’Salaam Namaste’ is not just a bad movie with an irrelevant title. It is an insensitive, an offensive and a crude attempt at using comedy as a medium to address a rather serious social issue, of a couple living together out of wedlock.
The comedy may have worked in a scene or two, but its core is a mishmash of inconsistent characterizations and ideas that don’t fit nicely together, and it suffers from a hackneyed plot that has more time for inane wrangles between the lead characters and absurd song sequences than any material of substance that represents the true ethos of a couple who care for each other.
In setting its priorities and choosing its content for a quick commercial undertaking, in poor taste as it turns out, the movie manages to make a mockery of many things; not the least which are love, friendship, parenthood and especially fatherhood, caring and supporting a loved one etc.
Well, as expected, things are, no doubt, wrapped up to end on a good note (and quite awkwardly so, in this case) but the bad taste that is built up, just lingers on, and by then you want no part of any of the artificial characters and their hokey story and its ending.
It is tough to look for silver linings here, but amid all the dishonest commercial handling you can see a bit of youthful freshness (however misguided), and a gag or two, involving the Malayali radio station owner and the Crocodile-Dundee imitation by Javed Jaffery, that do succeed.
Priety Zinta’s looks and histrionics are wasted on a role that is quite lame, and Saif Ali Khan looks as pathetic as the character he plays.
It may be a commercial success, but it is an irresponsible, a pointless, and a distasteful project.