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.