Review : Rules – pyar ka superhit formula

This is a new director debut, and Parvati Balagopalan makes the most of it. Very nicely crafted, this modern-day love story, doesn’t really adhere to the wait-n-watch approach of slow-paced love, but still is a treat. Adding to the charm and general bonhomie, are debut actress Meera Vasudevan as the perky Radha and model Milind Soman as what else – model Vikram Verma.

OK, so we have assistant photographer Radha, silently salivating over model Vikram Verma. Of course Vikram, who already has a girlfriend (Namrata Barua as the perpetually pouting Maggie) is totally unaware of her presence. Hence, Radha is sad and distracted, and silently sighs, and sighs, and sighs… until her sprightly grandmother (Tanuja in an endearing role) notices, and offers her a solution for the problem.

Her solution consists of Radha’s application of 5 rules, with Nirvana i.e.; Vikram’s undying love as the ultimate goal. Radha agrees, of course (duh !). Begin application. End application. Goal achieved ? Watch and find out.

Direction is slick. I particularly liked the “involve the viewer” technique Ms.Balagopalan uses. It consists of little snippets where one of the characters in the film, sort of speaks to the audience – almost like an aside, giving viewers some inside knowledge. For example, Radha’s Nani cooking food (naiappam ??) and talking to the viewer about Radha’s obsession with Vikram. Also, Meera acts well , and comes across as a “real” girl with a natural figure, not one of the unnaturally thin heroines of current hindi cinema.

Tanuja of course takes the cake for her performance as Radha’s loving, young-at-heart Nani. The icing on the cake – Milind Soman looks gorgeous (as usual) and acts pretty adequately actually. There are a few minor characters played by some familiar people – like Pari of “Jassi Jaisi Koi nahin” fame.

And music by Shandilya is fabulous; melodious, with great bits of instrumental music (the veena ?). He’s done a great job of creating a sort of fusion, earthy tradional sounds mixed with modern pop. “Chodo na mujhe” sung by Kunal Ganjawala is a catchy tune. Singer Sanjeevani (her of the soft, sweet, little girl voice) makes a mini-comeback with the song “Uljhano ko de diya hai”, an absolutely beautiful, catch-my-breath number.

Definitely a must-see film.