I am by no means a fan of Subhash Ghai’s work. I hated ’Taal’, but it takes second place on my ’Terrible Movies To Torture Your Soul’ list - it has been replaced by Yaadein. Be warned - if you are madly, deeply, truly in love with this movie, don’t read this review. I have minced no words.
The thing about Subhash Ghai is that he lacks moviemaking class. He quickly sketches out a sappy, emotional plot, gets a few sponsors, and makes a movie. In this case, he didn’t even sketch out a plot - instead, he gathered 10 different Bollywood hits, combined them into one, and produced a ball of mishmashed junk that he calls a movie. Not only that, he had the audacity to waste a perfectly good title - Yaadein on a perfectly terrible movie.
The story
So, what’s new? Nothing in Yaadein, that’s for sure. A middle-class girl (Kareena) has a wonderful, albeit rich friend (Hrithik). Kareena’s dad (Jackie Shroff) is a widower, and is having a tough time raising 3 girls all by himself. He decides to pack up and go back to India, where, as we all know, raising children is a piece of cake. Hrithik follows them to India, helps arrange the marriage of Kareena’s 2 sisters, and after many ’accidental’ escapes and sickening flirtation, the two fall in love. Then the rich-boy, poor-girl story ensues. Everyone lives happily ever after in the end. Except, of course, the moviegoers.
Where did Ghai fail? How shall I begin? Originality is apparently something he has never heard of. Will the Indian audience ever tire of watching the same repeated junk over and over again? Judging by some of the reviews I have read that exclaim about the brilliance of this movie...I don’t know.
The performances
I will scream if I have to listen to Kareena’s whiny, nasal voice one more time. I will give myself a black eye if I have to look at some more trying-to-look-sexy clothes. I will break down in tears if I have to listen to Kareena’s pathetic form of crying in the movie. Other actresses could have done a far better job here, but Kareena? Well, she fails. She and Hrithik have no detectable chemistry, and whatever bit of passable acting she has conjured up so far is diminished by her lackluster performance in this movie.
Hrithik looks bored and acts bored, and I don’t blame him. The script of this movie is miserable, and Hrithik’s character, ’Ronit’, looks and acts wooden. When he’s happy, it looks too fake, and when he’s sad, he looks too emotional. I think what he lacks is that fine balance.
The little things that matter...
Now, onto the section that will hopefully prove that Subhash Ghai lacks filmmaking class. Firstly, Mr. Ghai has a habit of including himself in his movies (a cameo). Now, in ordinary circumstances, I wouldn’t mind this, but Mr. Ghai finds the most classless, blatantly noticeable way to do it as possible. A cameo should be smooth and fitting - instead, his face pops out of the middle of nowhere, as in Taal, leaving you wondering what he’s doing there and why you don’t see any more of him.
Secondly, the blatant advertising got on my nerves. As if the terribly cheesy crocodile-rescue scenes weren’t bad enough, Ghai throws in ample advertising for good measure. I can count about five or six different products that the movie advertises - Coke, some kind of candy, etc. Again, the subtlety is lacking. You’d think that he would want to disguise the products a little - but no. Even in the most heartfelt of moments, the camera quickly gives you a close up of Coke. I don’t know about you, but I see enough of those ads in real life - I don’t want them invading the theatres as well.
In Conclusion...
Yaadein was marketed as a soothing, memorable, nostalgic film that will tug at your heartstrings and make you walk down your private memory lane. Instead, what it does is make you wish you could smack Subhash Ghai and or Kareena Kapoor in their faces, crush a Coke can to smithereens in your hand, and walk out of the room. The film will definitely not tug at your heartstrings - it will stretch them and pull them until they are all but snapped and sore.
Under no circumstances do I advise you guys to rent/buy a DVD or video of this movie. Pure folly, I tell you. I would rather watch a thousand well-done bubblegum romances than one classless movie along the likes of Yaadein.
Comments and criticisms always welcome. (My first Hindi movie review! Tell me what you think.)
Take care,