It was almost a given that Salaam Namaste would be a disappointment; movies preceded by a lot of hype usually are.
Fortunately, this movie escapes that dreadful fate of being a total disaster.
A fabulous looking Preity Zinta plays Ambar, (or Humbar, ) a medical student working as an RJ in a desi FM station -Salaam Namaste- in Melbourne, Australia, to help pay her tuition.
Saif Ali Khan, who seems to be doing a Salman Khan act in this movie, is Nick, (NOT Nikhil please!) an architect turned chef (who can’t stand the sight of blood!!) who rubs this lovely doctor/RJ, obsessed with punctuality, the wrong way by not turning up for an interview.
It’s war on the air waves, till they meet, and fall in love (yes, we knew!!)
The ’in love but don’t want to commit’ couple move in together - separate rooms(initially), a shared bathroom, a lovely view and an obnoxious landlord (Javed Jaffrey in a love him or hate him Feroz Khan style role) - and all is well till Ambar finds herself faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Nick, loveable and quite neurotic, is horrified, and has no clue what to do. His most helpful suggestion is ’Let’s kill it!’
Amber doesn’t, and that part of the story forms the second, and painfully predictable, half of the movie.
Arshad Warsi, a woman crazy architect, provides some good fun in the role of Saif’s supportive friend. Abhishek Bachchan drops by in a blink and miss it role of an inept doctor fumbling for the right words in English.
The best part of the movie is its witty and funny (for the most part anyway) dialogue. The way the characters are introduced is also novel.
There are psuedo-serious moments which don’t quite tug at your heart-strings the way they were surely meant to. Nick’s process of ’’growing up and becoming responsible’’ is so slow you sometimes wish you could take his own chef’s knife to him.
Several scenes are a straight lift from the Hugh Grant/Julianne Moore starer 9 Months. The delivery room scene which was bad enough in the original is totally unbearable in its present avatar - Somebody should tell the director that a woman in the middle of giving birth cannot put the process on hold, and is hardly ever in the frame of mind to listen to romantic speeches; she is more likely to want to kill the man responsible for her present condition!
Salaam Namaste drags a bit at times, but Saif, Preity (even when she lapses into high decibel mode in practically every second scene after the interval) and Arshad somehow make the movie so much fun none of that seems to matter.
Siddharth Anand (direction/screenplay) can’t seem to make up his mind if this movie should be a comedy or movie with a message; the message being that pregnancy, childbirth, and eventually parenthood, are all wonderful experiences, and if you don’t want to be part of that ideal world, you need help!
It is slick, stylish, and superficial, and might have worked better if the movie makers had the courage to tackle the issue of live-in relationships without falling into the ’but we are Indian and don’t do that’ crap, oops sorry, trap.
Watch it without asking too many questions; enjoy!