Salaam Namaste

Went to see Salaam Namaste in a theatre called Maharaja in the main city. Dolby stereo sound et al. Price?? An incredible 20 bucks for balcony!!! I couldnt believe my eyes.

The movie starts off quite well with the narrative building on the interactions (live and via media) between an RJ and a chef. As expected, they meet, like each other, fall in love. Then, the unthinkable happens!!! The guy asks the girl to live with him so that they can test out their compatibility. Girl agrees, they move in together, have fun, and screw all over the place. So far so good.

Then, comes the bombshell. RJ is preggers and our chef freaks out. A false abortion later, the convo leads to the usual "Where is this going?" talk. The only problem is that our chef doesnt wanna marry. Oops, wrong decision!!! RJ breaks up and continues to live with him!!! Some long drawn minutes later, chef realises his "mistake" and proposes marriage to RJ and they live happily ever after. Sniff, soooo touching!!!

The movie seems to be trying to convey a very pertinent message in today's world. It tries to show live-in relationships in a more acceptable light. However, the movie loses its track after the interval. Too many complications are introduced in the form of the RJ's friend and a blonde who befriends our chef. Even the chef's principles seem to be skewed. After resisting marriage for so long, his resolve suddenly changes when he sees the sonographic image of his unborn child!!! How's that for fickle-mindedness? And as usual, in the ending, the RJ and the chef agree to marry and live happily ever after. Acc. to me, a better ending would have been the case where the RJ rejects the chef's proposal for marriage and goes her own way. Maybe, the chef can be her child's father but, he can never be her husband. But, I guess it takes guts to make such a movie.

Performance-wise Preity Zinta is OK. Her cute looks pep up the first half, but she certainly deserves to be hidden in the second half, even if you consider the pregnancy of her character. I feel an actress like Rani Mukherji would have been a better choice for this role. Saif seems to be improving with every movie. His comic timing is perfect and you can feel his anguish in the serious confrontational scenes. However, he must take on a greater variety of roles, or he stands the risk of being typecast. The character played by Javed Jaffery is avoidable and can grate on your nerves. He tries to imitate Feroz Khan and fails miserably. He kinda reminds me of ARK!!!! And whats with Abhishek Bachchan as the bumbling doc?? Almost the entire scene seems to be copied from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.' s Rachel pregnancy!! AB jr would do better to concentrate on the more serious movies. C'mon, he has all the chicks after him, hasnt he?