End 2006 with a Romantic Comedy. Review on I See You

Say tata to 2006 with the romantic comedy I See You, the year's last movie release at the cinemas. Operating from a plot that's blatantly plagiarised from the Reese Witherspoon-Mark Ruffalo hit Just Like Heaven, director Vivek Agarwal brings to screen the story of a London television anchor Arjun Rampal, whose life takes a strange turn when he finds himself sharing his home with a young lady who is invisible to everyone else but him. She reveals she's only a spirit, and that her body is lying in a coma after a fatal accident.

So it's up to Arjun now, who's slowly falling in love with her, to make sure she comes out of that coma, and gets back into her body so he can have a normal relationship with her instead of having the world laugh at him everytime he decides to dance with her or romance her on the streets where nobody can see her. As silly as the film's premise may be, you find yourself laughing hard at those clever lines delivered delightfully by mostly Chunky Pandey who plays Arjun's hen-pecked best friend

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It's difficult not to be seduced by some of the film's lighter scenes like the one in the television studio where Arjun discovers he's being stalked by a ghost and inadvertently ends up humiliating his buxom co-anchor. Or that scene where Arjun meets Chunky's family psychiatrist Boman Irani who seems to share an uncomfortable closeness with Chunky's wife. In all honesty, it's the film's first half that keeps you well entertained, but post interval the pace slackens considerably when the tone shifts to sappy, schmaltzy romance.

Among the handful of obvious boo-boos that the screenplay throws up, is the manner in which the invisible lady is introduced in the story — lo and behold, she's just standing in his balcony one evening, and what could have been treated as a dramatic moment, just passes you by as an opportunity wasted. Also, I get that we're meant to understand this girl has changed his life for the better, but please explain why that scene where Arjun goes to the florist and breaks to her the news of her son's death? I mean, how did he even know? It's loose ends like these, which frequently show up in the film's second half that test your patience.

In the end, you have to admit, I See You has a bunch of hummable tunes by composer-duo Vishal-Shekhar, and one of the film's biggest strengths is its remarkable cinematography by Ashok Mehta who shoots working-class London like you've rarely seen it in Hindi films, complete with Covent Garden pubs and spacious Tower Bridge apartments overlooking the Thames.

Of the actors, both Chunky Pandey and the screen-scorchingly goodlooking Arjun Rampal are in very good comic form, giving the the film some of its best comic moments.

Sadly, it's newcomer Vipasha, playing the invisible lady, who gets a thumbs down because she's mostly lifeless in a part that could surely do with some energy. Also, to put it politely, a little personal grooming would have gone a long way. And will someone please do us all a favour by telling Sophie Choudhary that putting on your best pout and showing plenty cleavage does not qualify as acting. Enrol her for acting class right away please! So then that's an average rating for debutant director Vivek Agarwal's I See You, not bad for a first-time effort. At an hour and fifty minutes, it's a time-pass watch. It neither grates on your nerves, nor is it the kind of film you're likely to remember ten minutes after you've left the cinema.