The best since Dil Chahta Hai. Review on Hum Tum

I was quite apprehensive of watching this movie initally considering that this was a Saif Ali Khan - Rani Mukherjee starrer from the house of YashRaj (YR) Films.

This movie house that gave us wonderful moments to cherish from movies like Daag, Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Noorie, Kaala Patthar, Chandni, Lamhe,and many more has been reduced to a factory manufacturing set-piece items off the block like Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Mere Yaar Ki shaadi Hai, Mohabbateinof late.

This unfortunate turn of events has occured post - DDLJ, which was the trend-setter for the current genre of YR Films. Granted that mush and lovely foreign locales were the forte of all YashRaj movies, but this has been done to death in current times and naturally the viewers can expect better things from the esteemed Yash Chopra. So it was with apprehension that I sat down to watch this movie and had thought that this would also go the same way as the other recent movies.

The USP of this movie was the usage of extensive cartoons for the first time in a mainstream masala movie. The Hum-Tum range of cartoon strips in Times Of India were (suppossedly) a rage and brought all to the theatres.

The movie started off a normal YR movie does. The Saif-meets-rani situation was reminiscent of the DDLJ encounter between Shah Rukh-Kajol, the only difference being in the mode of transport that they were in. (DDLJ had a train and HT has an aeroplane).

The only refreshing change from the usual movie, to strike me first, was Saif Ali Khan. He brought a new approach and, yes, carried over his intrinsic qualities from Dil Chahta Hai as the confused sort of person. This was great as I had really hoped for an encore from the DCH team. Now I got it, at least partly. The other hangover from DCH was the fresh approach towards the hairstyles as it occurs in the movie. Saif changes his haircut as the film evolves over a period of 6-7 years. The looks of Rani also changes, and this makes it different from run of the mill stuff.

The storyline is also quite different form the usual stuff. The music is average with some better songs like Ladki Kyon? and the title track doing justice to the talents of Jatin and Lalit.

Among the actors, apart from the leading duo, Abhishek Bachchan is magnificent in his bit part, Jimmy Shergill also deserves more than what he actually gets to do, Kiron Kher as the loud Punjabi mother is good, but the character could have been a bit more subdued.

Rishi kapoor and Rati Agnihotri have nothing much to do, but yes, Rishi was a welcome break from the average dads that you get nowadays.

I haven't revealed the plot because it is the basic strength of the film. For those who haven't watched HT, go and watch it. I found it to be the best since DCH. And the acting makes the plot stronger. Saif is PERFECT for the role. I can't imagine of anyone else enacting the same character with such elan.

Rani is good as she always is.

Coming back to the cartoons...Hum and Tum. They are there throughout the film. They have been used to take the story forward. But this is one thing about the film I found irritating. They could have the cartoons more intuitively.

My favourite scene from the movie (hope this is not a pointer to the plot!!)... The scene when Saif land up at Rani's place late at night and they discuss a lot of things hypothetically. The play of emotions of both Saif and Rani, the undercurrent of love between them, it's superb. Nobody is a better casual performer of deep emotions than Saif, and he proved it in this movie.