Tum Mile

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 13th Nov, 2009
Time : 132 minutes
Director : Kunal Deshmukh; Writer : Ankur Tiwari; Music : Pritam
Starring : Emraan Hashmi, Soha Ali Khan, Sachin Khedekar, Mantra
One of India’s few ‘disaster’ movies, the only other ones I could think of were oldies like ‘The Burning Train’ & ‘Kala Pathar'. This one combines a love story, the chance meeting again between two old flames, Emraan and Soha, caught in the turbulence of the Mumbai downpour of 2005, when for a couple of days it seemed like the heavens opened up and the city drowned


I really liked the way they wove both the stories in literally within the first few frames, and then through repeated flashbacks intercut with the present kept us engrossed to whats happening on the screen. The dark grey skies of Mumbai are also contrasted cleverly with the sunny blue cheerful skies of Cape Town (where most of the romance is shown) to ensure we don’t feel too weighed in by the darkness. The music is nice, the title song in particular v hummable. We’re spared item numbers and no song stops the story, but actually progress it.


The water scenes, mostly second half, were well shot. Couple of good shots, showcased in the promos, of the special effects, which show the city grinding to a standstill. The second half dragged a bit, especially the love story. When one of the characters, Emraan in this case, is shown to be introspective, its never really clear what he’s thinking and why the relationship is bothering him. It was kind of inevitable that the couple was heading to a breakup and could’ve got there, perhaps, with a few frames to spare.


Also, in terms of the ‘disaster’ angle, they exaggerated it as far as they could – buses toppling over, raging currents on a street, a wall breaking down – but they obviously couldn’t provide a spectacle that wowed you…a big moment that took your breath away (like the destruction of Empire State building in Armageddon). A disaster of scale is required also for the lead pair to discover something about themselves that was not known before and that was lacking. The night of the rains passes all too quickly and it seems life will revert back to normal equally quickly.


Soha & Emraan look good together, Cape Town looking as lovely as always and a friend, Mantra, keeps us smiling with his one-liners. Its worth a one time watch, as at least its attempting something different, a genre rarely explored by the industry.