If you want to see an original movie from Bollywood ´with a never seen before script´, I am afraid you have to see Mother India, Garam Hawa or in the recent past ´Lagaan´. Even Sholay and Dil Chahta Hai  had inspirations. With that in mind lets see what Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai has to offer. Presumably a lot, since it is coming straight after the success of Tum Bin.

Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai movie explores the sensitive relationship between a father, Om Puri and his daughter, Sakshi. Om Puri is very over protective and believes that a ´Mr. Right´ for his daughter is almost impossible to find and takes that as an excuse to postpone her marriage for as long as he can. Enter suspended cop Priyanshu Chatterjee, who is in Canada to make amends for a goof up back home. He and Saakshi predictably fall in love. After this, the one up man ship starts to replete with hilarious situations. The humor especially in the first half, is crackling. It refrains from being over the top stuff nor is it the pedestrian ´banana peel slipping´ stuff.

In the second half, the movie takes a more serious turn and the fair sex may even shed a tear or two especially in the pre-marriage scene where Priyanshu reveals the truth about himself and the family severs all ties with him. 

Needless to say Om Puri is flawless in a role Anubhav had originally written with Amitabh in mind. For once Big B will not be missed much. Farida Jalal and Manoj Pahwa are good and Sakshi is reasonable in her debut. Arundhati and Virendra Saxena are all right.  Priyanshu is brilliant, quite in contrast to his restrained character in Tum Bin. He shows his complete range as an actor, but he has to just work on his dancing to give sleepless nights to his contemporary actors. Nevertheless, his ´Spy Vs Spy´ type confrontation scenes with Om Puri are excellent.

Nikhil Vinay´s music along with the song picturizations are beautiful and definitely serve as a plus point for the film. Remo´s choreography, especially for "Dil Gaya Kaam Se" is great. The humorous dialogues by Anubhav (which are like the ones we use every day) are witty. The photography by Vijay Arora especially in Calgary and other parts of Canada are a visual treat. And last but not the least Anubhav´s brilliant direction makes a neat little entertainment package which the families and others will enjoy.

On the other hand, the second half has to be pruned a bit especially the emotional scenes and the movie has too many songs. The screenplay by Dabral could have been better. Navneet Nishan for once disappoints.

The movie has a reasonable budget of around 5.5 crore and has an average distribution price of round 65 lakhs/territory and even one good week followed by a reasonable week and the movie will go through as a success. Overall, the film itself is time pass entertainment worth a watch for its beautiful music and decent execution.