A burly, dark, porky-faced man approached me as I set foot inside G7 Multiplex, more famously known as Gaiety Galaxy. Flashing his pearly whi...er...yellows at me, he asked, ''Bolo...Mujhse Shaadi Karoge...bolo?!'' (Huh!)
I slowly raised my left eyebrow a la Johnny Bravo, as weird thoughts started entering my mind. A voice deep inside started whispering to me. At first, I couldn't make out what it said, but then it dawned on me, leaving me horrified. ''Kantaben...!''
I quickly moved as far away from the man as possible, when I suddenly bumped into someone.
''Congratulashins,'' said a shrill voice. I turned around to face her. No, it wasn't next-door-aunty-with-the-shrill-voice. This was her oh-so-cute daughter, whose voice remains typical of her mother though. (For those of you who can't make head or tail of what I'm talking about, read my first review...psst...nothing beats publicising your own reviews, you know!)
''...we've missed just 10 minutes of the movie already...NOW can we go please?''
We made our way into the theatre, and just as we sat down, we saw a guy who was leaning over the edge of the balcony. He was gazing at something very interesting, and in order to get a better view, leaned over a little more...and then...he fell...down...all the way down the balcony......
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RATING: **+1/2
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David Dhawan, with his fixation for the no.1, was born a mathematician. However, he forgot his math in his last outing, Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (1+1=11!), and apparently, the audience forgot to come to the theatres. In his latest offering, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, he overcomes his obsession with No.1, which is evident not only from the title, but also from the plot, which has two love-triangles! Wait a minute...did I say...''plot''? Then let me also clarify that the alleged 'plot' here is as slender as Priyanka's waistline is in the movie!
Anyways, the first triangle is between Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, while the second, which I'm sure most of you overlooked, is between Amrish Puri, his wife, and his...ahem...pet dog! I daresay that the second love-triangle proved far more convincing than the first!
Sameer (Salman Khan), a lifeguard at a 'Baywatch' style beach in Goa, falls (pun intended!) in love with Rani (Priyanka Chopra), an easy-going girl, who has the uncanny habit of changing clothes in her balcony, much to the delight of her neighbours...and the male audience! The biggest obstacle in Sameer's love-story, however, comes in the form of Sunny (Akshay Kumar), his room-mate, who's also smitten by Rani.
For the next two-and-a-half hours, logic takes a backseat, as David Dhawan introduces entertaining characters to create mayhem in Sameer and Sunny's love stories...characters like...
...the girl's stern father Amrish Puri, a retired colonel who spends more time with his pet Tommy than with his wife...
...a landlord(Kader Khan), who develops a new disability everyday...
...a guard(Satish Shah) who's put on night duty, and as a result cannot 'sleep' with his wife, and...
...a pair of crazy twins(Rajpal 'Stunted' Yadav), of which one is an astrologer, who guides Sameer with his predictions; while the other is the leader of a gang called the Eagles! One can't miss the hilarious take-off on Shahrukh here, from the film Josh.
The narration is very much like a bumpy ride on Mumbai's monsoon roads. While the movie starts off well with the Salman-beating-Amrish-Puri scenes, it really takes off with the introduction of Akshay Kumar, who comes a good 20 minutes into the film. From there on starts the game of one-upmanship, and the manner in which the two lead characters try to impress Rani, by hook, and mostly by crook, is certainly one of the high points of the film.
Post-interval, however, the movie gets caught up in mindless traffic, as the loudness starts getting on your nerves at times. And just when you get the feeling that the pranks between Salman and Akshay are gonna go on for eternity, the movie gathers pace, and races towards the highly melodramatic finale.
Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Parthiv Patel, Srinath, Kapil Dev, and Sidhu are all needlessly placed in the climax, though Sidhu lights up the scene with his Sidhuisms. ''Love is the condition of the mind, where the mind is not in condition!''. Kapil Dev impresses with his wonderful command of Punjabi-accented Hindi, and Greek-accented English!
The prankish dialogues by Rumi Jaffrey convey a certain street-wisdom. However, you are warned - don't expect any sharp and clever one-liners here. The movie is filled with corny, mindless humour, which makes you laugh not at its wit but at its downright silliness.
The film is technically very sound. Though every other film nowadays is shot in Goa or Mauritius, the cinematographer of MSK captures the places so magnificently, that they appear to be completely fresh locales! The editing, too, is crisp, though one wishes that the editor hadn't gone to sleep in the second half, which could do with 10-15 minutes chopped off.
I noticed two scenes in this movie which are taken straight from 'Meet the Parents'. One, wherein Salman breaks Amrish Puri's mother's pot of ashes. Second, wherein he spray-paints a stray dog to pass him off as Tommy dearest.
(And then Bollywood talks about controlling 'piracy'!)
The songs keep cropping up at the most unneeded places, and a couple of them could easily have been left out. The music, by Sajid Wajid is pedestrian stuff, the only saving grace being the choreography by Farah Khan. The background score is lifted from, or 'deeply inspired' by In Da Club, 50 Cent. For Jupiter's sake, couldn't Sajid-Wajid get 'inspired' by something less popular?!
The performances...
David Dhawan swaps his jodi no.1, Govinda and Sanjay Dutt, for Salman and Akshay in this film, and luckily, it pays off! The movie would not have been as entertaining if not for the camaraderie between the two lead actors.
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