Laughter is the best medicine. Review on Shaadi Se Pehle

Laughter is the best medicine. And that's exactly what Shaadi Se Pehle offers in ample doses. This feel-good entertainer has enough funny moments to give your cheekbones adequate exercise for the day.

Shaadi Se Pehle is about Ashish (Akshaye Khanna) and Rani; both hopelessly in love and set to tie the knot. Ashish is a hypochondriac and a misconstrued encounter with his doctor (Boman Irani) makes him believe that he’s got cancer. In order to bail out Rani from his own pain, Ashish decides to don a change of image so that his bride-to-be would dump him instead. He befriends the sexy Sania (Mallika Sherawat), romances her and expectedly, Rani walks out of his life.

The twist in the tale happens when Ashish discovers he doesn’t have cancer but by then, Sania is in love with him.

And he can’t back out because Sania’s brother Anna (Sunil Shetty) is an underworld don. Besides, Rani is also preparing to marry Rohit (Aftab Shivdasani). The rest of the drama is all about how Ashish overcomes the barriers and emerges triumphant with his love.

Inspired by the yesteryear hit Meri Biwi Ki Shaadi ,Shaadi Se Pehle scores high points in the treatment department. It moves at a brisk pace throughout and succeds in keeping one engrossed, giving the viewer no time to blink an eyelid. Also, there are enough surprises, which spring up at the right time, adding flavour to the proceedings. The writer has packaged enough hilarious moments to tickle the viewer's funny bone.

But the film is not without its share of flaws, the major one being the climax. The screenplay loses its grip in the climax and ends on a cliched note.

Music is strictly passable. Though the songs do sound pleasant, how one wishes the film was embellished with a hit score to compliment the racy going-ons. Dialogues stand out in this comic venture, combining well with the screenplay. Cinematography is striking.

Akshay is terrific essaying his role with elan.Ayesha enacts her part with sincerity, coming across as a fine performer. Mallika is alright, although she needs to brush up on her dialogue delivery.

Worth a watch...