Alright I agree it doesnt escape all the cliches. There are those song sequences and a couple of fight scenes, but unfortunately these are unfortunately almost universally considered necessary to please the rarther ’’unthinking’’ Indian audience. So I understand that Satish Kaushik added some fights here and there.
But I must confess , the storyline and charecterisations are refreshingly different , and do not fall prey to the standard cliches! First up , Karan’s parents are not potrayed as demigods as in most movies.He doesnt worship them. He HATES them! His father is constantly is demeaning his character and capabilities. Little does his father realise , that his advice is not bringing his unsettled son , on the right path , but is discouraging him. Thanks to the attitude bred by his father , Karan loses faith on his intellectual capabilities, believes himself to be an idiot , and finds company with the other ’’taporis’’ in the college. His mother like every other Indian housewife , just cannot disagree with her husband. She is so scared of her husband, she lacks the guts to even tell Karan that his father is wrong in his rantings. Ditto , his brother, who performs ’’pooja’’ in the morning , just to please his father.
I think the director does a good job of potraying the standard Indian hosehold in the 1st few scenes. Yup , the MAN of the house believes he owns the house AND it’s members.He expects everyone to follow his words.The director dares to question the ’’follow-my-word-or-leave-the-house’’ mentality in India. As is shown, Karan does not believe in ’’pooja’’ and recieves a good deal of contempt from his father. A lot of people missed this realistic potrayal of Indian household in the movie.
And then comes along Kareena Kapoor. She is a thorough intellectual , and does not believe in painting people in black and white.She understands the value of human spirit. She rightfully judges people by their heart and not by their brains.She refuses to believe that Tusshar is an idiot, but sees the more positive qualities in him. She spots some musical talent in him , and says that he can be successful as a musician. Tusshar falls in love and needs her company, but is scared to confess his love due to fear of rejection ( ok that is a cliche ;)) And then she gets admission into Harvard University ( Many people wonder how that’s possible , but it’s NOT so difficult to get admission into a course such as [b]Cultural Studies[/b]. Did you know the Kareena in REAL LIFE had got admission into a similar course in REAL Harvard too?), and the ending in the airport is very unique. The situation is very realistically potrayed , as Tusshar still falls short of courage , and Kareena herself breaks the ice.Tusshar is merely left nodding in tears. And what is interesting is Tusshar asks Kareena to go to Harvard and NOT stay back! For once career comes before love in Hindi movies!!
And I must say , coming from Satish Kaushik , this movie is quite refreshing by his standards! Unlike in his other movies, there is are no animated South Indian/Punjabi characters cracking stupid jokes. Parents are always potrayed in not-so-good light in Satish Kaushik’s movies. But unlike in ’’Hamara Dil Apke Paas Hai’’ where the father disowns his daughter for being raped , which is ridiculous, here the characterisations of Karan(Tusshar)’s parents and sister are believable.
But you cannot expect too much from a Satish Kaushik movie , so there are some gaping potholes in the screenplay like the constant song-n-dance routine (the songs are peppy , but there are too many of them), unnecessary fight scenes with some ’’gali-ke-kutte’’ , his headstrong sister’s overnight change in virtuosity , marrying a man just because HE loves her , Kareena seeking autographs seems silly, and the love-at-first sight thingy presented in a very unreal stupid manner.
Yet this movie is different from 99% of the movies made from Bollywood. There is no villain acting as a barrier between the two lovers. It’s just their concience and fear that makes them fall short of words.The hero is not potryaed as a ’’superhero’’ but just another college delinquent.
And going to the perfomances, Tusshar Kapoor pitches in a surprisingly decent perfomance. Though this was his first movie, he handled his character with quite a lot of sincerity and ease, and emoted well. And many people seem to think that Kareena’s perfomance was excellent , but I dont see the big deal in it.She was merely spontaneous in her emoting. I agree it was a tough character , but she didnt do complete justice to it IMO.The best perfomance of the movie comes from Rinke Khanna (Twinkle Khanna’s sister in real life) as Karan’s sister. I agree with some of the other posters here. She seems too talented for Indian moviedom , and must go back to theatre. So on the whole , this is good fare by Indian standards. It obviously doesnt figure anywhere near the Spielberg/Minghella/Lean standard , but choose this over some stupid Govinda or Akshay Kumar trite. (P.S I am really really sleepy now, so forgive typos , mistakes in sentence construction , bad grammar etc.)