Review : Hum-tum

This is a Yashraj film production, so WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Lavish locales, beautiful landscapes, and the rich people, hobnobbing on planes, in Paris, New York, Amsterdam … You name it, we got it. Besides that you get Rhea Prakash (Rani) and Karan Kapoor (Saif), two arty profesionals (he a cartoonist and she a fashion designer), with not one brain cell between them. You get Mrs.Anu Kapoor (Rati Agnihotri looking quite beautiful) a wedding coordinator, who has separated from Mr. Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor). And lest I forget, you get these cheesy cartoon characters, one male and the other female (hum-tum – you get it ? Tum in a very short skirt by the way). And really, I mean cheesy (pun intended) ; they reminded me of those cartoon characters in the Amul butter/cheese ads. The story is flimsy, weak but here it is.

Karan and Rhea meet up on a plane, because they happen to be sitting next to each other. For the rest of the journey, they proceed to act like imbeciles and annoy the hell out of each other. Then they get down at a stop-over in Amsterdam, conveniently ditch Karan’s mom and friend who are also on the plane, sing a song, and discuss the physics of male-female chemistry, i.e.; the age old question : What do men/women want from each other ? It ends badly, with Karan kissing Rani to prove a point, and Rani getting upset and slapping him in return. What to do, we are like this only.

Anyway, they part. Only to meet-up again in a New York park. Karan has a girlfriend in tow, but she promptly splits up with him, once Rhea reveals the Amsterdam kiss. So they part again. And …you guessed it, meet-up in Delhi on the occassion of Rhea’s wedding, which Karan’s mom is coordinating. Cut to song sequence, where Rhea pseudo bullies Karan. Anyway, Rhea marries the suave Abhishek Bachhan, who apparently loves her very much.

So, let’s see, the next time the daffy duo meet, its in Paris. Rhea is now widowed, runs a boutique, dresses very chic, and carries an aura of sadness around her. Our good-hearted and altruistic Karan, tries to mend her broken heart, but to almost no avail. Next, he tries to fix her up, with his friend Mihir (Jimmy Shergill), but that doesn’t work.

So, what does happen with Karan and Rhea ? Are they able to find happiness ? OK, no spoilers people, I’ll leave you to guess the happy ending (oh, yeah, and some thinking that’ll take).

The movie is average, direction is good. The cast does a good job. Rani is too good an actress to let a role like this mess her up. And of course, Saif is the consummate joker, so he fits the bill perfectly. Kiron Kher as Rani’s hyper mom, and Rati as Saif’s are adequate. Shergill as Mihir plays his part well. So, what actually was wrong with the film ? The story – very weak, and the inane girl-boy dialogues, which would be better coming from a teenager, rather that two “grown-up” professionals. Honestly, I would have loved this movie, had I been under 21 (Aah, well, that’s spilt milk). All in all a teeny-bopper film, aka juvenile fare. Also a big let-down from ex-film-critic Kunal Kohli.