Im fresh back from watching salaam namaste yesterday. I went cause I got a couple of complementary tickets from my brother. So I knew whatever the result, I wouldnt be losing in the deal :)
I think theres this new genre of hindi movies evolving that works this way: Fresh looks, attitude comedy, contemporary issues and lifestyles. Kind of began with Dil chahta hai, moved through kal ho na ho and through hum tum and is currently at salaam namaste. Since its a change from the normal ghisi-piti hindi movies, viewers are used to, I believe that more movies will be made under this genre and it will be fine until people get tired of this also.
Since you have most probably already read movie reviews, I wouldnt want to go through the storyline again except to tell that is pretty insipid. Some of the things I didnt like in the movie was:
- The whole fairy tale atmosphere - it was too far from life, they could have made it a little more down to earth without loosing the fresh look. Think of it, a chef of a restaurant (not a star hotel, but a small time restaurant) where he keeps sweating all the time in the kitchen and a girl who keeps borrowing money for her studies and clothes from her friends, decide to rent a house. And they rent something that would make hollywood stars proud! seaside location, cool breeze and all the stuff.
A wedding in australia that lasts overnight at the beach..lolol..that was funny and stupid. Saif runs around in a designer car. Simple things..but it could have looked more natural to make something more ’natural’.
Mood swings - When they fight, they fight. When they love, they love. It should have been mixed a bit. I mean saif turns a devil and does not do A SINGLE good act when he in his moody blues and preity gets so crazy when shes in one of her bad days, that I really admire Saif that he gets back to her in the end. I wudnt. And when it changes they just are choo cutey cutey...Naaah
Most guest stars - Saif asks Preity whats the deal with Javed’s wife.. I ask whats the deal with them both? I didnt understand why any of the guest stars where there including saif’s boss, preity’s boss and though I was impressed with Abhishek ( I didnt know he can do comedy so well)..still I dont know why even he was required.
Climax - the movie starts from an attitude and contemporary comedy to end in a dreadful version of slapstick/screwball comedy. A delivery theatre scene for some 20 mins with everyone running crazy was meaningless..preity is yelling her a** off about the pain of delivering twins and just as they are due, saif takes his ring and proposes to her(which he has been doing for about 15 mins by then) and her pain disappears, everything pales out and they have these touchy dialogues and once they are done with the proposal.... everyone starts yelling and running in circles again!
Though salaam namaste belongs to the fresh-look genre its not handled well. Just compare the climax in Dil Chatha hai where Aamir and Saif go and Aamir proposes to Preity and the climax in Salaam Namasthe with the delivery theatre proposal scene. That will explain the difference.
Maybe im being too critical..there ARE some well-done scenes in the movie, but they are too suffocated by the not-so-good ones that one misses them. And if you have to go to a theatre and hold ur breath and keep a constant look out to watch the good scenes amid the i-dont-care ones, then it aint worth it...unless its an Adult movie ;)