[amazon_link id=”B005TFFLSM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]
[/amazon_link]Rating : 3/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 45 minutes
Director : Pankaj Kapoor
Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Anupam Kher, Manoj Pahwa, Aditi Sharma
Kid rating : PG
MAUSAM : THE OVER-LONG TALE OF LOST LOVE !
Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Just when it looks like it might be happily ever after, she ups and leaves. No explanations provided. As their paths cross 7 years later, and it looks like they may yet re-unite, another tragedy befalls them. Will this star-crossed love ever have a happy ending ?
That’s the story in a nutshell – true love cast asunder because of this evil world! This is a true-blue romance, more blue than true, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The film is languorously directed, with veteran actor-turned-director Pankaj Kapoor taking his time to develop the romance, filling us in on the characters, their setting and their quirks. Mausam starts off well enough, but starts to go downhill post-intermission when Kapoor foists upon us his version of pyar – old-fashioned, and seriously chronologically challenged.
Shahid plays Harry or Harinder Singh, the self-assured, Punjabi brat from village Mallukot, who falls in love with village newcomer Aayat (Sonam). Kashmiri Aayat is seeking temporary refuge with bua (father’s sister) Fatima (Supriya Pathak), as her father attempts to relocate out of Kashmir. For both Harry and Aayat, this is the love of a life-time, the kinds that legends are made of.
So yes, it is a simmering love-fest, coy glances, lazy smiles, stolen glances; in short, the works. And it works well as a romantic film, except . . . when it tries to do more than just romance. The film’s initial love-story, pre-intermission, is situated in the early 1990’s. Post-intermission, the film throws in elements of patriotism and heroism, and the romance is pushed onto the back-burner.
This is a clean film and boasts some great acting and sizzling star-power. All that potential however comes to naught as the film meanders all over the place. It is over-long, and could have been cut by at least an hour – where was the editor ? There’s lots of screen-time given to unimportant details like the entire Air-Force Mission, and the film plods along, dragging it’s feet. Then there’s the hero Harry, who’s a little callous and a bit of a cad – not very endearing. Plus am a little disappointed that director Pankaj Kapoor, with his NSD sensibilities, cannot rise above the obvious clichés (the child-rescue sequence at the finale), and the poor, lets-poke-fun-at-the-fat-guy, humor.
Still, the biggest flaw in the film is the (lack of) logic; it creates a mountain out of a molehill. The separated lovers need not really be separated, moi thinks. Love is so much more palatable with a little common sense; one wonders why the madly-in-love pair, when separated, aren’t a bit more persistent with the phone calling. This could have worked had it been situated pre-partition, when we could have railed at this heartless, unconnected world wreaking havoc on our innocent hero-heroine. But having lived through the 1990s in India, I have to say that the 1990s were not the dark ages; there were phones even in small towns, and the internet was making communication easier. So to believe that Aayat leaves Harry high and dry, and doesn’t attempt to connect with her one, true love for seven years is stretching it a bit too far.
There is something vastly appealing about the flame of love burning true year, after year. To know that there is that one special person for whom you could wait a lifetime; that’s the juice of pure romance, around which unforgettable love-legends are born. Pankaj Kapoor taps this emotion well, and gives some us very nicely done romantic sequences. How I wish that he had stuck to this one genre, instead of making this film a melting-pot of all others!
This is decent as a dvd watch; only keep the fast-forward button handy.
Kidwise : Mostly clean, one lip-lock and some images of communal violence (Godhra etc.)
