Weeks and weeks of cinema pass and the genre of the directors in Bollywood becomes more and more clear. There’s quality and romance Yash Chopra. Sensitive and realistic Mahesh Manjrekar, thriller with risks Ram Gopal Varma and finally romance with entertainment Vashu Bhagnani. While that list is not exclusive to those listed, it also doesn’t mean that their projects are surefire winners all the time.
On to the story, Reena (Diya) slowly embarks on two men who will play major roles in her life. No, they don’t help her battle cancer or anything like that, but they fall in love with her. Tada! Well it’s not all about that. Menon focuses on an interesting part of humane relationships, hatred. The two men, Maddy (Madhavan) and Rajiv (Saif Ali Khan in a short and highly appreciative short role) are complete opposites. In fact they define ‘opposites’. Rajiv is the more likeable guy, in this film anyway, and Maddy is the brat-ish- I can do anything guy. Rajiv and Maddy share a common enmity, which is naturally heightened when Reena comes into the picture. Before the relationship continues Reena gets all prettied up at a shaadi celebration, looking extremely fabulous and Maddy declares his love for her. Just in time for career moves and the end of the college career. Rajiv moves on to the United States much to the dismay of Reena and much to the glee of Maddy. Reena vows to move on with her life and this includes getting engaged to a man overseas, but Maddy and papa (Anupham Kher) plan to take things in their own hands. Generally simple plot with some other minimal turn of events and lots of room for light moments and scene-stealers. Not much of that there though. Directorially, Menon does an above average job and the Puja Entertainment stamp seems to be all over the film. He has managed to tell the story and present a semi-smoothly running plot. There aren’t many Tamil residues left on the film, seeing as though it’s a remake of Menon’s own Tamil film and this is his first Hindi film, I’d say he’s done a decent job. The pace of the film is moderate. Not too excessive. Background music and the beautiful Diya Mirza make up for the almost excessive portions. Vashu Bhagnani has polished the film quite well but doesn’t score on a number of attempts.
Secondly, while the overall film is well made it does seem rushed. Back on to the music Diya Mirza is simply wonderful in “Zara Zara”. The song has already been declared a winner among the general public and her seductiveness combined with the New Zealand locales makes it the most pleasurable song in the movie. The other enjoyable song on the regular soundtrack “Sach Kehta Hai” was also well done with Madhavan impressively showing some talent amongst Johnny Lal’s cinematography. Oh yeah back to the rest of the cast. Madhavan seems quite talented as a Tamil actor and does a good job here. (How many times are we going to hear: Do the Newcomers Have It?! At least five more times aside from the one coming up!) Do the newcomers have it? Well the film doesn’t require much and they are good doing their job. Madhavan seems quite aware that it’s harder for a male to make it in the industry than a female (I’ll argue that point) and seems to display a great deal of effort. Diya Mirza was quite well too (she’s nowhere near Amisha or Aish) and while my bias lies in her extremely obvious Aishwarya resemblance, the fact remains that she will probably need a Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam or Taal (another arguable point) for the world to notice whatever talent she may have. Thankfully her voice isn’t as annoying or out of tune as Sandali Sinha’s (Tum Bin) or Kirti Reddy’s. For Diya and Madhavan the scene that most stands out are Reena and Maddy’s confrontations, in which the dialogues are nothing earth shattering but serve their purpose (nothing much expected!). In those scenes especially Diya seems to have that pozazz and good looks and pozazz are quite attractive. One portion that stood out was Reena exclaiming, “He hurt me.” For Madhavan he also has the pozazz and boasts an aura of self-confidence. The mystery man, who was revealed weeks before the film’s release, Saif is commendable. It’s nice to see him more and more in films these days, makes you want to go stick Dil Chahta Hai back into the DVD player over and over again. Anupham Kher does nothing new but is enjoyable doing just that. Kher himself has taken a fancy to Diya, as we all know she will be featured in his upcoming production Om Jai Jagdish. There’s not much substance but enough to make a movie and entertain you with song and dance interludes. It’s pointless to compare this to recent releases like Chandni Bar or Lajja, but in comparison to it’s own genre, Tum Bin, that film was definitely a much better polished project with better music, more depth in story and slightly better performances. Bhagnani has successfully left a name for himself in the industry. Walking into the cinema you know you are not about to get a Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a Jungle, or a Jodi No.1. You may expect an entertaining musical with decent actors. Calling this film a masterpiece would be a joke. Calling it entertaining would probably be hitting it on the nose. |
Vashu Bhagnani is known for his masaladar projects that are arguably wafer thin in plot (though
Biwi No. 1 had its highpoints) and high in entertainment.
Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein is a little in between wafer thin in storyline and highly entertaining and combined with its other pointers, especially the extremely beautiful
Diya Mirza, is worth a watch.
Primarily, he released the soundtrack by Jayaraj with seven tracks worldwide, the soundtrack was then featured exclusively and in limited amounts with four extra versions of the title track. The four extra title tracks were even better than the already decent soundtrack and would have boosted the films’ potential automatically
(Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai’s soundtrack was undoubtedly a high factor in its success). Instead Bhagnani took it as a promo stint and the winner of the contest was indeed enjoyable but could have been backed up with the other three songs. (Please Bhagnani; your films have good soundtracks at least give fans an opportunity to purchase them! After the unreleased title track from MKKH this is pushing it!)