Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Pyaar ke Side Effects

Imagine a love story with every cliché possible, every predictable twist and turn but it still manages to make you laugh…and in some parts makes you laugh very loudly. I went into this movie with very low expectations and came out with the movie having delivered a notch above.

Sid (Rahul Bose), is a DJ who meets Trisha (Mallika Sherawat) when he is playing songs at her wedding in Delhi and she is contemplating running away. Six months later they meet again, now in Mumbai. They meet some more… they fall in love ! When Trisha proposes marriage after three years, Sid is not quite ready – they then break up, patch up, break up again etc. On Trisha’s side, we have the typical over-protective father, another typical over-protective best friend and as the side love interest, the guy who she was going to get married to but ran away (at least this was something different). Sid, on his corner, has Ranvir Sheorey as a Rhys Ifans (Spike, Hugh Grant's roomie in Notting Hill) style best friend who never bathes / changes underwear, an understanding brother in law / sister, and as his love interest, the wonderfully voluptuous star (Sophie Choudhary) of the album Baby Doll Volume 3 (doesn’t leave much to the imagination, does it ?).

As you’ve guessed, the plot is not really the strong point of the movie. What is great is the style of the movie – its shot in a partly demo style, where Rahul frequently talks to the camera in the middle of scenes, kind of lecturing on what is happening, usually about the side effects of pyaar, engagement, breaking up etc. What is also very good is the honesty of the movie – no topic is taboo, they go and make fun of topics which previously were kind of off-limits (there is a full discussion around bra-straps and why they are so complicated to open for men, there is another conversation between Rahul and his Mr Big). And finally, the jokes are brilliant…I think some of them are lifted from English movies, but no worries because they have indianised them beautifully. We have Mallika’s refreshing take on what makes Delhi women different from Mumbai ones (and around the whole Mumbai vs Delhi thing in general). We have this other discussion around why marriage is not good for men, proof being that no superhero is married (I swear I’ve heard this before, but can’t remember where – in any case its so wonderfully indianised that you’ll laugh out aloud anyways !)

This is the first movie I saw of Mallika’s and I was really pleasantly surprised. I think casting Rahul Bose opposite her was a mistake – he came across as quite wooden, his dialogue delivery is quite stiff, Hindi a bit accented, definitely not as spontaneous as Mallika. Ranvir Sheorey was brilliant again as the best friend, Aamir Bashir was a very believable brother in law, Sophie Choudhary was a very believable Baby Doll Vol3.

So, put the kids to sleep and go enjoy…not one movie that you’re going to see many times or buy the DVD but definitely worth a look-see…

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