Have been reading the reviews of this movie from many days, some British ones trashing the movie, and the Indian ones saying English is not Aish?s forte. Here is what the English ones had to say (and I quote)
?More worrying, however, is the Bollywood factor, which seems to reduce everything to a lowest common denominator. The humour here is broader than broad: if you’re looking for sophisticated laughs then you’re in the wrong place. Naturally the ensemble pieces feature street urchins with brightly coloured costumes and perma-smiles.?
Then there was our very own rediffdotcom (again, I quote)
?Aishwarya Rai cannot act, which is bloody unfortunate, considering that she’s looking better than ever. The finest lines in the script, the repartees, fall flat as they exit Ms Rai’s over-the-top face, and her Lalita comes across as an obnoxious girl falling prey to the very stereotypes she preaches incessantly against.
English is not her forte, ending up sounding stilted and contrived; something that would work in LA, as they would get something to affectionately titter and leer at simultaneously. She is an annoying little thing, and it’s a tempting thought to imagine that bright red chunni getting caught on some fortuitous nail and tightening around that lovely neck. A visually sublime bimbette, she might just slot into Hollywood like Penelope Cruz began, or early-days Goldie Hawn?.
I don?t know why, but these reviews irritated me some. I am not one of those chaps who would go rushing in to see a movie, first day first show. Wait, let the others do the sampling, give me reviews and then I shall condescend to see the movie ? that is more my style. But then the reviews did it for me.
The story is quite well known, so I shall gloss over it very fast.
Mrs Bakshi (a delightful Nadira Babbar, who towers with a stunning performance) has four daughters to wed. And wed they must, else she would be consigned to ?live her life in that old house with four spinsters!? (her words). So whenever she sees a young bachelor, her eyes light up. She is loathe to let even one bachelor pass her by lest one of the other she-bachelor-grabbers in the vicinity grab the chap.
The movies is about how the two elder ones get hitched ? the eldest (a very nice looking other Miss India in the movie ? Namrata Shirodkar) with the NRI played by Naveen Andrews and Aish playing the main protagonist ? Lalita Bakshi with an American business tycoon with a hotel chain (played by Martin Henderson).
To begin with, a word on Aishwariya Rai. She looks stunning. Everywhere in the movie. Just as I expected. Her looks might bias me bit, but she is nowhere close to being as bad as our rediffdotcom guy puts it. And she managed very well in English too. Tosses her head very nicely, puts the Angrez actor in his place time and again quite well. She holds her own in the many repartees with Indira Verma too, and once with . Alright, she is no Shabana Azmi in the acting department, but I will certainly not trash her.
The movie itself is a delightful riot of colors. The streets of Amritsar never seemed so beautiful. All the beauty of Punjab and its natives shows through wonderfully. Each of the characters ? even when there are hundreds as there are in the songs they sing in the streets ? seems to have been chosen with great care. They seem very authentically Punjabi.
Some of the smaller scenes are quite delightfully weaved in too. Like the one in which an elderly sardar takes Indira Verma?s hands for a dance and doesn?t want to let go. Seems like bit of an Asterix comic where each character is given some thought to.
Again, Martin Henderson looks good, but he is definitely not a great actor. There is some truth about the stars having been signed for their looks alone! Indira Verma is very good as Navin Andrew?s smirking sister. Nitin Ganatra, he with the braying laugh, is definitely over the top.
On the flip side, some of the lines by Nadira Babbar get a bit too much. They could have been toned down a bit ? how any self respecting daughter of today could take all that she says lying down is beyond me. She could have been more subtle, most certainly, in keeping with the times.
Overall, a feel-good kinda movie, lotsa eye-candy and good for some fun.