Yep that is my nick name for him.
I was somewhat apprehensive about Nikhil’s ability to make the 5 stories hang together and flow and boy did he do that and then some! This is the work of a director at the top of his game, at the peak of his creative prowess. This is the ultimate directors movie( and to some extent the editor) and Nikhil deserves major props for taking something that had huge potential for disaster and creating something extraordinarily interesting. He has created the ultimate Bollywood Masala potboiler but in a non cheesy manner, taken the rules of bollywood convention and turned them upside the head, to create something fresh yet familiar -complemented by the self referential humor and self reflexive editing . Nuff said about the director!
The editing was key to the success of this movie and except for about 20 minutes in the middle, I didn’t find the movie dragged at all.It was great how each segment lasted for not more than 5 minutes at a time. The pacing was perfect and the climax was raucous, rousing and irresistible and definitely left one with an emotional high .
Also notable was the wonderful use of color to highlight the characters, especially the Anil Kapoor story line being shot in almost monochromatic tones to highlight his grey lifeless drone like existence. The different colors that the Priyanka character depicted were also so true to her moods and personality.
The actors acted their guts out(which was to be expected from good actors like Anil, Juhi, Govinda, Akshaye, Ayesha and Vidya), but John and Priyanka did a good job too, and Sallu was Sallu- which was perfect for the role he was playing:) I loved all the individual story lines and the extent to which the director was able to develop them so that they felt complete.
If I had to choose a favorite, it has to be the Govinda story.His Delhi cabdriver was one of the most lovable characters in the movie. The language barriers between him and the American gal and how they overcame it was extremely fun and poignant at the same time and they were given great lines to speak .This section was extremely well written.
Priyanka was a surprise package, I loved the back-story of her character( seemed a little inspired by Mallika Sherawat) and the unpredictable way her storyline with Sallu proceeded. She did a great job contrasting the "diva" scenes( necessarily overdone) with the scenes where her real self is revealed( to Rahul). The one scene where she is supposedly crying for the cameras when Rahul "dies" was heartbreaking, because she was tapping into the " tragedy queen" thing while at the same time grieving the loss of the love of her life. Sallu was camp-ilicious in his trade mark fashion and looked good enough to eat! His mannered or "fake" acting was needed for the role since he was playing a mysterious poseur and nobody really knew what he was all about.
Anil and Juhi did well in the standard "mid life crisis" storyline. This was probably the least interesting subplot because it has been done to death before, nonetheless the 3 main players brought this story to life . I think the ending in the airplane got a little OTT, but oh well whaddya expect from Bollywood:)
Ayesha and Akshaye’s pre-marriage commitment blues story line was well done too and funny.I loved Akshaye, despite his facial contortions .
The John Vidya story was very interesting in that it tackled a very sensitive subject( inter faith romance) but the woman’s accident proneness was getting a little out of hand! Thankfully the director spared us the agony of her getting "cured" by a second bang on the head - a favorite bollywood convention from the 70’s .This is a segment which could have been shortened a bit. The scenes with Ashutosh’s Dad were unnecessary and there was way too much crying on the part of John which got repetitive.
The Sohail-Isha storyline was strictly for laughs, aimed at the B and C centers but it was funny as hell!
I enjoyed the songs and dances much more on screen with the visual reference than listening to them without the sumptious visuals to back them up.
Overall this is one of the best movies I have seen in a while.
You will laugh! You will cry! You will come to terms!:) A whopping 9/10!