you, the scene shifts to the blooming friendship between Ayesha and Dimple Deol. DD wants Ayesha to meet Kathy. ’’Tumhein teen saal baad bhi nahi pata? Teen minute bahut hote hai pata lagaane’’ is the reply Ayesha gives DD when he says he doesn’t know if Kathy loves him or not. (You haven’t been able to find out even after three years? Three minutes are enough to find out)
They plan to go to Goa and there there’s some kind of a spark that gets ignited between Ayesha and DD and at the same time the spark gets noticed by Kathy but not our DD (Dumb Deol this time! ;-))
Once they get back Ayesha tells DD that Kathy loves him a lot and both of them should get married. And they also deicde that this is going to be the last time that they are going to meet each other and give each other a bye-bye hug. As fate would have it, Ayesha’s family sees them hugging each other and there’s another set of upheaval.
DD goes to Ayesha’s house to explain the situation (a wondeful sequence I must tell you!). And Ayesha’s parents call up DD’s parents and they also congregate there. Major confusion but beautifully handled.
After that, the movie concentrates on DD trying to convince the parents of Kathy about his candidature to being their son-in-law. That scene is too good! DD brings out the right kind of expressions to convey tension, excitement, uncertainity, and to an extent a feeling of what-the-heck-am-I-doing! Then there is the scene of DD’s dad - the senior Oberoi - getting convinced about kathy being his Daughter-in-Law.
Finally, when everyone is convinced our DD is confused about Kathy and Ayesha. He thinks he is in love with Ayesha. And this confusion builds the film into the second half. Whether DD marries Ayesha or Kathy? Or does he remain a bachelor? Or is there any other scenario that we are missing? Watch Socha Na Tha to know!
The music is light and predominantly vocal and smooth. Light instrumentals enhance the feeling of the movie. Though not outstanding, the music deserves special applause because it adds to the feeling the director wants to give through the movie. Sandesh Shandilya, with his most worth remembering score being K3G is yet to match that level.
The camera work captures the light moments and the close-ups with perfection. Ravi Yadav, never heard of him before, holds promise for the future. He still has a long way to go as far as his namesake Ravi K chandran goes. The camera angles during the hysterical phases of the movie are appropriate. They do give a larger-than-life feeling at those times.
The dialogues are the best part of the movie. These are what create that effect that this movie is light. The conversations are most natural. And DD’s dialogues are written in perfect sync with his characterisation. And so are Ayesha’s. The scene where they discuss about the hopelessness of this arranged marriage concept, comes out very well only because of the dialogues. And if you ask me, I would say the best part of the movie is the dialogues. Very sad, I don’t know the name of the person who wrote them!
Imtiaz Ali has done a good job overall. Hasn’t gone over-the-top. Has maintained a restrained tone throughout. That helps keeping the movie light. It would have been so easy to get carried away at so many points. Directing such a simple and hackneyed story with such ease is a difficult job. He has given the movie a perspective of youth. Youth of the simple and take-it-easy kind. And hence the movie becomes super time-pass!
Continued in the comments section...