Salaam-e-Ishq: Tell-tale love?

Not that I am going to write off the movie now, but I liked Salaam-e-Ishq better when I watched it first—before I slept over it. The hangover continued for the rest of the day after I walked out of the morning show. Imagine walking into the theatre early morning rubbing your eyes, just to find an unusually full house on the first show of the first day. I would’ve preferred quieter company. But right after the opening scene, Adnan Sami’s lazily romantic version of the title track, Dil Kya Kare, stuck into my half-awake mind for the rest of the movie. So much so, that I sat through the three hours and half without complaining.

Then of course, there was good old John Abraham to gorge the eyes upon, alongside Vidya Balan, Salmaan Khan and Priyanka Chopra—and that defines only half the line-up of stars. The larger their number, the smaller their roles.

Now, Valentine’s Day may still be far off and love may not really be in the air, but it is definitely all over this movie. Director Nikhil Advani’s fascination with love stories has led him to string together not one or two, but six different love tales in one movie: Salaam-e-Ishq as different phases of love.

Nikhil’s second directorial venture after Kal Ho Na Ho, Salaam-e-Ishq is well-directed, the treatment being uncomplicated despite a large number of characters. But unfortunate editing makes the movie lose its track too often. The stories are many, but seem to be half-told on occasions. Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is one of the high points of the movie.

The movie opens with the story of central pair of Ashutosh-Tehzeeb (John Abraham-Vidya Balan) and proceeds to build the other plots around their story, with love as the integrating factor. The couple is the one that involves, while the rest of the stories are simply those you have seen in various movies earlier- a marriage on the verge of breaking, a husband bored with his perfect married life, pre-nuptial jitters of a groom-to-be, a woman looking for her lost love- and realisation dawning on all in the end. The movie makes an impressive opening, slightly slows down somewhere in the middle and picks up again later. The movie measures a little over three and half hours, and a little pruning here and there could have done no harm.

As Nikhil had said, there is comedy and yes, there is lots of romance in the movie. Govinda’s humour isn’t as loud as he was in Bhagam Bhag, and the love-struck cab driver taking a phoren madam around the country to find her lover, comes across as a mix of Raja Hindustani and Rang de Basanti’s DJ. The Isha Koppikar-Sohail Khan thread is purely comic, and could have easily been done away with.

Also making an appearance are Salmaan Khan and Priyanka Chopra (Rahul-Kkamini), with Priyanka humorously parodying the Bollywood bimbette looking for stardom. “From item queen to tragedy queen,” she proclaims as she prances around. We also get to hear Advani’s friend and mentor - Karan Johar’s voice in the backdrop as he makes calls to Priyanka offering film roles.

Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla, Akshaye Khanna-Ayesha Takia and Govinda-Shannon Esrechowitz represent the rest of the love-struck couples.

All said and done, Salaam-e-Ishq could turn out to be the hit that Box Office has been waiting for after Dhoom 2.

Guru bhai- The New Revolution?

Little Bachchan is again walking into the footsteps of his father. He puts on the accent, the countenance and the attire. The concoction works, though he has treaded the line toeing away from Big B often over an array of movies, including the latest Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2, not finding too much success. Appearing for the second time in a Mani Ratnam movie (after Yuva), Abhishek portrays one of the most convincing characters of his career.

As for Mani Ratnam, long after Yuva, he strikes Bollywood again with Guru, a veiled biography of India’s foremost entrepreneur who displayed a spectacular rise in a short span of time. Though such life stories haven’t generated much interest in the audience in the past, Mani’s style of storytelling is perfect - with impressive cinematography by Rajiv Menon, music by A R Rahman and wonderful lyrics by Gulzar.

Guru- the rags to riches story of Gurukant Desai is based on the story of Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani, though that fact doesn’t find mention anywhere. Like Gurubhai in the film, Dhirubhai came from a small village in Gujarat, was a person of humble means who started from scratch; he was the son of a schoolteacher, worked at an oil-filling station for Shell and created a business out of polyester on returning to India. He is also finally struck by a paralytic stroke while he tries to battle legal hassles over his business.



Wherever there is success, there are detractors. The press questions Guru’s success, his rivals- who have taken decades to achieve what he did in a few years- try to buy him, and then there is the judiciary, with charges against his business. The last sequence is a bit unconvincing, with Guru delivering a monologue in front of the jury, justifying his working style. That wasn’t really needed, since only two of the charges levelled against him are proved true. For the rest of the movie, Guru subtly shows shades of gray, being the staunch businessman- marrying for money, partnering for money and even corrupting people to achieve his business goals. He almost transforms himself into a hero in the end.

The story that centres around a single character is unconventional in its own way, despite the standard elements of romance, dance and music thrown in without disturbing the plot. That could be one reason to count if the film doesn’t attain commercial success. There have been questions about the Abhishek-Aishwarya chemistry. Those again remain unanswered, since the screenplay develops such perfect characters that the actors don’t have to strive too hard. Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty and R Madhavan are the surprise packages of the movie, presenting a bunch of talented actors together. Mallika Sherawat too does a cameo in the song Mayya Mayya.

Watch it for Mani Ratnam- if not anything else.