The movie, to be fair to the creators, is an overall feel-good movie. Now, is it a good movie? I would tend to disagree.
These are the reason why I say so :
The Cast:
The movie suffers from a great deal of over-acting by many of the actors including Priety Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan and Tania Zaetta (somebody please teach her some acting!). Priety seems to have gone over-board trying to be cute and bubbly. The screaming and shouting she does is too dramatic to be true and come across as un-called for. I wonder what happened to the Priety of Kya Kehna.
Kunal Vijaykar is most unconvincing as the Malayali in the movie. He sounds too Bengali to be accepted as a Mallu character. He too has fallen trap to over-acting and is quite wasted in the movie. For a stage actor like him, this work perhaps may not be a proud moment to look back after 10 years ;)!
I don’t think it is even worthwhile to comment upon Jugal Hansraj. It would be too much to say he has done a good job and too harsh to say anything negative as he is completely wasted in the movie. Abhishek Bachan could have made a better attempt than being so ‘jumpy’ to look comical. Apart from that, he perhaps needs no other mention. It looks like all of them were partying together in the scene than acting!
If someone has done a good job here, it is Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Kavita Kapoor and Saif Khan – in that order. The reason why I am being so cruel to Saif is due to some of his bouts of over-acting (sick! Again!!!), though overall he has carried his role well in the movie. Arshad deserves a special mention due to his superb timing and well-done job. He is sanely comical and under-stated in his acting that makes it believable. Kavita Kapoor as the doctor is nice. The one that really has managed to create the best laughs is the chameleon, Javed Jaffrey. Javed, as the Bihari Bhains Wala-turned-cowboy is simply superb. His dialogue “egg-jack-tly” still keeps ringing in my head :)!
The Screenplay
The director, Siddharth Anand has had a well-conceived idea as it seems. However, in his bid to make a hit, he has missed a soul in the movie. The story could have been set in any metro in India where we see a lot of live-in couples off late. There was no need to go Down Under to avoid a controversy & an apology. Relationships (including marriages) are sometimes based on many conditions that we get to see around us today. The character of Nick is consistent in his thought, thankfully!
Somewhere one cannot but help notice an “inspiration” from the movie “Nine-months” (the story line of a person not wanting to have a child, fighting with his girl friend about that, succumbing to the fatherhood appeal and especially, the last scene where two friends have babies on the same day in the same hospital).
The story also gets a little unbelievable in the sense that a radio station and its RJ (least of all, the owner) would not be indulging in personal attacks against a guest or any other person. To take a small fight into a battle of sorts on the air is rather stupid. Now, the people of the city would definitely not care about two personalities up in arms against each other. In fact, I’d say most would be irritated with such things.
The part where Nick goes to the doctor to get a blood-test and picks up the sonograph report and then falls in love with his unborn children, again, is cliché. However, one has no alternative to such clichés in movies - rather unfortunate, as it seems – this was an opportunity for some creativity that has been missed.
The comedy scenes are mostly forced and slap-stick in nature. Many times, I was wondering why some in the cinema hall were laughing when the scene looked down right like a PJ?! If you compare the comedy of one of the recent movies – No Entry – this is no where in the running.
Other Aspects
The songs are quite hummable – especially the song “My Dil goes hmmmmm” and “Salam Namaste”, the title song. One song is a total waste (the one where Priety wants to have an Ice-cream).
Also, Priety is not convincing as a pregnant woman. She seems to be too conscious of the ‘bump’ and literally tries to show-off the swollen belly. Her movements as a woman carrying a child could have been more believable if Priety had made some effort to study some real pregnant women and practiced their way of moving, walking and expressions.
My Verdict
If you don’t get tickets for another movie like Iqbal or No-Entry, then go see this. Else, it is not worth the cash you dish out at a multiplex. Wait for the rented DVD and watch it later. One line on this movie would be – Much Ado about Nothing!