.:: All Girls Are Stupid ; All Guys Lie ::. Review on Hum Tum

2004, Yashraj Films Pvt Ltd

Directed by:Kunal Kohli

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Kiron Kher, Rishi Kapoor

Music: Jatin Lalit, Salim Sulaiman, Lalit Pandit

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Don't be taken aback by the title. After watching Hum Tum, I felt that it was something all guys and girls seemed to say and that each wanted to hear or rather didn't. 'Hum Tum', directed by Kunal Kohli seems to address a guy-girl relationship spanning over a decade. By the end of it, you are left wondering to yourself, 'Okay, So whats new?'. Nothing really, the whole theme is decades old and the joke has been extended by far. 'Hum Tum' heavily borrows from 'When Harry met Sally' and while it tries really hard to stand out among the rehashed bollywood themes, it runs out of steam as the movie progresses onto the second half.

The promoters of 'Hum Tum' had also come up with some animated flicks starring Hum and Tum, the two cartoon characters who are central to the theme (other than the real one, Saif Ali Khan). While it was a novel way of promoting a movie, the jokes were again borrowed from those email forwards that we have been seeing for quite some time. 'Hum Tum' entertains in parts, but overall it is not something that you would remember down the lane.

The plot:

Karan Kapoor happens to be a cartoonist who works around two characters Hum and Tum, a guy and a girl perhaps inspired by his own personal life. Flirtatious to the core, he lives with one motto, that women were made just for one thing. The role seems to have been created to suit Saif Ali Khan, who continues from where he left in 'Kal ho na ho'. En route to New York, he happens to run into Ria Prakash (Rani Mukherji), his opposite.

An expert at dealing with girls (Aren't we all?), he uses his usual techniques to get her interested and fall for his stupid antics (Don't they all?). And then the expected happens, when he tries to move too fast, and the girl who isn't used to such behavior dumps him. Life moves on and they keep running into each other at different phases of life. Few words are exchanged, while most remains unsaid and not surprisingly they remain unaware to each other's feelings over the years until the movie concludes with an expected climax.

Look out for..

There are a few positives from the film though. While Saif Ali Khan seems to revel in just one kind of role (not really something to write home about), he delivers a decent performance and keeps doing justice to it. Rani Mukherjee seems to improve as far as her acting skills are concerned, however pedestrian they may be at the current level. There is a surprise package in Rishi Kapoor, who plays the role of Karan's dad and remains his inspiration as far as his attitude towards girls is concerned. Kiron Kher, who keeps popping up to irritate could have been done away with.

A rather acceptable performance, is how I would like to describe her's. Other positives include the animated interruptions, which keep reminding you about the theme of the movie. I haven't seen too many of those except where there was a dog and a parrot in some Fardeen Khan starrer sometime back, which almost had me smash the TV screen. But the toons seem to do their job each time, unlike the real ones.

The Pitfalls:

The real disappointment in the movie was how the theme has been dealt with. The same jokes that we have been hearing in college cafeterias, the same arguments we had with girls in school and the same forwards that we have been receiving for quite some time make up the whole script. I wish the script writers could have used some imagination while approaching the theme. Music was about average with a few peppy numbers in 'Ladki kyon aise'. Otherwise the whole album was typical of the Jatin-Lalit/Nadeem Shravan kind of stuff we have been fed for over a decade. This isn't the CD, you would like to add to your collection.

Men are from Earth, Women are from Earth.

.....Just deal with it.

I feel this guy-girl relationship has been blown out of proportion. 'Hum Tum' is yet another effort in this direction. Overall, I would recommend 'Hum Tum' with a few words of caution. Enjoy it as any other comedy, but don't get carried away by all the hype it has been generating. Else you are going to be one among the several disappointed viewers, myself included. A one time watch, possibly.

--damo--