Salaam-e-Ishq: go see it even if you've never seen a Bollywood movie before!

[dangermousie]

I am in love. The kind of love where you want to grab your friends (and sometimes even unlucky acquaintances) and tell them about how great this movie you just saw was, and try to talk them into seeing it with you, and sort of make little collages in your head and hunt youtube for music clips.

Total, giddy, ‘this is why I love Bollywood’ love.

I don't remember the last time that time flew by so fast at the movies (even some movies which are better than SeI). Me and smartylibrarian looked at each other during intermission and went 'already?' and the same feeling was there at the end of the movie. This movie had crazy pace by Bollywood standards because even though it was so long, it had all those stories. I actually loved the switches between the stories as not only did it keep each story from being too drawn out (I don't think any of them could have sustained a three hour movie) but it kept one from being bogged down in one emotion. 'Had a bit of the angst with John and Vidya? Well, don't get antsy, here is some cross-cultural comedy and sweetness with Govinda and Shannon or madcap swoony screwball with Salman and Priyanka.'

This movie didn't have to work hard to be better than Love Actually for me (I am one of ten people on the world who doesn't care for LA) but this actually was about 17 times better. I loved it and plan to see it again.


To start on the most shallow observation (hey, anyone doubts I am a fangirl?). Oh. MY. GUH. This might just be one of the prettiest movies made. Dhoom 2 had nothing on it as it had Hrithik, Ash and Bips as the only gorgeous people. This movie would make a monk dizzy with all the color and beauty (of either gender). And on that note, SALMAN. When we first saw him at the airport, I am afraid I might have been a bit less than ladylike. The man looks gorgeous. I actually find him more attractive now than I do a few years back (good movies might help) and a rare thing, I loved every outfit he wore. And, OMG, so hot. Every time he'd appear, being all hot and with chemistry with Priyanka and teasing, I'd be 'I so should have made a fantasy boyfriend, dammit.' And at the end, when the camera pans to him up there on the second floor in that suit? GUUUUUUUUUUH. If I had to pick between a career or a husband that hot, at least I can see how this is a reasonable choice.

And speaking of hot husbands? JOHN ABRAHAM. Who providentially removes his shirt mere minutes into the movie. And gets to run angstily (because of his wife) and cry prettily and just be quiet and devastated and charming. He is one of those people I sort of always have to blink a bit when I see them because I am going 'my eyes couldn't be right?' Glad to see he can actually play a romantic hero and not just stand like a tree as in Baabul.

But, you ask, nice, beefcake and cheesecake, or their politically correct versions. How about the story? You mean there was one? Kidding. Kidding. I loved it. Seeing SeI made me realize that most of the good parts of KHNH were Nikhil and most of the parts that annoyed me were Karan's.

I adored the costumes and the musical numbers made me want to dance. The only musical number that I didn’t care for was the one with Anjali in the studio but that is because I found the whole Anil Kapoor’s midlife crisis story the least interesting of the bunch. I really wish they kept the cut out song instead (yes, I know, the Anil Kapoor one was necessary for the story, but a girl can dream).

When I try to pick which story I like best, I am torn between Salman and Priyanka’s magically madcap one, or John and Vidya’s angsty one or Govinda and Shannon’s totally charming one (though if I had to pick a favorite character, it will be Govinda’s).

I am going to break it down by story because I think that makes the most sense.

Salman and Priyanka



I adored Salman and Priyanka’s story. I loved how they were the ones that had the brightest, more saturated colors, not just because theirs was the craziest, most Bollywood story, but because Priyanka’s diva simply wouldn’t have allowed otherwise ;)

I know some people at BollyWHAT commented that she overacted in the beginning but I thought she was pitch perfect. Kkamini is almost cartoonish. In other words, she is totally a diva, everything a drama, everything over the top. I found her delightful. I find Priyanka very uneven. I like her in some movies (Karam), get bored by her in others (Don). Here, I thought she was wonderful. She was this loud, brash, scheming heroine straight out of a 1930s screwball comedy, but she wasn’t shrill or unlikable. She wanted to get ahead but not in an unappealing fashion. I thought she was a darling.

Someone said that they thought Salman and Priyanka came across as old style Hollywood movie stars, and I agree. Part of the reason really was, for me, because they reminded me of the old school screwball comedies, with the zany but impeccably elegant heros and heroines making absurd look sexy.

And that brings me to Salman. Sometimes, you have a well-written, incredibly nuanced role that showcases an actor’s acting chops. And sometimes you have a role that drags you in, and makes you not want to take the eyes off the character through sheer power of the star magnetism. Hrithik’s Aryan in D2 was one such example (he took a character who was so underwritten as to almost not be written at all and made him work brilliantly) and I think Salman’s Rahul is another. I admit, I am biased. Every time the man came on screen, I did feel like drooling a little ;D But he did make Rahul so charming, sort of with a devilish twinkle, so appealing, that I could definitely see why Kkamini got pulled in.

He and Priyanka had sizzling chemistry and I also like that even though he was madly in love with her for years, there was nothing weepy or maudlin about their interactions. He wasn’t about to have her walk all over him in her stilettos. Part of the reason she fell for him wasn’t just that he really loved her, but because he made her life fun and unpredictable and a give and take of teasing games. And I really liked that he left the choice up to her. He laid the options out for her, but he didn’t push her. Which is just as well as otherwise she would have always felt that regret at the back of her mind.

And how much do I love that it’s she who finally proposed to him. Wearing white for real by the end, just as at the beginning at the press conference she wore it for show. And she kneels to him just as he kneeled earlier and this time when she does it, he kneels with her.

Other things I loved? So many delicious Bollywood digs, from Salman’s very name, Rahul (finally, he got to be Rahul for once! Heee) to the digs at everything from the Andaz Apna Apna reference (with the Amar-Prem reporters) to Don and Mohabattein (now if there ever WAS a movie that made me feel every minute of its four hours it was Mohabattein).

And I loved the scene where he finally proves to her that he really knows her, the real her, not the image she presents. But I love how he is never really pushy about his love (aside from the fact of showing in the first place). I was also really amused by Priyanka waking up in Trafalgar Square, looking all happy and stretchy and flashing back to Salman at the dance, and seriously doing the equivalent of a cat licking her whiskers. Heh. And that is just from dancing with him? My mind went all sorts of places…

And to conclude as shallowly as I started, Salman can be my imaginary boyfriend any time.

John and Vidya



Oh, my angsty gorgeous darlings. Now, I am sure you know this, but the one thing I enjoy as much as Bollywood are Korean dramas. So when I realized that this story was like having a Korean drama in the middle of a Bollywood movie with John Abraham being the lead, well, if I celebrated Christmas, I’d say it was as if Christmas finally came.

YUM.

I’ve seen that some people didn’t care for the ‘hate her for me’ scene, but I love love LOVE angsty melodrama and I ate that scene and the scenes of his replaying the proposal video and running to find her (John Abraham. Running. In slomo. For love. Thank you, Nikil!) with a big slurpalicious spoon.

In some ways, their love felt both the strongest and most real. Yes, amnesia is not particularly common but the issue of being there for a loved one after a crippling accident and trying to nurse them back, and loving them constantly despite the new hardship? Common enough.

I both loved it and it broke my heart that Vidya seems to have never recovered her memory. It made sense that she wouldn’t, and I was glad they got to build a new life together, but it must have been incredibly hard for JA’s character to deal with this, to know all these things were gone forever. It might be very romantic to make your wife fall in love with you for the second time, but also very sad. So I find their ultimate fate (the mirror scene at the end with her closing his mouth and him mumbling ‘I love you’ reflexively, and the anniversary celebration) both incredibly sweet and yet leaving me on the verge of tears (yes, I cry easily, why do you ask?)

I thought John and Vidya had amazing chemistry together (I would love to see another movie with the two of them) and the decision to do their story non-linearly really really helped, because by contrasting what they had before you both understood why he loved her so much as to be so desperate to find her and to heal her, and also the extent of what they lost.

I think the scene at the end, where she tells him she wants to go home to her parents, to not be with him, and he wins her back is probably my favorite one in the movie. I was sticking my shawl (it’s freezing where I am) to my mouth and doing the gulpy-sobby noises which are the lot of an easily moved Bollyholic like me. But the thing that perhaps moved me the most wasn’t even his amazing speech to her *melt* or the hug they shared at the end. I love it when she kisses his cheek, the first voluntary move she made to physically be in contact with him, to touch him, such a contrast to her shutting the door to change (which is in itself a contrast to their earlier joyful invasion of each other’s personal space). What I love is her trying to dial her father and not remembering the number and his dialing it for her, because I really think it sums up everything about his character: he really loves her more than anything, more than himself or what he wants.

I really loved Vidya in this one. I am biased because she is probably my favorite working actress today (unless Kajol really comes back for good, in which case I am afraid she’d have to move to second place) but the contrast between her vibrant, confident pre-accident self and the muted uncertain woman of the post-accident is striking. I really understood her dilemma and her panic at being with John (though if I woke up with no memory next to a guy who looked like John Abraham, my reaction is more likely to be ‘I have no idea who you are, but THANK YOU LORD.’). Because not only did being with him put pressure on her to remember, thus making her feel inadequate when she couldn’t, but it also made her face the fact that she was constantly hurting him through her failure (and that would go with that Bollywood notion of the fact that even though she lost her memory, her heart still loved him). That is why his saying that it didn’t matter if she couldn’t remember and they could start from scratch was so important. Because it removed those burdens from her.

What else?

I really loved the fact that here they married despite the parental disapproval and yet were not diminished. They had a blissfully happy marriage. They didn’t go along with just what the parents wanted (something that I wonder if it’s Nikil’s elaboration of the KHNH notion of marriage to please others the way Preity’s character did). Govinda brings it up after all, as well, when he tells Stephanie that if her boyfriend was any kind of a man, he wouldn’t have gone with his parents’ plans to marry him off to someone else.

But yes, the scene with his parents is awful and his father is a horrible man. His comment on finding out Tehzeeb lost her memory is to say thanks because it means that Ashu can now remedy his mistake. As Tehzeeb is standing right there and his son is clearly falling apart in front of his eyes. Ugh. But I was glad that there was a parent who didn’t relent. I really don’t like magical plot-contrived transformations of nasty parents at the last minute. Ishq, I am looking at you.

I also loved the scene where John was looking at body after body in the morgue, trying to identify Vidya. Even though I knew she wasn’t going to be among the dead, it really gave me a lump in my throat. Oh, and his climbing next to her in the hospital bed? I totally LIVE for this emo stuff. So yeah, this story was wonderful.

Govinda and Shannon



Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. Prior to this movie, I have never seen a Govinda flick. I’ve seen about ten minutes worth of Govinda clips and through that and a sort of Bollywhat osmosis assumed he was a horrible, pudgy, untalented lug, whose popularity was one of those inexplicable things.

Well, I am glad to admit I had to eat a really huge slice of humble pie after about a minute after his character showed up. I LOVED HIM. In fact, if I had to pick a favorite character, a favorite track, it would be his.

Yes, I don’t think he has the chiseled hotness of John or the sheer sex appeal of Salman. But I don’t care! I liked the fact that he is attractive enough but very ordinary: a bit chubby, a bit rumpled. He is a taxiwalla, not a mysterious charmer a la Rahul or angsty star-crossed lover (a yuppie news studio worker) a la Ashu.

He was funny, he was sweet, he was incredibly charming and he was (yes, I am not afraid to admit it), sexy. I could definitely see why Stephanie fell for him. In fact, if I were in her shoes, I would have fallen for him much sooner. I loved that he was a bit of an unworldly, cheerful dreamer as it made both his dream girl thing and his interactions so much more adorable and believable.

I loved all the clever visual tricks and gags, like the time he first sees Stephanie (OMG, the Hare Krishnas! The political party people! Heeeee). I loved their interactions which somehow really made me feel that they were getting closer despite the language barrier. I loved the fact that Stephanie, while pretty, was also not a stunner but an average looking American girl. I loved that she was stressed but not portrayed as neurotic or a bimbo or an idiot. The movie wasn’t superior over her ignorance of Hindi or the proper customs any more than it was superior over Raju’s lack of English or fine education. In fact, the movie was incredibly sweet to them.

You know another thing I found interesting? Govinda might have been the one fantasizing about the blonde dream girl, but he is the one who sees Stephanie as a person, the one who falls in love with her (he takes her to Rohit, goes all over, even though there is nothing in it for him, he is taking her to another man) and it’s her scum of a boyfriend who sees her only as a status thing, as the “blonde bimbo” who probably let him sleep with her but now he’ll marry a traditional girl. He only sees her for a type, not the person she is. I cheered when Govinda decked him and our theater actually applauded when Stephanie told Rohit’s parents the phrase that Raju taught her in Hindi.

I also loved the manner of their love confession. All the love confessions/climaxes were appropriate for the manner of couple they were: John and Vidya was this angsty romantic thing, Salman and Priyanka were Bollywood perfect, and Govinda and Shannon’s were this adorable, cute thing where he is saying that if he had a woman like that, he would put his hand on his heart and tell her he loved her and her asking him ‘why didn’t you say so?’ And he is startled, and there is hugging, and further adorableness. I think I about exhausted my quota of the word adorable usage for the next ten years, but I don’t care. And I love that during Akshaye and Ayesha’s ceremony, they are throwing flowers at each other. So cute. I also loved the bit earlier where she falls asleep in his taxi and accidentally puts her head on his shoulder, or watches him sleep and looks at the broken model of the Taj he fixed. Or the bit where he blurts out he loves her. In fact, there was nothing about their story I didn’t love. And now I am really interested in seeing him dance.

Akshaye and Ayesha



SO FUNNY.

Seriously, you guys. So so funny. I love how this movie really had no unlikable protagonists. Akshaye is immature, sure. And he needs to grow up. But he is a likeable guy and I think a lot of credit for this goes to Akshaye’s performance because seriously, guy who gets panic attack and tries to ditch fiancée? Not normally too charming.

But I loved his fast-talking desperation, his schemes to hire that ‘pregnant’ girl that misfired. I also loved that he realized he loved Gia almost too late and that he totally stole John Abraham’s lines because he totally would. He is a doofus and could never come up with something like this on his own. John Abraham is the resident angsty romantic. Akshaye? A fun cut-up who needs to grow up. And I loved him interrupting the annoying Rohit’s wedding (there were at least two wedding bust ups, heeeeee). And the informality of his just switching the turban really really fit with that whole story.

Sohail and Isha



I don’t really have much to say except that it was funny and silly and sweet and poor poor newlyweds. I am glad they finally got to do it, even if it was in a crowded train. Heeeeee.

Anil and Juhi



Why is this one last? Because it was the only one that really failed to grip me. It had some wonderful moments: Anil marching like one of hundreds of faceless drones in London (or the fact that all the colors are leached in his world). Anil and Priyanka’s meeting where the both clarify for themselves and each other what they could have and what they could lose. The final scene on board the plane with Anil begging Juhi’s forgiveness (yes, he’d never get on the plane, but I don’t watch Bollywood for realism. And I love that in Bollywood marriage is viewed as something to cherish. It’s a novel enough concept in Hollywood). And Anil acted incredibly well and so did Juhi (though her role was tiny and I think she was somewhat wasted). But there story was something I’ve seen a bit too often in other movies (even if not Bollywood ones) and it didn’t grab me.

In a way, S-e-I is really about a clean start, isn’t it? Sohail and Isha get a start on their marriage, in the most basic sense. John and Vidya get a clean start because of her memory loss they are forced to start anew. Anil begs and receives a new start from Juhi. And the same is true for Akshaye and Ayesha. Shannon starts anew with Govinda, moving on from her scummy boyfriend. Both Rahul and Kkamini start anew, with her coming after him this time. The slate is wiped clean and, as Oscar Wilde said in ‘The Importance of Being Ernest: ‘The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.’

Indeed. And what a fine piece of fiction it was.

Comments

[fivil.livejournal.com]

NOT looking at spoilers (until I get to see it on a pirate DVD or a pre-release DVD or *something* - can't wait!) but had to say, yay, glad you loved it. I think you enjoying it A LOT will lead to me enjoying it - at least partly, if not as a whole.

One question, as I won't risk skimming your spoilerous review.. How did you find Akshaye in this film? I had this worry because the character description sounded potentially very assholeish.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

As I said in my Akshaye write-up:


"Seriously, you guys. So so funny. I love how this movie really had no unlikable protagonists. Akshaye is immature, sure. And he needs to grow up. But he is a likeable guy and I think a lot of credit for this goes to Akshaye’s performance because seriously, guy who gets panic attack and tries to ditch fiancée? Not normally too charming."

But he really was charming and hilarious.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Duhhh, should've looked for a spoiler-free review at Bollywhat. I went and read yours and omg. You have no idea how much I want to see this now. Sounds too excellent a Bollywood film, with the excessive romance and so much comedy and fun and many plots and yeah. Gimme! Gimme!

Ah well. I'll comfort myself by rewatching D2 songs.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really hope you like! It does have 6 stories so if one doesn't appeal, at least some of the others might.

I am kinda obsessed, almost Fanaa level. I seriously want to write fic. Because if you know me, you'd know that the John Vidya story? Pushes. Every. Single. One. Of. My. Buttons.

Though the Govinda one is still the best.

[srkfanatic.livejournal.com]

I wish I would have loved it as much as you did. I was really looking forward to it, and was very disappointed.

But I'm glad you loved it so much. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw you didn't care for it. I am sorry. I know how much it sucks to really look forward to a movie and then have to be a wreck (I had that with Umrao Jaan).

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I had mixed feelings about this movie but your write up sent all my doubts to rest. I will definitely try to get ahold on this movie ASAP :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I hope you like! I know people have mixed reactions to it. But the thing is, with six stories, some of it at least has to appeal, right?

It's also one of the most sumptuous prettiest movies I've seen in a long time.

And seriously, John Abraham doing kdrama? So worth the ticket price.

[ch1pper.livejournal.com]

I'm not a Bollywood watcher but I thought of you when Colbert weighed in on the spat between two Bollywood stars on "We the MEdiator". It was the night when Bill O'Reilly guested. Awesome!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh. I saw that. Was hilarious!