Don't say Namastey to this movie!. Review on Namastey London

The most important lesson that can be learned after watching NAMASTEY LONDON is that one person whose reviews should never be trusted is Taran Adarsh. This so called “critic” rated NAMASTEY LONDON extremely highly, making his readers feel as if this is the best movie in recent times. Unfortunately, to be the judge yourself, you have to pay for an expensive ticket and sit through around 2 and a half hours of unrealistic, outdated Indian Nationalism and anti-British sentiments.

After I paid for the ticket as well as wasting 2 and a half hours of my precious time, I realized NAMASTEY LONDON was not highly rated, but overrated by Taran Adarsh. Of course, some other sensible critics had convinced me to have lower expectations than what Taran’s poor review had generated. Besides, after giving KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA a four-star review, Taran Adarsh had confirmed a long while ago that his days as one of the country’s most trusted critics are over. In fact he is now going towards the opposite direction and might as well end up being one of the most hard-to-trust critics the industry has produced.

Now that Taran has been criticized enough, let’s move on to others who deserve to be criticized for making such a misleading and unentertaining movie. Vipul Shah, who delivered a fine movie in WAQT, is unfortunately the one who is going to get most of the blame. His direction as well as the story he is in charge of sounds the most desperate attack at British people till date. As if LAGAAN wasn’t enough to show Indian superiority over British in cricket, the team of NAMASTEY LONDON tries very hard to show the Indian “superiority” over British in almost every other area. Sorry, but this is hard to take because there are a lot of Bollywood fans in England and the rest of the UK who understand and actually are educated enough to know that racial prejudice and a troubled lifestyle does not exist in the UK in a way as big as NAMASTEY LONDON shows.

I will not give a detailed version of the story here to avoid spoilers. But I will point out a few scenarios that send out the message. For example, it is understandable that Akshay’s character is that of a man from Punjab and it is thus hard for him to adjust to the British society and its traditions. But it seems that he is the one who is most confident about his stay in England. Jasmeet aka Jazz (Katrina Kaif) who considers herself completely British in the very beginning of the movie struggles to show that she is at home in London and rather feels the need of a Punjabi guy who is new in the country to confidently speak in front of her own city’s residents. Wow!

Also, we have Imran Khan (Upen Patel) who is extremely confused about his English nationality. At one point you see him having all British friends and being completely comfortable with being a Pakistani-born English International. A few scenes later you see him leave all his British friends and join the Rugby team from the subcontinent, which comprises of people he hates to associate himself with earlier on in the movie. Why this change all of a sudden? I mean British society isn’t that rude! Otherwise how come people like Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar, Owais Shah, Usmaan Afzaal, and Vikram Solanki continue to play for England with great pride and comfort? They never feel the need to leave their country all of a sudden and start playing for Pakistan or India.

I am sure my readers are getting my point and understanding that the attempt to show the British people as “racists” is totally wrong. If “Big Brother” earlier this year inspired this, then I am feel sad for the makers because they took one person’s attitude and applied it to the entire nation of England. To reiterate, this is very sad but it is true! In fact to think of it in another way, won’t the people from subcontinent have negative feelings towards a foreign person who decides to play a major part in their nation? Take the example of Greg Chapell in India: he is criticized all the time for being foreign and having a non-Indian approach. At least Indians and Pakistanis abroad do not face such public humiliation for being from the subcontinent. Shouldn’t Vipul Shah and his team understand these issues and then decide what works in the 21st century? I mean LAGAAN worked because it was a period film and showed rightly the situation at that time. NAMASTEY LONDON does NOT work because it is a modern day film that hardly reflects modern day situations.

My review at this point seems to be one that is analyzing the movie’s storyline and content for being unrealistic. For a complete review, however, it is important that the presentation also be reviewed. And it has to be said that the presentation in a way manages to help NAMASTEY LONDON a bit. The camerawork from almost an entirely British team is very good and one is surprised how those people agreed to be a part of this movie considering their presentation was so much superior to the story they may have heard. Himesh Reshammiya’s music is perhaps the best part of the movie. Tracks like “Yehi Hota Pyaar Hai Kya”, “Rafta Rafta”, "Main Jahaan Rahoon", and “Viraaniya” make up for one of the best soundtracks in recent times.

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